Abstract: Diplomatics is the study of documents that is focused on analyzing and validating the conventions in preparing formal records like official correspondences, diplomas, and decrees, among others. It covers both textual and "paratextual" elements, with the latter pertaining to materials not included in the main text, such as seals and signatures. The lead article of this issue shows that formal letters are not only forms of communication but also bearers of protocol and indicators of status.Annabel Teh Gallop's "Malay Letters from Sulu and Mindanao" analyzes nine letters in the modified form of Arabic script known as Jawi dating from the first few decades of the eighteenth century. The letters, which are stored at the ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-25T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: This article presents nine Malay documents from Mindanao and Sulu dating from the first quarter of the eighteenth century held in the treasure house that is the Archivo General de Indias (AGI) in Seville (table 1). The letters, which are written in the Malay language in the modified form of the Arabic script known as Jawi, are all addressed to Spanish officials and were written against the backdrop of the old enmity between the kingdoms of Maguindanao and Sulu, and the struggles between different factions at the court of Maguindanao.1 The two earliest letters (1 and 2), from around 1703, are respectively from Sultan Jalaluddin of Maguindanao and Sultan Syahabuddin of Sulu to the Spanish governor in Manila, Domingo ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-25T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: These races1 [of Indochina] refuse to be left behind, and though they may appear to be the last and the blind, they rush on through the present's burning embers. For in the past they were strong and powerful; in ancient times they were rooted firmly in their own civilizations, like the foundations which still strengthen the ruined towers one can see on the opposite shore.2Quoted above is a passage from the Filipino nationalist Mariano Ponce's "Ang mga Pilipino sa Indo-Tsina" (The Filipinos in Indochina), a short work detailing his travels in occupied French Indochina circa 1906. The passage, which comes close to the beginning of Ponce's travelog, is striking in the way it invokes race—not merely or even primarily ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-25T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Most of all," the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP 1993) wrote in "A Pastoral Letter on AIDS" on 23 January 1993, "we need to recognize the moral dimension of the disease. Though medically the cause of the disease can be identified as a virus, our faith tells us that its cause and solution go beyond the physical." The letter goes on to condemn "the condom-distribution approach to the problem" and call for "the formation of authentic sexual values."At that time, the prevalence of HIV in the country was low in relation to both global and regional statistics, as well as in absolute terms; as the CBCP (1993) noted in the same letter: "only 356 had been diagnosed as HIV infected, including 84 AIDS ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-25T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Current trends in language and cultural research highlight how individuals form connections across diverse frontiers: linguistic, cultural, ethnic, racial, economic, religious, political, national, and digital. As such, the imagined and real mobility of persons and messages necessitates the review of the significance of identities in social interactions across diverse contexts. In academic settings, understanding diverse identities is pertinent since the development of educational practice and policies is based on how learners are construed and envisioned by educators and administrators. This construct includes the manner students interpret and develop their identities in a given context—formed by their ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-25T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: He was a historian of the inarticulate and a champion of local history. Bicolano historian, educator, and former president of the Philippine Historical Association, Luis Dery passed on at his home in Diliman, Quezon City on 31 July 2023. He was 77 years old.A native of Gubat, Sorsogon, Luis Camara Dery—or simply Louie to his friends and colleagues—was born on 8 March 1946 to Pio Dery and Visitacion Camara. Shortly after graduating from Gubat National High School in 1964, he left for Manila to pursue his studies at the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman, where he obtained his undergraduate degree in education, major in history, in 1970 and his master's in teaching social studies in 1971. In 1987 he earned ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-25T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: I first met Ikehata-sensei in 1973, fifty years ago. It was January, and my 1-year-old daughter and I had flown in from Honolulu to join my husband at the Rockefeller housing in Purok Aguinaldo at the University of the Philippines Diliman campus. He was teaching at the university's School of Economics.Ikehata-sensei was just finishing her research on Gen. Artemio Ricarte and his role during the Japanese occupation.1 I remember that we could not engage in any meaningful conversation on the subject she was pursuing, as my knowledge of Philippine history was next to nothing back then.The next time I saw her was in 1975 at the Ajia-jin Kaigi (Asian Peoples' Conference) in Tokyo. It was organized by Japanese progressive ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-25T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: An ordinary Christmas greeting to Iloilo-based Second World War historian Dr. Ma. Luisa "Meloy" Mabunay ended on a somber note when she informed me of the passing of her mentor, Dr. Josefa M. Saniel, on 21 December 2023. I have never met nor talked to Dr. Saniel, but my first encounter of her was reading a copy of her 1961 doctoral dissertation, "Japan and the Philippines, 1868–1898" (Saniel 1961), from the American Historical Collection of the Rizal Library for my master's thesis. Saniel's dissertation would eventually be published by the University of the Philippines Press in 1963 (Saniel 1963). The influence of her scholarship continued to resonate through the republication of her book for a second edition in ... Read More PubDate: 2024-07-25T00:00:00-05:00
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