The Legacy of IgnorantismPardo de Tavera, T. H. (Trinidad Hermenegildo)
Religion
The Legacy of Ignorantism
Pardo de Tavera, T. H. (Trinidad Hermenegildo)
Church and education -- Philippines; Education -- Philippines
As a people who are ignorant and with but little culture, the
Indios are bound to have considerable superstitious beliefs
which they practice, unconsciously deceived by medicine men,
who are the ones who keep alive these ridiculous traditions of
their ancestors, without knowing the reasons for what they do
(p. 261).
They (the Indios) are deeply superstitious, a thing which is
revealed in all their acts.
Citing the words of Dr. Lacalle, Father Ruiz says:
To pretend that a people taking the first steps on the road
of civilization, and that in their religious acts manifest
themselves in their acts as religious, severe, cultured and
real thinkers, is absurd in the extreme (p. 348).
And he adds what follows:
We should not lose sight of the fact that the Indio is a
child badly educated, but a big child completely developed
in his passions. He acts not from conscience but from fear;
he is moved not by reasons but by impressions; a friend of
novelties and spectacles, he acts to the tune of the various
impressions which he receives. Naturally he is inconstant and
flighty, desiring one thing and another, now liking what he
formerly disliked, without firmness nor stability in anything,
without knowing many times what to like, nor what befits
him. Such is the Indio briefly sketched.
The Filipino Spaniards
The Filipino Spaniards (espanoles filipinos) are of two
classes: some are immediate descendants of Spaniards,
descendants of Filipino Spaniards, or also children of a
Filipina mother and a peninsular father (p. 288).
Unfortunately, they have all the bad qualities of the Spaniard
and the Indio, and lack that docility of character observed
in the latter and the nobility and greatness characteristic of
the former. They are of little heart, coward and mean besides
being arrogant and choleric and are very rude with the Indios,
whom they usually despise and maltreat in words and in deed,
and frequently are stupid and troublesome.
From the Indios they learned all the superstitions, numerous,
untrue, absurd fables which are traditional among them, and
in a word, all their habits and customs. Thus they eat rice
with their fingers and have marked fondness for the sweets
and dirty foodstuffs of the Indios.
Since they are brought up with much petting and are not
strictly punished, they make bad servants, disobedient,
capricious, insolent, and foul-mouthed. The women are so
lacking in modesty, and, since they have been reared in the
atmosphere of abandon and laziness, they are useless for the
management of the home and the family (pp. 289-290).
* * * Thus the men as well as the women, altho religious,
are credulous and superstitious as the Indios themselves.
Such is the idea that can be given about the Filipinos
(p. 290).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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