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via Minda News, 07 May 2023: Datu Michael Ong Mastura delivers a lecture on his book, “The Rulers of Magindanao in Modern History, 1515-1903” during its launch at the Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City on May 4, 2023. The book explores the continuity and change in a traditional realm in the southern Philippines and asks if pre-colonial Filipinos developed a concept of statehood, with a focus on genealogy as a construct in historiography, longue duree in historiography and conjunctures, and the role of Islam in modifying culture and adat systems.
I take great pleasure to present to you the book, The Rulers of Magindanao in Modern History, 1515-1903. The book opens with a question: How likely is it that the ancient Filipinos developed a concept of statehood at pre-colonial contact? The subtitle sets the longue duree central theme: “Continuity and Change in a Traditional Realm in the Southern Philippines”.
It might seem trivial to ask: Are you Readers? Are you a part of the Reading Public in this sweeping era of digital technology? Are we on ‘holiday’ from history? How do we now inject presentconsciousness into the past to reconstruct that past?
The answer lies in an objective, critical viewpoint and ever-present sense for the “personality” in the long-run story of Magindanao pre-colonial state systems marked with continuity as a traditional realm (alam). Change in the old institutions came with the advent of mercantilist expansion, and the long-terms of trade; more so, within the slave raiding system that largely evolved in the Sulu maritime zone.
Source: A reader’s guide to “The Rulers of Magindanao, 1515-1903” | MindaNews
