Penis Piercing and the Status of Women in Pre-colonial Visayan Societies

Isinulat ang munting papel na ito para sa kursong “Social History of the Philippines” noong unang semestre, 2016–2017 sa Unibersidad ng Pilipinas-Diliman. Iprinisinta rin ito sa undergraduate conference ng “Hulagway: Paglikha ng Imaheng Pilipino sa Timog-Silangang Asya,” isang pambansang kumperensiya ng UP Lipunang Pangkasaysayan (UP LIKAS) noong 2017.

Introduction

The implantation of genital ornaments, especially among males, is not an unusual practice in the Philippines today. Though talking about matters related to sex — sexual organs and sexual activity itself — remains taboo in contemporary Philippine culture and society, a term pertinent to genital piercing entered the mainstream of the Filipino language. The bolitas, probably coined from the same Spanish word “bolitas” or small balls or marbles, are tiny rounded materials implanted under the skin of the penis for added pleasure during the actual intercourse. The practice of implanting bolitas caught the attention of Norwegian anthropologist Gunnar Lamvik in his conversations with Filipino seafarers during a three-year on-and-off voyage on ships with these men. Many Filipino seamen implant tiny plastic or stone balls underneath the skin of their penises to enhance sexual pleasure during encounters with women, many of them prostitutes, in the port cities where they stopped over.[1] The seafarers considered it the “secret weapon of the Filipinos” for the reason that “the Filipinos are so small.”[2] It is also noteworthy that they implant these bolitas themselves, without undergoing any professional medical procedure. According to Steve McKay, sociologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, a designated mate of these seamen sterilized bolitas made of materials ranging from tiles to plastic chopsticks or toothbrushes in boiling water and performed the operation.[3] Moreover, McKay said that one Filipino seafarer told him that when women in port heard of their coming, these women are “happy” and that they keep asking for Filipino seamen.[4]

‘Genital beading’ has been practiced throughout Asia, as evidenced by the numerous terms synonymous to the Filipino “bolitas” — “fang muk” in Thailand, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Cambodia, “chagon” balls in Korea, “goli” in India, and “tancho” balls in Japan.[5] In the Philippines, the earliest records on the practice of implanting genital ornaments among the Filipinos date back to the 16th century. Many of these were accounts of foreign visitors, friars, and colonial officials who were either fascinated or horrified by the practice. We are indeed fortunate that the abundance of primary sources on the subject matter, from travel accounts to friar accounts, provide us a mine of knowledge about genital piercing in pre-colonial Philippines.

The persistence of this practice today is surprising despite the fact that the islands had fallen on the hands of colonizers for almost four centuries, having undergone large-scale political, social, and cultural changes. This continuity, then, attests to the impelling importance of the practice of genital piercing in the Filipino culture that made the practice live for so long. One striking feature of this practice is that it is done primarily not for the sexual satisfaction of men but of women, that men who wear these bolitas are said to be more attractive among women. Among the early Filipinos, genital piercing is one important practice, that women would not let those who do not possess genital ornaments approach them, favoring those who have. This, more so, affected many social features such as courtship, marriage, and childbearing. The practice, then, proves that women in Philippine society then and now have been very important personalities that various social processes depend on them.

Overall, the paper attempts: (1) to explore the centuries-old practice of genital piercing in the Philippines in the eyes of foreign observers, (2) to analyze its social significance among the early Filipinos, particularly the Visayan people, during the pre-colonial period, and primarily (3) to show the implications of such practice on gender roles among these societies, especially that of women.

The Fondness for Accessories

The Visayans lived in an environment blessed with many valuable mineral resources, such as tin, nickel, silver, and most importantly, gold. The account of Magellan’s voyage written by Antonio Pigafetta reveals the abundance of gold in the Visayas region. According to Pigafetta, the expedition found the first signs of gold in the island of Humunu (Homonhon).[6] When they came to the island of Mazzaua (Limasawa), they found mines of gold as large as walnuts and eggs.[7] In Panilonghon (Panglao), northeastern part of Mindanao, the natives showed them small valleys, which, for the men of the expedition, were signs that “there was as much gold there as they (the natives) had hairs.”[8] Gold deposits could also be found in bodies of water such as rivers and streams. Alcina recorded that the Visayans call the rivers and streams as washing places because the natives extract gold embedded in a mixture of sand and soil by washing them in these places, thereby separating gold from sand and soil particularly in the islands of Masbate and Bohol.[9] Other metals such as silver and brass and precious stones such as diamonds and cat’s eyes[10] were also found in the islands.[11]

