Palamuti: Traditions of Personal Ornamentation

Early forms of ornamentation

The desire to enhance one’s personal appearance is a phenomenon as old as the world. In pre-Hispanic Philippines alone, the practice of altering one’s physical attributes for purposes of beautification has taken both painful and painless methods. Among the painful means are tattooing, skull moulding or artificial cranial reformation, teeth filing and gold pegging. Tattooing involves the pricking of the skin into patterns later smeared with soot. It is performed in installments, and often caused high fever and occasionally infection and death. According to the early canons of beauty, flat foreheads and noses were considered beautiful. As such, heads of infants were bound either by boards or a comblike set of thin rods fastened with bandages to prevent the forward growth of the frontal bone and to direct it backward, allowing the head to grow higher in the rear. The head remained bound until the person reached maturity. The practice of filing the teeth to achieve symmetry is carried out with a slender stone file, which cut the tooth up to half its length. To distinguish human teeth from that of wild animals, the teeth were stained black or red, and inlaid, crowned or plaited with gold. Holes drilled into the tooth held gold rivets or pegs in place.

Jewelry and ornamentation in pre-Hispanic Philippines

Jewelry to adorn the body is the painless alternative. William Henry Scott notes how early Filipinos wore earrings, earplugs, necklaces and collars of beads or gold chain, bracelets, wristlets, anklets, finger rings, brooches, clasps, gold sequins on their clothes, armbands and legbands. While most of the jewelry were of gold, there were also pieces made of semiprecious stones and colored glass, tortoise shell, mother-of-pearl and clamshells. Beads came by way of trade between the Philippines and countries in Southeast Asia, and even Europe during the pre-Hispanic era. Glass beads excavated in burial caves in Palawan date as far back as 2,000 years ago, and are believed to have come from northern India or south China. Etched stone beads are known to have come from India; glass beads from Europe reached the Philippines through Arab traders.

Are all ornaments jewelry?
As ornament, jewelry possesses beauty and is capable of conferring beauty. Nonetheless, not all ornaments are jewelry. To mark the distinction, jewelry expert Ramon Villegas identifies seven properties: beauty, labor, durability, skill, rarity, symbolism and significance. Among the seven, the last two, symbolism and significance, are the most cultural or laden with meaning. Folklore surrounding gems attribute medicinal uses and amuletic or magical powers on them. For instance, agates are believed to drive away fever, make a warrior victorious, and confer riches, happiness, health and long life. Carnelians are said to lower the blood pressure, make skin healthy, and keep one serene and slow to anger. Jade is believed to aid those suffering from intestinal, kidney and urinary problems, as well as bring down rain and protect one from lightning. In local parlance, stones with amuletic properties are called mutya. Unhispanized groups in northern Philippines, whose material culture includes a wide array of beads strung together as jewelry, believe in the amuletic functions of stones. In modern times, however, jewelry is worn not necessarily out of its folkoric significance. While jewelry is accumulated not uncommonly as a financial investment, at the very least, the wearer believes that ornamentation worn invests beauty on the wearer too—whether by its ability to accentuate an asset, direct attention away from other parts of the body not wished to be emphasized, or simply pull together an entire personal ensemble of clothing, shoes, make-up and hair.

Ornaments also mark prestige, signify status, rank and wealth. The Ilongot men’s earrings called the batling symbolize masculine prestige and headhunting prowess. The wearer is acknowledged as a full adult member of the village society. Negrito men wore wild boar’s hair woven into arm and leg bands as badge of bravery. The Bontok measured their wealth in granaries, buffalo, pigs, beads, gold earrings, bronze gongs, and porcelain jars. In northwestern Benguet, the Kankana-eys count ancient Chinese jars, plates, gongs and beads among their most valued possessions, together with rice terraces, house sites and livestock. The same is true with the Tingguians and the Apayaos.

Varieties of Philippine ethnic ornamentation

From north to south, the spectrum of Philippine ethnic ornamentation shows points of convergence and diversity. Convergence in types and diversity in designs. Combs, for example, may be beaded or inlaid with shell and attached with horsehair, or expanded with layer upon layer of bead strands and tassels until the comb itself has been rendered practically invisible beneath. The Negritos carve combs out of bamboo and attach feathers of birds or wild fowl. The T’boli carve it out of harder wood and inlay it with shell. Headdresses may be made of beads or vertebrae of snakes as those worn by married Ifugao women. Ilongot hunters who have taken two heads wear the panglao, made from hornbill attached to wickerwork with seeds and mother-of-pearl. Earrings or earplugs come in dangling mother-of-pearl pieces, etched with patterns on the edges, or hammered brass with dangling strands of beads. Kalinga women wear earrings with circular or oval disks of mother-of-pearl forming the figure 8 attached to beads. Sometimes these earrings dangle from a lingling-o, a circular metal made of gold, silver, copper or brass, with a single slit. . Other lingling-o variations bear wing-like or horn-like projections. It is also worn as earrings among the Bontok and Kankana-ey or neck ornaments among the Ifugao. Necklaces are worn short touching the collar bone or long reaching down to the navel; hanging over the chest or slung from one shoulder hanging diagonally across the chest. Necklaces and chokers may be of semiprecious stones, glass beads, corals, shells, slit bells, old coins and even plastic. The Isneg sippatal, a chest ornament worn on special occasions, is an ensemble of shell forming the figure 8 and flat triangular shell pieces, attached to a beaded collar.

