Synopsis:
Before feminism there was babaylanism, a form of women’s collective consciousness indigenous to the Philippines. Unfortunately, little is known of the babaylan (women’s priest, healer, visionary) and her place in Philippine history. This is due not only to the scarcity of historical data on the Philippine prehistoric past but also to the invisibility of women in historical accounts.
Women, even when they are present and active agents of history, are largely reduced to mere spectators and passive objects of events. In this collection of women’s writings, babaylanism as the primal source of the Filipina’s inner strength and dynamism across centuries is revisited and reviewed from the internal lens of Philippine culture and history.
In a sense, therefore, Centennial Crossings: Readings on Babaylan Feminism in the Philippines offers the first theoretical and practical sourcebook on babaylan feminism, a significant grounding of the feminist movement in the Philippines.