The richness of these islands in terms of mineral deposits, especially gold, was reflected by the accessories which the natives used for various purposes. Pigafetta observed that the natives, male and female, oftentimes wore accessories made of gold. Also, it seemed that the native chieftains were the ones who had the most access to gold. Pigafetta noted that in Homonhon, the ruler of the natives wore golden earrings which were called Schione.[12] In Limasawa, Pigafetta was astounded by its ruler, Raia Calambu (Rajah Kolambu) and described him as follows:

And he was the most handsome person whom we saw among those people. He had a very black hair to his shoulders, with a silk cloth on his head, and two large gold rings hanging from his ears… At his side he had a dagger, with a long handle, and all of gold, the sheath of which was of carved wood.[13]

Pigafetta furthermore recorded that in Cebu, the king also wore two gold rings hung with precious stones.[14] Rajah Humabon even gave Magellan accessories as gifts — “two very large gold rings to be fastened and hung in the ears and to wear on the arms above the elbows and two others to wear on the feet above the heels, and the other precious stones to adorn and deck the ears.”[15] The practice of ear-piercing and the wearing of earrings were common among the Visayans. Alcina noted that the natives in the ancient times pierced the ear of newborn children or those who were already one or two years old, both male and female, using a needle made of copper wire.[16] Moreover, the natives were accustomed to make two to three holes in the earlobe.[17] According to Alcina, the natives, both men and women, customarily wore earrings called panica or pamarang, but there was a type of earring which was worn only by women — a little golden rosette called palbar or pasoc-pasoc.[18] “Bisayan women,” Alcina noted, “are accustomed to wear a lot of gold about their necks, on their wrists, and rings on their fingers.”[19] Aside from earrings, men and women also wore a kamagi, which was “a round burnished chain made of gold.”[20]

Of all the accessories and ornaments, it was a sexual device which fascinated the foreigners especially the Spaniards that in the early years of their settlement in the new colony, soldiers and friars would demand to see the genitals of their male colonials.[21] This device was called sacra,[22] a kind of a ring or cogwheel with teeth, having opposed holes to accommodate the tugbuk or pins, which could be small bars or tubes of brass, gold, ivory, lead, or tin, pierced through the head of the penis at an early age.[23]

The Procedure of Genital Piercing

Foreign accounts on the practice of genital piercing among the Visayans, though reveal fascination, often condemn such a practice, especially those observers who were members of the missionary clergy. According to the unknown author of the Boxer Codex, certainly in a religious point of view, the said custom was “connected with the sin of the flesh” that was “abominable and bestial,” which was “invented by the devil so that men can offend the Lord our God more with it.”[24] In the words of Alcina, the practice of using genital pins was “vile and diabolic,” and the wound or death caused by the sacra on the part of the woman was “a just punishment of God so that they might find death there where they sought more intense pleasure.”[25] He even criticized the term itself, “sacra,” which was a word so holy for the Spaniards.[26] Juan Martinez in 1567 also noted, “were it not by revelation of the Devil, the inhumanity of the pain being so great which the youths suffer in piercing.”[27] Tagging the practice as satanic, the Spaniards employed means to eradicate it. They took away these devices from the natives and punished those who wore it by lashing.[28]

Although they could not believe what their eyes were seeing, foreign observers vividly recorded the process on how the tugbuk and the sacra were pinned into the male genitalia. Antonio Pigafetta describes the process of genital piercing among the natives of Zzubu (Cebu) as follows:

The males, both large and small, have the head of their member pierced from one side to the other, with a pin of gold or of tin as thick as a goose feather, and at each end of this pin some have a star-shaped decoration like a button, and others, one like the head of a cart nail… In the middle of this pin or tube is a hole through which they urinate, and the pin and the stars always remain firm, holding the member stiff.[29]

Almost the same process was documented in the Boxer Codex:

Two holes are fashioned in the round part of the hoop or ring, one on the top and the other on the bottom, through which a small bolt or pin made of the same metal as the ring is inserted and which is then thrust through the man’s member as the base of his foreskin. And thus the hoop or ring is worn on the genital member itself in the same way a ring is worn on a finger.[30]

There were also accounts describing the size of the device, such as that of Miguel de Loarca and Alcina. Loarca, in his Relación, even described the size of these rings, that men “bore a hole through the genital organ, placing within this opening a tin tube, to which they fasten a wheel like that of a spur, a full palm in circumference.”[31] Alcina, on the other hand, records that “the ends of this peg protruded on both sides to about a half-finger length.”[32] The famous Sucesos written by Antonio de Morga also documents the process, saying that “men skillfully make a hole in their virile member near its head, and insert therein a serpent’s head, either of metal or ivory, and fasten it with a peg of the same material passed through the hole, so that it cannot become unfastened.”[33]

In general, the procedure included two steps. First, a pin was pierced across the glans (head) of the penis or its foreskin in a horizontal orientation, from side to side. Then, a wheel-like device called sacra was worn like a ring, which was anchored to the pin. Thus, the purpose of the pin was to hold the sacra in its proper place and orientation so that it could not be detached during the actual sexual activity.