Among southern indigenous groups, slit bells figure quite often in personal ornamentation. Combined with beads, chains, or plant fiber, bells lend added charm to necklaces and belts of the T’boli or the Bagobo. Still,
there are armbands and legbands. Jewelry expert Ramon Villegas notes that arm ornaments are associated with endurance and the power to act; leg ornaments with the ability to move. Armbands of boar’s tusk are worn by men; bracelets of glass beads, seeds, corals and brass are worn by women. Manobo fashion fills the entire forearm with brass bracelets. Mandaya bracelets are of shell, woven nito, bejuco fiber, and glass beads. Knee bands, legbands, and anklets are of plant fiber and brass, plain or with brass beads loosely running through to produce a rattling sound.

So much earlier into the archipelago’s history, gold jewelry made up everyday wear. Scott writes how Spaniards “kept reporting gold jewelry in truly astonishing quantities.” And that the Spaniards “were struck not only by its amount and wide distribution, but by the fact that it appeared to be part of the normal attire.” In the gold collection of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas are coronets, garment appliqués, neck pendants, earrings, rings, leglets, finials for waist cords and sashes, and necklaces. Through time, the natives have exchanged these for items conforming to standards of a colonized territory, sold, lost, and some would even say, plundered and carried off to shores far away from its origins.

Examining the continuum
Featured in this exhibition are three varieties of personal ornamentation. The first is the indigenous jewelry collection of the Cultural Center of the Philippines acquired from 1986 to 1990. The collection consists of pieces from the north—Bontok, Ifugao, Isneg, Kalinga, Gaddang, Ilongot, Ibaloi, and the south—T’boli, Mandaya, Bagobo, Manobo, B’laan, Tiruray, including a few Mangyan and Negrito samples. Providing a counterpoint to these indigenous pieces are works by two fashion accessories and jewelry makers. Arnel Papa works with a variety of locally sourced materials—mother-of-pearl, copper, carabao nails and horns, and kamagong. Ciara Marasigan fabricates jewelry out of gemstones, pearls and crystals—fastened by stainless steel and aluminum wires. Though completely disparate in their approaches and choice of materials, their works are juxtaposed with the ethnic pieces to underscore the continuity of the creative tradition which goes all the way back to pre-Hispanic Philippines. Stressed by Papa’s and Marasigan’s creations is the range the tradition has achieved through time. Within this continuum, certain elements have undergone transition. The materials used are no longer confined to the stones, glass beads, and seeds available then, but have expanded and even taken forms willed by the jewelry designer. The talismanic value formerly accorded to jewelry materials has dimmed into near oblivion, making sheer beauty the only criterion for ornamentation. Thus, while the indigenous pieces reflect cultural beliefs and symbolisms behind ornamentation, present trends are dictated almost solely by aesthetic considerations. The scenario painted by the growing appeal and popularity of what is mere physical or material and the waning interest towards what is intangible and non-material replicates in levels and spheres outside the discussion PALAMUTI offers. How the tradition of ornamentation has evolved says much more than what is in or what is out, but what we have become as a people.

Arnel Papa has been designing fashion jewelry and exporting to Europe and the United States for some twenty years now. He is a member of the Fashion Design Council of the Philippines. He lives and works in Bulacan, in a town known for its beadwork tradition, Marilao. For this exhibition, Papa created pieces based on the CCP collection.

Ciara Marasigan designs and crafts jewelry without preliminary studies or sketches. Her works make use of gemstones such as quartz, moonstones, and pearls, among others, always set in a romantic or nostalgic manner. She graduated with a degree in Management from the University of Asia and the Pacific. The Ciara Creates brand is available in a number of fashion boutiques both locally and internationally.

“The varying styles of Philippine ornaments reflect the temperament, outlook on life and training of artisans influenced by the particular spirit of the times..Nevertheless, they are certainly related through time and space, having been drawn from a racial memory.”—Ramon N. Villegas, Hiyas Philippine Jewellery Heritage, 1997