INLAND-COASTAL PHILIPPINE HYBRIDITY: HETEROGLOSSIA IN AGUSAN MANOBO MUSIC AND RITUAL

Abstract

This article deals with the hybridity of contemporary Agusan Manobo music as evident in its repertory and in the heteroglossia of possession ritual performances, where various archaic and modern speech styles (including song and ritual dance music) co-exist. This hybridity is consequent to the history of Agusan Manobo relations with outsiders, especially Visayan-speaking settlers whose markers of group identity have been incorporated into Manobo rites. Such incorporation indicates the Manobo presence to a social world that is characterized by a mix between inland Manobo and coastal Visayan cultures.