Paper Short Abstract:

This presentation is a preliminary attempt to have a glimpse of the non-Catholic Filipino understanding of sex and the body through a reading, that is unwriting, of the two bulos of the Panay Bukidnon sugidanon, Amburukay and Hinilawod: The Adventures of Humadapnon (Tarangban 1).

Paper Abstract:

Predominantly Catholic Philippines usually bury, with self-conscious and embarrassed laughter, narratives dealing with sex and so-called private parts of the body. It is thus not surprising to read that Amburukay is described as "a hilarious character, enjoyed by children as a bedtime story" (183).

Amburukay, the main character in the sugidanon bulos (episode or book) entitled with her name, Amburukay, is a muwa, an enchanted hermit woman (vii) with golden pubic hair, a vulva that can speak, and tall enough to walk through the seas to look for Labaw Donggon, the buyong (warrior or leader) who stole one strand of her golden pubic hair. In another bulos of the sugidanon, Sinangkati, the leader of the binukots (cloistered maidens) in the island of Tarangban, is vehemently called a puta (literally a prostitute), who tempts Datu Humadapnon, into stopping by and having sex with her and the other million binukots in the island.

Humadapnon gives in, is trapped inside the cave, and is turned into an animal-like being deprived of language. The two bulos of the sugidanon thus while explicitly dealing with the so-called private parts of the body and the act of having sex also condemn them as either trivial or sinful. This paper proposes to read, which is to say unwrite, the parts of Hinilawod, a sugidanon of Panay Bukidnon, Philippines, which deal with sex and the body as buried sites of the Filipino non-Catholic view of sex and the human body.