Abstract

Crocodiles figure conspicuously in many narratives of the past in the Cagayan Valley Region. However, a great discrepancy is observed: there are no more crocodiles known to exist in the major waterways of the Cagayan riverine valley. This paper explores such an irony by looking into the history of human-crocodile relations in the valley, focusing on how culture change throughout time could have contributed to the eventual disappearance of the crocodile. This is done by looking into archival evidence, linguistic evidence, ethnographic data, and material culture treated as evidence. The paper finds that Spanish colonial policies, particularly Dominican friar-initiated activities, created a physical and social environment that was hostile to the crocodile, effectively banishing the creature from the colonial space. With this, the crocodile became a symbol for evil, the unconquered wilderness, and even the people outside of the colonial order. This paper ultimately suggests that such colonial (re)conceptualizations might have contributed to the physical disappearance of the crocodile, more so to the manner on how people perceive and relate with their environment that still manifest today in the culture and identities of people in the valley.

Keywords: Crocodile, Dominican Friars, Cagayan Valley, Spanish Colonial Period, Animal History

DOI: https://doi.org/10.64743/PTWL9785