Genital Ornaments in Practice

The possession of the sacra by a male played a significant role in the pre-intercourse stage. According to Pigafetta, men underwent the procedure because it was the wish of the women or the babai — that if they did not have the sacra, women would not have intercourse with them.[34] The reason behind this is that the sacra as a sexual device added sensation or pleasure on the part not only of men but especially of the women during the intercourse stage. Alcina, in his account, also added that women mocked those who did not have it.[35] In addition, those who did not possess the sacra were tagged as asog/asug, bantut, or bayug, which were terms used to refer to effeminate men characterized with cowardice.[36] These insults, perhaps, convey that the society saw men who did not have the sacra as weak or coward for not having the courage to experience the excruciating pain of genital piercing. During the actual intercourse, it was the woman who had the control over and manipulated the sacra. Pigafetta discusses in detail the intercourse stage and noted that:

[Wives] themselves take the member without its being prepared or rigid, and so they put it little by little into their nature, beginning with the stars. Then when it is inside it stiffens, and remains there until it becomes soft, for otherwise they would not be able to withdraw it.[37]

The Visayans called this relaxed condition of the penis as kinamakawing, which was also used to among canines.[38] Antonio Morga labeled the Visayans, especially the women, “very vicious and sensual” and referred to both men and women as having perverseness which led to the discovery of “lascivious methods of communication.”[39] After the intercourse, men chose to leave the pin in its original place when it was inserted to prevent the hole from growing shut.[40] This was probably done by the men for them not to undergo the piercing procedure again. However, it was not always the woman who was favored by the usage of the sacra. A husband who wanted to avenge for his wife’s infidelity would use an iron sacra and sharpened its edges, thereby wounding his partner and might even kill her.

The Social Impact of Genital Piercing

The use of the sacra attested to the importance given to women, particularly among the Visayans, even before the arrival of the colonizers in the 16th century. The minutiae of the processes of the society, including sex, is a reflection of that society as a whole. Various social processes and institutions seemed to depend on the prerogative of the babai. Sex itself plays a very vital role here as a social process. In all of its stages — pre-intercourse, intercourse, and post-intercourse — women appeared to be the dominant figure. In the pre-intercourse stage, most of the men were determined to have their penises pierced despite the pain and danger involved in the procedure because of the pressure brought about by women, therefore surrendering to their demands. During the actual intercourse, it was also the women who manipulated the device and her partner’s genital. After the activity, men would still be wearing the pins or tugbuk. Thus, copulation heavily depended on women’s choice and preference. This power conferred to the babai by the society is manifested in other social processes. For example, in marriage, it was the side of the girl that set the bugay (the Visayan “bride-price”), contrary to the concept of “dowry” observed in European countries like Spain, where the property or goods were demanded and enjoyed by the family of the husband.[41] The reason for this practice among the early Filipinos was economic and cultural. In an agricultural country like the Philippines, it was the woman who was in charge of the agricultural activities such as tilling the land, planting, and harvesting, because they were believed to possess fertility, which would be channeled to the lands on which they planted. Thus, taking a girl to marriage would also mean taking away from the family a member whose economic function was very important. In cases of adultery, the offense was taken by the adulterer, and the wife was not punished.[42] The usage of the sacra was also a health issue. It could cause crippling complications for both the male and the female.[43] Intercourse using the sacra involved the drawing of blood especially on the part of women, and excessive blood loss could lead to death.

Conclusion

The sacra was indeed a deciding and a defining factor on the role of women in the pre-colonial societies of the Visayas, which persisted even after centuries of colonization. It can also be observed that not only the economic and cultural but also the geographical factors contributed to the prevalence of such practice. The abundance of mineral deposits, most especially gold, contributed much to the existence of jewelries and accessories, which were parts of our material culture and evidence of our social structure and organization. If we go back to the modern-day practice of implanting bolitas among Filipinos, which is seen as a continuation of the centuries-old practice of using genital ornaments, we can observe some changes. The procedure of implanting the bolitas is not as elaborate as that of the sacra. Also, if the possession of the sacra then was a norm and those who did not have it were ridiculed, that may not be the case today. However, despite these changes, the essence of having the penis implanted with some accessory then and now has remained the same. If we are to base on the stories of the seafarers, it can be said that the appeal of having penile ornaments has persisted.

