FERDINAND

BLUMENTRITT X THE

PHILIPPINES:

INSIGHTS AND

LESSONS FOR

CONTEMPORARY

PHILIPPINE STUDIES

May L. Mojica x Randy T. Nobleza

3rd Term 2014-15

AFL 762d: Postmodernismo x

Kulturang Pilipino

ABOUT THE BOOK

This book reconstructs the intellectual stature of Blumentritt by

positioning him as a milestone in Philippine Studies, a discourse

which until now is still trying to soul search for its methodic and

ideological niche in the sphere of local knowledge production.

PHILIPPINE DISCOURSE

Spanish colonizers

Other European ethnographers and travellers

American imperialists

American-trained Filipinos

Nationalist Filipinos

Filipinos of the diaspora

PROSPERO COVAR, PHILIPPINE

STUDIES VS. PILIPINOLOHIYA

Philippine Studies – Euro-American generated

knowledge about the Philippines, an

exogenous discourse that has the tendency to

distort its object, and a colonial discourse that

has a tacit motive of producing knowledge in

order to gain tighter politico-economic control

over its object.

(PRISCELINA PATAJO-LEGASTO)

I suggest that Philippine Studies or studies on the Philippines

produced by Filipinos as well as non-Filipinos which have the

Philippines/ the Filipinos’ interest at heart be underpinned by a

postcolonial perspective which critiques how we have been and

continue to be constructed or represented as Europe or America’s

ontological other.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

to disentangle Blumentritt from the shadow of Rizal

to critically explore and revisit Philippine studies

to be able to glean both positive and negative lessons

to mainstream his method and style of doing Philippine Studies

CHAPTERS

Blumentritt’s intellectual biography

His works prior to his correspondence with Rizal

His works during his correspondence with Rizal

His works after the death of Rizal and upto end of the Spanish

Colonial period

His works during the American period

The lessons that can be gleaned for contemporary Philippine

Studies

INTELLECTUAL BIOGRAPHY

Blumentritt has after been referred to as a German, other times as

an Austrian, or a Bohemian, or as a Czech.

born in 1853, in the city of Prague, the capital of territory of

Bohemia, which at that time was part of the Austro-Hungarian

Empire

the bohemia of Blumentritt’s time happened to be inhabited by

people of Czech and German ethnicities and Blumentritt’s

paternal and maternal families were of German extracts.

INTELLECTUAL BIOGRAPHY

After the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, Bohemia

became part of Czechoslovakia which in 1993 split into two

independent countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Bohemia is now part of the Czech Republic which the city of

Prague standing as the capital of this new state

This territorially speaking he was a Bohemian, ethnically and

culturally, he was a German, politically and historically, he was an

Austrian and politically and currently, he could be loosely referred

to as a Czech.

INTELLECTUAL PRODUCTION

the Pre-Rizalian Period 1879-1886

the RIzalian Period, 1887-1896

the Post Rizalian Spanish Period 1897-98

the American Period 1899-1913

POST RIZALIAN SPANISH PERIOD

When you receive this letter, I shall be dead by then. Tomorrow at

seven I shall be shot; but I am innocent of the crime of rebellion. I

am going to die with a tranquil conscience. Adieu, my best, my

dearest friend and never think ill of me!

- Rizal letter to Blumentritt

29 December 1896

From this day on, a new era on the history of the Philippines has

dawned, quoted by Sichovsky

POST RIZALIAN SPANISH PERIOD

Again, these media suggest that Blumentritt continued to write to

a diverse readership consisting his German specialists in Oriental

Studies and his Spanish sympathizers and adversaries, as well as

some Hispanophone Filipinos who were either in Spain or in the

Philippines.

If we also are to take a cursory look at his 13 titles and non-

exclusively classify their main themes into economic, educational,

ethnographic, geological/ cartographic, historical, international

relations, linguistic/ literary, descriptive political and polemic

political.

POST RIZALIAN SPANISH PERIOD

Blumentritt claimed that Rizal’s life is aptly symbolized by the terra

Cotta sculptures that latter made and gifted to the former:

“Prometheus in Chains” which alluded to Rizal’s incarceration

after giving the Filipinos the light to see other conditions. “Triumph

of Death over life” which alluded to the Spanish iron hand that

scuffed out of the life of this noble Filipino; and “Triumph of

Genius over Death,” which alluded to the lasting triumph of Rizal

even after his death.

POST RIZALIAN SPANISH PERIOD

Blumentritt called Rizal “the greatest man the Malayan race has prdocued” and prophetically stated, ”his memory will never perish in his fatherland, and the future generations of Spaniards will yet learn to suffer his name with respect and reverence.”

ON THE PHILIPPINE REVOLUTION

These essays are interesting in the sense that they document

Blumentritt’s knowledge of and reflection on the unfolding

revolution. These three essays mark his paradigm shift from that

of being a reformist to that of being a separatist, and there a true

revolutionary and farther to that of being a supporter of Philippine

independence against the over arching threat of American

imperialism.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON

BLUMENTRITT’S PHILIPPINE STUDIES

During his Post Rizalian Spanish Period

Blumentritt’s critique of Spanish colonization reached its peak

during his Post Rizalian Spanish period not only in the sense that

his polemical discourses amounted to 62% of his total textual

production, but more so in the sense that it was during this period

that he eventually supported the more radical separatist ideology

of Filipino revolutionaries

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON

BLUMENTRITT’S PHILIPPINE STUDIES

It is during his Post Rizalian Spanish Period that Blumentritt

categorically revealed his conviction about the superiority of his

non-Spanish Filipiniana materials as compared to the ones

produced by the Spaniards.

