Thesis, Undergraduate (BA Social Science) -- U. P. in Mindanao

Biao Guianga is a rural village of Tugbok District, South of Davao City. It is a place that we usually connect with the Bagobo Clata. Like most indigenous communities in the Philippines, the Clata culture is fastly being replaced now by the cultural values of the outsiders. Biao Guianga, historically, opened itself to several outsiders, the Japanese, owners of the abaca plantations that Davao is once famous of and the visayans who became laborers in these plantations. The clata, eventually, succumbed to the Visayan culture. Despite the culture change, the clata persists to observe their traditional tabbad wedding ceremony. This paper discusses the social context sorrounding the continuing observance of this ceremony. In particular, it explores the belief systems that strengthen the continuing adherence to this ceremony. A society's shared cosmology gives meaning and value to the daily experiences of its inhabitants. Belief systems function as guide as to how moral values and ways of thinking are shaped, similar to Durkheim's idea of ?conscience collective?. Interviews with Clata reveal that persistence of the tabbad wedding ceremony is closely related to their notions of bad luck and misfortune and which, in turn, direct our attention to their perception of earthly existence, vis-a-vis with nature.