Evolution of Identity in Mindanao: An Analysis of the Intellectual Currents from Pre-Colonial to the Present Times
Keywords:
Mindanao Identity , Indigenous Epistemologies , Identity Evolution , Intellectual HistoryAbstract
This paper analyzes how the identity in Mindanao evolved from pre-colonial to the present time. The researchers employed a historical research design to contextualize the identity structure by examining existing scholarship such as published books, articles, and journals together with primary sources from government websites to determine the policies implemented by the state in Mindanao that affected the identity of the distinct groups in the region. The analysis is guided by three inquiries. Firstly, it delves into how the pre-colonial Mindanao communities conceptualize identity through indigenous epistemologies, oral traditions, and cosmologies. Second, it explores the roles of kinship structures, community governance, and land ownership that shaped collective identity before the advent and intervention of the colonial regime. Lastly, it examines the ways colonial encounters reshape Mindanao's intellectual currents, specifically how exogenous ideologies were fused with local identity frameworks. By incorporating these queries into the analysis, this paper argues that the evolution of identity in Mindanao is not a single linear trajectory of idea, rather—an overlapping one that resulted in what they have in the present times. This includes how diverse communities in the region shifted, adapted, and embraced certain changes that contributed to who they are. It reveals the dynamic layers of how intellectual and political configurations have historically changed and continues to redefine the identity in the Southern Philippines.
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