Mind, Body, Spirit, and Soul: A Filipino Epistemology of Adeptness in Musical

Performance
Author(s): Manolete Mora
Source: Asian Music, Vol. 36, No. 2 (Summer - Autumn, 2005), pp. 81-95
Published by: University of Texas Press
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Asian
Music

Mind, Body, Spirit, and Soul:

A Filipino Epistemology of Adeptness
in Musical Performance'
Manolete Mora

In the Tiruray highlands of southwestern Mindanao in the Philippines live

the T'boli, a shifting agricultural and hunter-gatherer society of some 80,000
people. While the T'boli are increasingly living on the margins of the domi-
nant, lowland Philippines economy (see Mora 1996), many still adhere to the
"lifeways" of their ancestors. Skilled practitioners of traditional medicine,
spirit-mediumship, weaving, brass casting, jewelry making, embroidery, mu-
sical instrument manufacture, and music are referred to as "adepts."
This study describes the processes by which the T'boli adept acquires mu-
sical knowledge. Central to this process is the link between knowledge and
spirituality, and to this end the adept is guided by specific T'boli concepts that
concern the nature of knowledge and being. These concepts are further imbed-
ded in a recognition of resemblances with the natural world. These concepts, in
addition to their connection to the natural world through the process of imi-
tation (d'nalang), have informed the structuring of the social world, and im-
portantly, embody the values concerned with the origin and power of music in
the ritualized and everyday lives of the T'boli.
Resemblances arise through the reliance of adepts on spirit-guides, which
abound in the natural world. In a relationship where reciprocity is paramount,
spirit-guides teach adepts their music and performing techniques, and they en-
courage the formation of a relationship not unlike that between parent and
child or husband and wife. Based on these observations, in which the relation-
ship between imitation, magic, contact, and spirituality in music and musical
performance is described, the article will draw on the T'boli's notion of resem-
blances to explain how the system of duality and exchange between adept and
spirit-guide operates in the natural world, especially in as far as this concept is
related to the belief systems and cultures of South and Southeast Asia.
An adept, for the T'boli, is an individual who has acquired knowledge
through personal revelation and has been ritually ordained. Knowledge and
? 2005 by the University of Texas Press, P.O. Box 7819, Austin, TX 78713-7819

82 Asian Music: Summer/Fall 2005

skill, of whatever variety, are fundamentally linked to divine inspiration
and magico-religious experience. Underpinning the link between knowledge
and spirituality is a set of concepts called utek ("head") and nawa ("breath"),
tulus ("spirit") and loyof ("soul"). In contrast to any Western notions of an
essential separation between mind and body, reason and sensation, the T'boli
concepts embrace relations of complementarity and interdependence. T'boli
thought on the nature of being and knowledge is distinguished by notions of
resemblance, of resonance between self and other, of basic identity with the
world rather than fundamental difference and separation. The concepts head,
breath, spirit, and soul have profound implications not only for the way the
T'boli see themselves in the world, but for the way they think about music,
where it comes from, and the nature of its power.
The following dream narrative and the prosaic events connected to it are not
untypical of how the neophyte, initiated into adeptness and spirit-medium-
ship, experiences a connection between knowledge, spiritual and social em-
powerment, and musical performance. It concerns Lendungan Tawal's calling
as an adept and her relationship with her spirit guide (see Mora 1997).
The dream narrative
The spirit never disclosed his name but the shaman (tau meton bu) said that he
is Lemugot Mangay, the celestial deity, the messenger of God (Dwata). He revealed
the composition (utom) to me when I was still small. He was "the spirit-owner of
the bamboo" (Fu Afus). At first, I tried to play the bamboo zither by myself but
then he came and began to guide my fingers. The spirit came near me when I was
still small and he took care of me and still often comes to me. We are married and
have two children, a boy and a girl. The children are with him and they come to
me in my dreams. He comes anytime, but especially when I'm sleepy. When he is
with me I sleep soundly and he will just lie down beside me. But when my sleep
is disturbed I do not see him. Should my soul wander during sleep and by chance
come upon him, he will then take me by the hand.
If at night he touches the edge of my zither, it will sound beautiful. When he
is beside me, it is as though there is a force directing my fingers and my "breath"
(nawa) becomes clear (tikaw nawa). Only his shadow approaches, and when he
comes to my side the sound from the zither resonates up into my elbows. But if
he is not with me it is difficult to even pluck the strings. The spirit that visits me is
the owner of the utom I play. He comes from the bamboo groves, just as the owner
of the lute comes from the forest.
He guides me and helps me in times of trouble. One night I tried to play the
zither while my son's daughter lay ill. Efren, my son, was not around at the time.
It was early in the evening and I began to feel difficulty in playing. My fingers
were not moving as easily as usual, and my utom was not good. Later that evening,