It is noticeable that Blumentritt’s Orientalism had further founded

during his Post Rizalian Spanish Period. The formerly recurrent

exoticization and sensualistion of his subject matter, the desirous

gaze on the economic potentials of the archipelago, the othering

of Islam and Eurocentric and Occidentalist discourses are no

longer tangible in as far as the seven examined texts are

concerned.

BLUMENTRITT’S AMERICAN PEIORD

During this time, Blumentritt remained

writing predominantly in German but

slightly increased his articles in

Spanish, and started to write in

English. These media suggest that

Blumentritt returned back to his

journalistic style of writing and scatted

his works in a number of newspapers,

many of which were publication on the

Philippines.

BLUMENTRITT’S AMERICAN PEIORD

Thus, his readership became even more diverse, for aside from

his former Spanish and German audience, he was able,

theoretically speaking, to reach more Hispanophone Filipinos as

well as the political leaders and concerned citizens of the United

States of America.

ON THE AMERICAN COLONIAL RULE IN

THE PHILIPPINES

Among Blumentritt’s American Period texts that are accessible to

the readers in Metro Manila, two are directly critiquing the

American occupation of the Arhcipelago: “the sosts of the

Philipine War” which was published in August 1899 and “America

and the Philippines” which was published in November 1899.

A SUMMARY ON PHILIPPINE

ETHNOGRAPHY, HISTORY AND

POLITICS

The main content of the pamphlet tacked the geography,

demography, political hsitroy and the on-going American

colonization of the Philippines. The first appendix is composed of

some extracts from the revolutionary constitution that was framed

in Malalos, and the second appendix is composed of an extant

from the Peace Protocol that was used in Washington 12 August

1898. Some extract sfrm the Treatu of Paris, and an extant from

the Bcon Resolution that did not make it into the Senate of the

United States.

PHILIPPINE GEOGRAPHY

Island grouping

Luzon with the Babuyan and Batas Islands

Mindanao

The Visayan islands

The Palawan and Sulu Islands

PHILIPPINE DEMOGRAPHY

Taxonomy that he sued during his previous periods that

categorized the Filipinos:

negritos, which their most common name “Aestas”

Christianized Malays, who were called “Indios” by the Spaniards

Islamized Malays, who were called “Moro” by the Spaniards

Pagan Malays who were called “infieles” by the Spaniards

The few Chinese merchants and their mestizo offsprings

Evenr fewer Japanese merchants

Few Spaniards, Creoles and their mestizo offsprings

Almost negligible Mexican, Peruvian, Indians

HISTORICAL EXPOSITION ABOUT THE

PHILIPPINES

the early period

the last century of the Spanish rule

some recent events

Blumentritt concluded his discussion on the American occupation

with the statement, “may the dice fall as they will, one thing is

certain, the Filipinos have won the sympathy of all who reject the

principle threat Might is Right and consider the sentiment Dulce

est pro patria mori as something more than a copy set up for

students to translate.

CONCLUSION

In as far as the researchers and scholars in Metro Manila are

concerned, Blumentritt proved to be a not-so-accessible author.

The following table shows that despite his being one of the early

leading experts of Philippine Studies, only less tan half of his

works can be physically or virtually accessed by Filipino

researchers and scholars: table 6

9 MAJOR THEMES:

descriptive political

economic

educational

ethnographic

geological/ cartographic

historical

international relations

linguistic/ literary

polemical political

AT LEAST SIX OF KEY CONCERNS:

critique of racism

critique of the colonizer’s superiority complex

diagnosis and remediation of the inferiority complex of the

colonized

diagnosis and rectification of Spanish colonialism

justification and legitimation of the Philippine revolution

critique of the American colonization

POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE

INSIGHTS

the formal, methodical and theoretical lessons

the material and thematic lessons

pitfalls that modern-day Philippine studies should avoid repeating

FORMAL, METHODICAL AND

THEORETICAL LESSONS

second level anthropology and Philippine studies

remarkable manner of seeing patterns and organization beneath

raw data

recognition of the hermeneutic value of the contextualizing the

Philippine sin the bigger parameter of Malayo-Polynesian studies

benchmark with the major European languages, German, French,

Dutch and Italian Filipiniana

comprehension of the significance of interdisciplinary approach

FORMAL, METHODICAL AND

THEORETICAL LESSONS

significance of the versatility of purposiveness of linguistic

expression

flexibility in shaping thoughts to suit the varying demands

analytic strategy of making international comparisons that exploit

vast bibliographic materials about Europe and the Americas

perceive the value of postcolonial hermeneutics

agenda of national building and better Philippines

CONCLUDING REMARKS

the project has revealed the value of studying and revisiting his

thoughts as thse would certainly enrich any modern-day Filpino’s

knowledge about his or her culture and history. Furthermore the

project has revealed that there are indeed formal, methodical and

theoretical lessons, material and thematic lessons as well as

pitfalls and negative lessons that modern-day Filipinologists may

glean from a thorough encounter with Blumentritt’s texts.