Katalonan

A Katalonan (also spelled Catalonan, Catalona; Catulunan in Kapampangan) is a priest or priestess in the indigenous religions of the Tagalog and Kapampangan people. Spanish friars and missionaries also called them anitero (male) and anitera (female). They are the Central to Southern Luzon equivalent of the Visayan Babaylan. They safeguard the dambana, along with religious practices, of a community called barangay.

Etymology

According to Jaime Veneracion, catalonan incorporates the root “talon” which in ancient Tagalog meant forest. Other scholars believed that the origin of the word catalonan is from its root word “talo” which according to them is a Tagalog word originally means "to converse", thus the word catalonan literally means someone who converse or communicate with the spirits (anito). According to Blumentritt an old Tagalog word “tarotaro” is a term describing the catalonas while possessed by the spirits (anito). In some Malayo-Polynesian languages such as Tahitian “tarotaro” means ‘to pray’, while in Rapanui it means ‘a malediction or curse’. In Samoan “talo or talotalo” means ‘a prayer or to pray’.

Linguist Malcolm Mintz, however, offers a different etymology. He determines that the Tagalog root word is “tulong” which means to help. Some writers such as William Henry Scott and Luciano P. R. Santiago favoured Mintz suggestion and used the term catolonan (which is actually a Pampangan term) to refer to the priests and priestesses of the Tagalogs instead of catalona or catalonan. Some scholars proposed the Sanskrit word “taruna” which means juvenile youth as the origin of the Tagalog catalona, however it was disregard by majority since the word itself has no spiritual or religious significance. Also most scholars were uncertain if catalona was the correct spelling, since they can’t find any etymological significance to the word catalona compared to catalonan, which is open to several possible connotations, for they assumed that catalona or catalonan is a word indigenous to the Tagalogs. Most scholars and some historians believed that catalonan, not catalona, is the correct spelling of the term; they premised that unlike Spanish, the indigenous languages of the Philippines have neither gendered pronouns, nor suffixes to denote sex. In this regard the Spaniard tends to Hispanicise and then assimilate some native signifiers. The Hispanic need to have gendered-specific terms meant that the indigenous signifiers were gendered with the dropping of the final ‘n’ from catalonan (catalona) the same with the addition of an ‘a’ to baylan (baylana) or babaylan (babaylana).

Among the people of the island of Nias, Indonesia, “kataruna” were mediums or diviners which predominantly female just like catalona their Tagalog counterpart. However unlike the latter, katarunas themselves do not have the function of a priest or priestess and are considered inferior to “ere” the actual priests and priestesses.

Social Status

According to William Henry Scott (Barangay: Sixteenth-Century Philippines Culture and Society) a catalona could be of either sex, or male transvestites (bayoguin), but were usually women from prominent families who were wealthy in their own right. According to Luciano P. R. Santiago (To Love and to Suffer) as remuneration for their services they received a good part of the offerings of food, wine, clothing, and gold, the quality and quantity of which depended on the social status of the supplicant. Thus, the catalonas filled a very prestigious as well as lucrative role in society. The catalonas came to their calling through training and kinship with other catalonas, in some instances by a mysterious illness such as a seizure from which then they fully recovered. The younger functionaries trained by apprenticeship to a senior catalona who was usually a relative or friend whom they succeeded upon death. The catalona ancestors were worshipped more assiduously than others and the images which represented them were the ones made of wood from hollowed trees or gold or other precious materials.

Roles and Practices

The catalonas performed public ceremonies for community prosperity, fertility, or seasonable weather as well as private services to diagnose and cure ailments. They were respected for these functions but they were also feared sorcerers able to work black magic. Their numbers too were large enough to put them in competition with one another. Individual success was attributed to the power of the deities with whom they identified, and who took possession of them in their frenzied dancing. The Tagalog word “olak” according to Ferdinand Blumentritt is a term for the trembling of the whole body of the catalona, when she becomes possessed by the devil (anito). As spirit mediums, they conducted séances during which they spoke with the voice of spirits (anito), assisted by an alagar (alagad, personal attendant) to carry on the dialogue with the supernatural, or sent their own kaluluwa (soul) to seek literally lost souls. In the state of trance, the catalona was called “tarotaro” literally meaning voices, for it was believed that at this point the ancestral spirits had entered and were speaking inside her. According to Blumentritt “tarotaro” is a tagalong term describing the katalonas while possessed by the spirits, in this state, they cried tarotaro. When a catalona held the gift of prophecy, she was named masidhi (the fervent one).

Conversion to Christianity

During the Spanish colonization of the Philippines some catalonas converted and embrace Christianity while others tried to resist it. An account of the conversion of catalonas was thus provided by a Spanish priest named Pedro Chirino (1604), he narrated that a blind catalona named Diego Magsanga who along with his wife (who was said to be a skilled midwife) converted to Christianity. After he was baptized in the name Diego he became a faithful assistant of the friars in expanding Christianity in Silang, Cavite. This former catalona contributed a lot in teaching children and adults catechism (Doctrina Christiana). Chirino also reported that a lot of people followed this former catalona and the Jesuits can't even surpassed him when it comes to the teachings of the Church and the diligence of teaching his brethren, although he was not a priest, the likely role the Spanish priest gave him in the church is that of a laity or hermano.

Chirino also mentioned another male catalona who together with a group of catalonas he was leading was convinced by a Jesuit friar Francisco Almerique to be converted to Christianity. Chirino noted that this catalona wore his hair long (which is unusual for Tagalog men) and he braids it to signify his priesthood. Before he was baptized, in front of people, he cut his hair as a sign that the power of the anito has been broken.

Some catalonas however tried to resist Christianity, such as the so called “The Band of Worthless Women” in San Juan del Monte de Taytay (now part of Rizal Province). It was led by a female catalona who was related to the most prominent families of the village. In defiance of the missionaries, the dominant catalona, who possessed the gold anito, continued to perform healing rituals together with her assistants. She claimed that her anito is friends with the Catholic saints. When found out, she refused to give up her idol by concealing it ingeniously in an old bamboo pole in her house. Only after several attempts to look into every hole and corner of the house did the zealous missionary succeed in finding the coveted anito. The demon (anito) was said to be insulted and hurt at this trick, not being able to wreak any other vengeance, he began (accompanied by many other spirits) the following night to torment the poor catalona with visions and cruel threats. Already undeceived as to the weakness of her idol, she sought for conversion, and, hating the demon, begged for mercy. With the help of a cross, which was given her as a defence, and although the terror continued, the threats were not put into execution; and finally the demon abandoned her as she had him. On one of the feast days, all the errors were publicly reputed in the church, and the catalonas remained convinced, repentant and reconciled by the authority of the bishop. They all betook themselves to a place where, removed from temptations, they could relapse into their evil ways. They were placed in charge of devout and Christian persons, in whose company they led Christian and exemplary lives.

Confusion with Babaylan

The Katalonan are the Tagalog equivalent of the Visayan Babaylan.

Although many modern Filipinos mistakenly refer to any priest or priestess of the animistic pre-Hispanic Filipino religions as Babaylan, writer Nick Joaquin and historian William Henry Scott remind modern Filipinos that the independent cultural evolution of each Filipino ethnic group should be respected.^[1]^[2]

References

↑ Scott, William Henry (1994). Barangay: Sixteenth Century Philippine Culture and Society. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press. ISBN 971-550-135-4.
↑ Joaqiun, Nick (1988). Culture and History. Pasig City: Anvil Publishing, Inc., 411. ISBN 971-27-1300-8.