after Efren arrived there was a disturbance about the house. I saw a fleeting move-
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Mora: Mind, Body, Spirit, and Soul 83

ment and Efren heard something. The dogs did not bark, as there was no prowler
lurking about. I soon realised that the spirit had come and so Efren asked me to
play my zither again. My fingers began to move well and my utom was agreeable.
I played on and at about midnight my granddaughter awoke, hungry and asking
for food even though she had been unable to eat for several days ...
I started to play the zither when I was a young child and I still play now that
I'm old. I became adept and have learned many utom.
This story was told to me by Lendungan Tawal, a T'boli woman in her late
fifties who lives in the hills surrounding Lake Sebu, the ancestral heartland.
Lendungan is one of the leading adepts in the playing of the polychordal, bam-
boo zither, hegelung. Like all T'boli adepts, Lendungan is referred to as tau
mulung or "one who knows." This term derives from the word hulung (lit. "to
know" or "to know how"), which is also used as the root of the word kenhulung,
signifying "ability" or "adeptness."
Access to healing power and spirit-mediumship, indeed any special knowl-
edge in T'boli society, is not dependent upon social rank or gender. The neo-
phyte musician normally has the first, revelatory dream or calling during late
childhood or adolescence, as is also indicated in Lendungan's narrative. The
revelatory dream normally occurs during an illness that results from commit-
ting a moral or social transgression. Showing disrespect to parents or elders,
ridiculing others, breaking taboos, or destroying sacred objects such as musical
instruments are among the most commonly reported infractions. Adepts often
report that such transgressions were committed in response to the indifference
or discouragement they felt from family and neighbours when first attempt-
ing to learn a musical instrument; neophytes typically react with open expres-
sions of frustration and aberrant behaviour that leads to punishment (such as
an illness), then to restitution. This is the beginning of a life-long attachment
between an adept and a tutelary spirit.
The presence of the spirit in the revelatory dream is an affirmation of the
neophyte's aspiration and personal commitment to learn and master a mu-
sical instrument. Seriousness of purpose is a major force in achieving adept
status, and the T'boli believe that anyone with determination may become an
adept. The manifestation of the spirit and the open declaration of commitment
are centered on the concept of nawa, the affective and ethical dimension of
personhood.
The Divine Breath: The Concepts of Nawa and Utek
While nawa literally denotes "breath," it is also a faculty, an internal agency
located in the chest cavity. Nawa is life giving and has its source in the creation

