Kamæn (introducing a baby to the ancestral spirits) | Panay Bukidnon Tradition

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The Panay Bukidnon, or Pan-ayanon, are a culturally indigenous Visayan group of people who reside in the Capiz-Lambunao mountainous area and the Antique-Iloilo mountain area of Panay in the Visayan islands of the Philippines. These people were termed Sulod or Suludnon by F. Landa Jocano during his research in the 1950’s. They are one of the two only culturally indigenous group of Visayan language-speakers in the Western Visayas, along with the, Halawodnon of Lambunao and Calinog, Iloilo and Iraynon-Bukidnon of Antique. Also, they are part of the wider Visayan ethnolinguistic group, who constitute the largest Filipino ethnolinguistic group.

The Panay-Bukidnon are united by a common historical tradition.  They all believe that they came from the same ancestors and this belief reinforces the powerful kinship ties that link all their settlements with one another.

I found the following tradition to be a very beautiful way of connecting a child to all those who came before.

Kamæn (presenting a baby to the ancestral spirits)

Three months after birth, the baby is presented to the ancestral spirits. This is a way of introducing the newborn to the departed relatives and ancestors. The three-month period is sometimes shortened to a month or even less when the baby frets and cries more often than the Sulod consider normal. Such behavior indicates that the spirits of the departed want the child presented to them right away.

The parents of the child call the community baylan to perform the ritual. Several rice cakes are prepared and a number of chickens are dressed on the eve of the celebration. During the kamæn, which is usually held in the afternoon, the food is placed inside the kararaw (bamboo tray). An improvised altar is built against the wall, generally opposite the door. Sometimes the ceremony is held outside the house and the altar is built below the pagbay (eaves) of the house. In both cases, however, the manner of performance is the same. A nest for the malevolent ancestral spirits is built above the altar. The food is put on top of the altar; the baylan faces it, rings her ritual plate and invokes the supernatural beings to partake of the food and not harm the child. Then the ancestral spirits are invoked and the child is offered or introduced to them.

“Listen O diya, look down O diwata because I am offering this child, this infant to all of you. Take heed O diya, listen O diwata  Padanlæg, diya Padalægdæg, Padalægdæg Mangga, Padanlæg Malaylay, our aman [father] in the sky, our powerful kin, diwata of the Hilangban, diya  of Hinalangkæban, hear my prayers because I am offering this new child to you, this new grandchild of yours. Restore his health. Free him from takig [malaria], from fever, from stomach-ache, from hapu [short of breath], from itus [convulsions] and other sickness. Listen to my prayers. I am ringing this basag [ritual plate] so that you can hear my request. Here is your new kin.”

The kamæn is generally followed by another rite, the batak ka dængan, although the performance of the succeeding ritual is optional and is conditioned on the economic resources of the parents. Batak ka dængan (the call of the double). The main purpose of this ritual is to “take in” the double of the child. It is believed by the Sulod that every child is born with a double. This double is a spirit which manifests itself in the form of an insect, a house lizard, a bird, or some other creature. It acts as a guardian spirit of the child but unless propitiated with proper ceremony it would neglect its ward and the child would likely meet an untimely death.

The ceremony is normally performed during the day starting in the morning and ending late in the afternoon. Sometimes it may continue into the night. The parents of the child get a cockerel with red feathers and spurs which are about to grow out. Then they prepare sixteen rice cakes, half of which contain sugar and the other half, salt. Seven urang (freshwater shrimp) and three eggs are also prepared. A platform is built in one of the corners of the house and the food is placed on top or it. The baylan ties a red thread to a betel nut. Two stones are placed on each side of the altar. These are tied to each other with a piece of string. The baylan sits before the offering, shaking a bunch of bunlaw (a kind or wild plant) leaves with one hand and holding the pisaw (garden tool) with another; calls out:

“Come, double of [mentions the name or the child] gather around here because I’m offering this child to you so that you wouldn’t let it cry but would cause it to be good. Wherever you are- at the place where the sun sets, in the southern or northern regions, or in the eastern skies or right in the zenith- come now, gather around here in this house because I am calling you all. Do not tarry along the way for the evil-spirits- Supu, Sarut, and Siræk-may- may come by.

“Take along Umbayung Mahilway, Umbayung Masangsang. Here is yours Umbayung Mahilway [holding the red thread]- don’t take that which is for Umbayung Masangsang [she shakes the threads]. Here is yours Pagubanæn, here is yours Pagawisasæn; Ipanawag, place your share on the topmost portion of the bamboo twig. Put yours next to it , Umbayung Masangsang, that is for the stronger souls, those who can travel faster. And from the mountain top, Mahilway, look for the double of this child.”

After this invocation, the baylan picks up the thread and, after a period of silence, resumes chanting. An opening is made in the floor of the house by breaking a slat. The rice cakes, the gardening tool, and the uncooked drumsticks of the chicken are all tied to one end of the string and are lowered through the opening in the floor. Then the other end of the string is tied to the hand of the child. The bayIan, taking the child in her arms, shakes the materials or sangkapan by pulling and lowering the string. As she does this, she calls the ancestral spirits of the child. After she had clone this, she again shakes the thread and pulls and lowers the sangkapan and calls the double of the child. “Kirrutik dængan ni —- [mentions the name of the child] kanakan kaw sa bænang, saka kaw sa ginabirik [she twists the string].” Free translation: “Come, double of — — [she mentions the name of the child] come through this string.” Then she pulls the string, places the garden tool on the breast of the child and shouts:  “Kirrutik dængan ni —- [mentions the name of the child] kanakan kaw sa bænang, saka kaw sa ginabirik [she twists the string].” Free translation: “Come, double of — — [she mentions the name of the child] go inside him because I am offering him to you [repeats the name of the child].”

 

SOURCE: Jocano, F. Landa. (2008). “Sulod Society: A Study in the Kinship System and Social Organization of a Mountain People of Central Panay”. UP Press