Endnotes:

1. Ryan Jacobs, “The Strange Sexual Quirk of Filipino Seafarers,” last modified August 9, 2013, http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/08/the-strange-sexual-quirk-of-filipino-seafarers/278285.
2. Ryan Jacobs, “The Strange Sexual Quirk of Filipino Seafarers.”
3. Ryan Jacobs, “The Strange Sexual Quirk of Filipino Seafarers.”
4. Ryan Jacobs, “The Strange Sexual Quirk of Filipino Seafarers.”
5. Alberto Rosenblatt et al., Male Genital Lesions: The Urological Perspective (New York: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2013), 122.
6. Antonio Pigafetta, Magellan’s voyage: A narrative account of the first circumnavigation (New Haven: Yale University, 1969), 64.
7. Pigafetta, 69.
8. Pigafetta, 95.
9. Ignacio Francisco Alcina, Historia de las Islas e Indios de Bisayas, vol. 3 (Manila: UST Publishing House, 2002), 231.
10. This was the name given by the Spaniards to stones which shine like diamonds at especially at night.
11. Alcina, vol. 3, 233.
12. Pigafetta, 65.
13. Pigafetta, 69.
14. Pigafetta, 78.
15. Pigafetta, 87.
16. Ignacio Francisco Alcina, Historia de las Islas e Indios de Bisayas, vol. 1 (Manila: UST Publishing House, 2002), 105.
17. Alcina, vol. 1, 103.
18. Alcina, vol. 1, 103–105.
19. Alcina, vol. 1, 113.
20. Alcina, vol. 1, 113.
21. Ramon Villegas, Kayamanan: The Philippine Jewelry Tradition (Manila: Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, 1983), 109.
22. Other terms appear to be cognates of sacra — sakra and sagra — which are interchangeably used in different accounts. For uniformity, the term to be used throughout the paper is sacra.
23. William Henry Scott, Barangay: Sixteenth Century Philippine Culture and Society (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1994), 24.
24. George Bryan Souza and Jeffrey Turley, eds., The Boxer Codex: Transcription and Translation of an Illustrated late Sixteenth-Century Spanish manuscript concerning the Geography, Ethnography, and History of the Pacific, South-East Asia, and East Asia (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 355.
25. Alcina, vol. 1, 147.
26. Alcina, vol. 1, 147.
27. Scott, 24.
28. Souza and Turley, 355.
29. Pigafetta, 85–86.
30. Souza and Turley, 354.
31. Miguel de Loarca, “Relations in the Filipinas Islands,” in The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898, vol. 5 (Cleveland, Ohio: A.H. Clark, 1903–1909), PDF, 117.
32. Alcina, vol. 1, 147.
33. Antonio de Morga, “Events in the Filipinas Islands,” in The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898, vol. 16 (Cleveland, Ohio: A.H. Clark, 1903–1909), PDF, 130.
34. Pigafetta, 85–86.
35. Alcina, vol. 1, 147.
36. Alcina, vol. 1, 147.
37. Pigafetta, 85–86.
38. Scott, 24.
39. Morga, 130.
40. Scott, 24.
41. Scott, 140.
42. Scott, 140.
43. Scott, 140.

References:

Alcina, Ignacio Francisco. Historia de las Islas e Indios de Bisayas, vol. 1. Manila: UST Publishing House, 2002.

— . Historia de las Islas e Indios de Bisayas, vol. 3. Manila: UST Publishing House, 2002.

Jacobs, Ryan. “The Strange Sexual Quirk of Filipino Seafarers.” Last modified August 9, 2013. http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/08/the-strange-sexual-quirk-of-filipino-seafarers/278285.

Loarca, Miguel de. “Relations in the Filipinas Islands.” In Blair, Emma Helen, and James Alexander Robertson, eds. The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898. Vol. 5. Cleveland, Ohio: A.H. Clark, 1903–1909. PDF.

Morga, Antonio de. “Events in the Filipinas Islands.” In Blair, Emma Helen, and James Alexander Robertson, eds. The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898. Vol. 16. Cleveland, Ohio: A.H. Clark, 1903–1909. PDF.

Pigafetta, Antonio. Magellan’s voyage: A narrative account of the first circumnavigation. New Haven: Yale University, 1969.

Rosenblatt, Alberto et al. Male Genital Lesions: The Urological Perspective. New York: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2013.

Scott, William Henry. Barangay: Sixteenth Century Philippine Culture and Society. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1994.

Souza, George Bryan and Jeffrey Turley, eds. The Boxer Codex: transcription and translation of an illustrated late sixteenth-century Spanish manuscript concerning the geography, ethnography and history of the Pacific, South-East Asia and East Asia. Leiden: Brill, 2016.

Villegas, Ramon. Kayamanan: The Philippine Jewelry Tradition. Manila: Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, 1983.