86 Asian Music: Summer/Fall 2005

soul that goes on a journey. Moreover, in the case of the natural death of those
whose moral character is not good (la heyu nawahem), their soul descends to
the underworld (mugul), while their spirit ascends towards the supreme deity
(D'wata) in the celestial realm (longit). The portrayal of the soul by both adepts
suggests its underlying conception as a "shadow," a copy or representation of
the body.
The important difference between spirit and soul is their degree of
"boundedness" to the human body. In this regard, the soul shares a common
attribute with the breath or nawa, for the breath is also corporeal. The breath is
an embodiment of psychophysical states. There is a common expression, "one's
breath is far away" (mayuk nawa), which indicates a state of emotional loss, of
fretting, and there is danger in this state. The absence of breath from the body is
pathological: the breath or nawa being "far away" is like the lost soul, roaming
without a body.
Similarly, the concept of soul is used in expressions concerning affliction or
emotional crisis, such as tabag loyof (a wandering soul) or hedenu loyof (a per-
manently separated soul). In these particular states, the self is un-intact and
fragmented. In more critical circumstances, the absence of pulse in the body
signifies the absence of soul, for the T'boli say that when the pulse stops, the
soul leaves the body. Protracted separation between soul and body, indeed any
separation whatsoever, leads to death. On the other hand, the spirit is more
free; it may wander safely, as it is not strictly bound to the body. Rather, it is
closely connected to the incorporeal self.
It is tempting to interpret the front/behind and up/down differentiation of
soul and spirit as simple binary oppositions.
tulus = "spirit," "free soul," incorporeal
loyof = "soul," "bounded spirit," corporeal
On occasion, however, the two terms are used interchangeably in everyday
talk, especially by those who do not have special knowledge. Perhaps this is be-
cause the two terms are commonly thought of as two aspects of a single entity.
In any case, what appears to be a simple dichotomous relationship is really a
more complex one. T'boli categories of spirit and soul may be viewed as mul-
tiple manifestations of the self; they are two sides of the same coin.
The basic conceptual categories of "head," "breath," "spirit," and "soul" in-
trinsically resonate within T'boli thought on questions of being and knowl-
edge. The nature of this thought is perhaps best revealed in the bond between
the adept and the spirit-guide and the musical power that inheres in that
relationship.

Mora: Mind, Body, Spirit, and Soul 85

world. Young musicians learn from older, experienced musicians; musicians
imitate and reproduce the sounds of nature through musical sounds in the
same way T'boli weavers also imitate in their textile designs patterns found in
natural objects, such as a shell, a python skin, or clouds.
Gesture is used when explaining or indicating how that knowledge is re-
leased or manifested in outward form. Adepts trace the "inward" path of
knowledge by bringing both their hands to the chest - or nawa - and the "out-
ward" path of knowledge is shown by tracing its "upward" path via an attribute
located in the head, called utek. Thus, while the nawa is about internalizing
knowledge, the utek, located in the head, is about the practical execution and
application of knowledge (baling). The utek displays what the nawa receives
and apprehends. In T'boli terms, "the utek lets it out" (yom utek hegewa du).
The execution of knowledge is also expressed in terms of hembaling, meaning
"to produce results." In traditional terms, nevertheless, the power of knowing
and the capacity for knowledge still resides in the nawa.2 The relations between
the concepts of nawa and utek are, then, complementary and inseparable, and
can be summarised as follows:
nawa: chest, lower: inward utek: head, upper: outward
However, this relationship does not represent a dichotomy between reason and
emotion, rather, the utek is the faculty that executes what the nawa under-
stands. The relationship between utek and nawa resonates with the fundamen-
tal principle of complementarity that underpins T'boli cosmology and which
is referred to as yehenen or "spouse" relations.3 Such a principle also underlies
the relationship between notions of "soul" (loyof) and "spirit" (tulus), which
are also referred to in Lendungan's narrative.
The Concepts of Loyofand Tulus
Every object in the T'boli world is imbued with both the presence of loyof
which may be translated as "soul," and tulus, which may be translated as
"spirit." Singer Mendung Sabal maintains that the soul leaves the body along
with the spirit during illness or in dreams. According to Mendung, the two
entities are differentiated from each other in that the tulus leaves the body from
the front while the loyof leaves from the back. Another esteemed adept and
healer, Genlal Andal, claims that the soul (loyof) never leaves the body ex-
cept in death. He asserts that "the soul is like the person (tau)," while "the
spirit (tulus) may travel far"; in ordinary dreams, he continues, as well as in
the more special dreams of the spirit-medium, it is only the spirit and not the

