Of bolo rush & bolomen

[migueldiaz]

Originally Posted by Berkley

Quite correct:
-Force Science News

Thanks! I love this kind of analysis ... quantified ... and thus very specific and can be conclusive

[migueldiaz]

By the way, in the modern Philippine military, poor shots in a marksmanship class are jokingly assigned the rank of "boloman"!

The idea of course is to move away from that informal rank as quickly as possible ...

Photo below shows Phil. Marines in Patikul, Sulu.

[migueldiaz]

Going back to the topic of blades used by bolomen as documented in old photos, so far I've not stumbled into other pics.

In John Foreman's "The Philippine Islands" (1906), there's these two photos (below) of "Christian" and "Moro" blades. But it didn't say whether these are capture pieces.

Obviously though, the center Moro sword is not a capture piece -- the photo's caption is: Weapons of the Moros. (Left) “Bárong”; (right) “Kris”; (centre) The Sultan of Suluʼs dress sword, presented to the author by His Excellency.

The caption of the other photo is: Bowie-knives and Weapons of the Christian Natives. Central figure—“Talibon.” The others—Bowie-knives (Sp. Bolo, Tag. Guloc).

[KuKulzA28]

Just out of curiosity (I hope I'm not off-topic), are the majority of non-tourist Talibon made after the fall of the Spanish rule in PI? I am wondering because I remember reading of a Spanish law forbidding Filipinos from owning bolos with points to them, one of their measures to stamp out armed resistance.

[trenchwarfare]

The "NO POINT" rule must have been in effect in all of Spains colonial holdings. The Collins Co. sample boards show many examples of all types of machetes, with clipped points. All are from Cuban, Central, and South American contracts. Don't know about the Philippines contracts. Most of that market was filled by Germany, and other European cutlers. I don't know why they bothered. Lots of African machetes are pointless, but they manage to work each other over pretty good anyway.

[migueldiaz]

Originally Posted by trenchwarfare

The "NO POINT" rule must have been in effect in all of Spains colonial holdings ... Don't know about the Philippines contracts.

Thanks for the comment

Yes, as I understand it was mandated also by Spain then in the Phils. that pointed bolos are not allowed.

And that's why we have bolos like the one below I 'inherited' from Fernando. [Fernando, that's a really very nice Visayan blade. Thanks again!]

But as to how effective that law was, even a casual survey of various Philippine swords will tell one that it wasn't quite followed.

[Dimasalang]

Originally Posted by KuKulzA28

Just out of curiosity (I hope I'm not off-topic), are the majority of non-tourist Talibon made after the fall of the Spanish rule in PI? I am wondering because I remember reading of a Spanish law forbidding Filipinos from owning bolos with points to them, one of their measures to stamp out armed resistance.

One must keep in mind and make note, when Spain ruled the Philippines for +300 years, they DID NOT control the entire Philippine Islands(in reality it was close to 60%). If they did, the entire Moro population would of been wiped out and/or converted to Catholics; it was cannon law to convert everyone and Spain did not allow freedom of religion in their territories, well there were some exceptions but very few. Mindanao and Sulu were major hot regions of constant religious conflicts...these areas were never under full control and Spain never felt it priority to completely dominate such regions in timbuktu(prior to the opening of the suez canal). You will never see a Kris, Barong, Kampilan with the tip cut; these were weapons meant for warfare and not farming...and their wide availability(even today) shows how little Spain had in control of southern Philippines. It is mentioned that the ruling Spanish class only made up about 3% of the entire population. Other rural areas were also not controlled by Spanish authorities, this included areas in Christian dominated islands as well. Mountain regions and extreme tribal ethnic groups like the igorots and aetas in Luzon are examples(all were highlanders)...the Pulahan group for instance are categorized under the mountain region, and prospered well near the fall of the Spanish rule in the Philippines. Even today in this era, the Philippine government can not get full control of groups running around in the mountains or rural areas of the Philippines...the Abu Sayyaf and the NPAs are both prime examples of how tough it is to control military factions in their own country. If it is this tough today, imagine how tough it was 100 years ago.

By the way, nice work Miguel! Keep it coming!

[migueldiaz]

Originally Posted by Dimasalang

One must keep in mind and make note, when Spain ruled the Philippines for +300 years, they DID NOT control the entire Philippine Islands(in reality it was close to 60%). If they did, the entire Moro population would of been wiped out and/or converted to Catholics ...

Thanks for your usual very informative comments!

I learn something new whenever you make those exhaustive comments, you see So keep them coming, too!

I definitely agree that the entire country was not controlled then. Aside from the prolonged armed resistance by some (e.g., by the Moros), some areas were not controlled by the colonizers for the simple reason that they were simply too far flung (e.g., the Cordilleras where the Igorots and other highlanders were staying, and the uplands [e.g., "lumad"] of Mindanao, etc.).

Even in the lowlands and coastal areas (i.e., the areas mostly controlled by the Spaniards), I think the Spanish friars and rulers then told the locals that if they don't want to be under their rule, then all they have to do is to live far enough such that they cannot hear that church bells and that's it -- live and let live. Now I still have to find the source (reference) of that ...

By the way, I found the diagram below from a Filipino Muslim professor's lecture, at the Yuchengco Museum website.

From said diagram it becomes even clearer why the Moros' blades continued to remain sharp and pointy!