Ginhawa: Concepts of Emotion and Resolution in Pangayaw Killings among the Agusan Manobo

SHEILA TAMPOS-CABAZARES


Abstract

Pangayaw, a term widely shared among Austronesian speakers, is used by different indigenous groups in the southern Philippines to refer to different forms of killing such as prestige killing, slave raid, revenge killing, and armed revolt. Based on ethnographic and archival data gathered in a span of three years, this paper deals with the conditions in which pangayaw as armed revolt and revenge killing were waged in Agusan Manobo communities. A discussion on the Manobo concept of ginhawa, literally ‘breath’, is offered as a lens to view these conditions. The concept is construed here as a process of taking in a socially constituted pain; the buildup of which — if unaddressed — is released through rage. This category is a relevant framework in understanding the use of physical force among marginalized indigenous groups as a last recourse to disengage from the social order from which their pain emanates. Ginhawa also foregrounds the role of traditional arbitration mechanisms before pain manifests as rage.

Keywords: Ginhawa, Pangayaw, Manobo, pain, rage, revenge killing

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