84 Asian Music: Summer/Fall 2005

of humanity. D'wata (the supreme deity) gave life to the first man and woman
with his own breath. According to spirit-medium and epic singer Mendung
Sabal, the supreme deity created five faculties (mekina, lit., "machines"); first
he created the breath, then the voice, hearing, sight, and movement.
Bowi [an intermediary spirit] reported to D'wata that the third "fruit" of his tree
was human, yet it did not move. D'wata, the creator, went to the tree and gave his
nawa (breath) to the human by blowing into its mouth. So this is why humans
breathe, because D'wata gave his breath.
The breath of the divine gives life, but it also inspires knowledge and creativity.
The supreme deity dispatches intermediary spirits to endow humanity with in-
sight and understanding. Through this process, people are empowered to heal,
to lead, or to move another's nawa through music. In other words, to become
adept. In T'boli terms, this quest is born of one's nawa. Belief in oneself charac-
terizes this quest, and one's aspirations and longing for knowledge are crucial
to its success. The act of apprehending is often expressed in physical terms,
such as saying that the nawa catches, grasps, or carries knowledge (son nawa-
hem mewit du, lit., "only the nawa carries it").
An individual's personality and sense of self arise out of the nature of his or
her nawa and the qualities it contains. It is the seat of emotion, sentiment, intu-
ition, perception, moral character, and creativity. The centrality of nawa in the
experiential world of the T'boli is indicated by the ease with which the term
lends itself to multiple shadings of emotional inflection, such as mayuk nawa
(sadness, desideration, a sense of aloneness and longing), nawa lobo (rage,
anger, violent passion), lemnoy nawa (serenity, languor, calmness), megel nawa
(strong emotions, enlivenment, determination), sedek nawa (flawed or bad
character), heyu nawa (respectfulness, integrity, good character), and tikaw
nawa (lucidity, creativity, inventiveness). Nawa is also concerned with memo-
ries, beliefs, attitudes, dreams, and musical composition, all of which are con-
nected to affective experience.
Nawa also desires (hendun nawa) worldly possessions, a spouse, health, and
knowledge, among other things. While nawa desires and receives knowledge,
imitation or d'nalang is the means for imbibing it. The T'boli concept of d'na-
lang refers here to the acts both of imitating as well as learning. The con-
cepts are parallel; through imitation the nawa grasps or retrieves knowledge.
Adepts talk about listening to sounds in dreams and closely watching the pre-
cise physical movements of spirit-guides as compositions and techniques are
revealed. Anything from finger movements to song texts are carefully observed
and copied. Learning through imitation also extends to the social and natural
Mora: Mind, Body, Spirit, and Soul 87

Spirit-guide and Adept Relations

Statements of adepts frequently illustrate their reliance upon the spirits for mu-
sical knowledge. In one such statement, Bendaly Layul, a renowned lute player,
alludes to the nature of the spirit-guides, where they come from and their status
in the T'boli pantheon.
If you want to learn to play you must first call upon D'wata (t'maba D'wata: the
supreme deity). You must act in a determined way (nelem kehedem) and continue
to learn (d'nalang) so that when you are adept you can teach (temolok) your chil-
dren. Your nawa must be good (heyu nawa) and you must have the help of the
spirits in order to learn to play. For example, in learning to play the lute (hegelung)
you need the help of Fu Koyu (Custodian of the Trees and Custodian of the Lute).
The spirit-guides are immanent and reside in the natural world. They are a
category of supernatural beings known as tau funen or "spirit custodians" and
act as intermediaries between the supreme deity (D'wata) and humanity. These
beings are terrestrial; they are custodians of the natural world and are respon-
sible for its order. The principal materials used to make musical instruments
(wood, bamboo, plant fibre, and bees wax) are derived from nature and are
therefore recognised as embodiments of the nature spirits. The spirit of the in-
strument is regarded as the same spirit custodian of the natural object from
which the instrument is made. Thus, the relationship between the spirit-guide/
custodian of nature and the adept forms a fundamental link with the natural
world.
The bond between the adept and the spirit-guide is also crucial in main-
taining the psychic and physical integrity of the self. In her narrative, Len-
dungan refers to the spirit-guide taking her wandering soul by the hand, in
other words, leading her disoriented soul back to safety and to a reintegration
with the self. It is not uncommon that the bond between spirit-guide and adept
is expressed in terms of a conjugal or parent/child relationship.
Lendungan, as noted in her narrative, is married to her spirit-guide and has
two children by him. One of the many cases that illustrate the belief in the bond
between adept and guide is that of Sabanay Lugan, a gong player and brass-
caster, who upon the instructions of his spirit-guide, Semenia, divorced all of
his eight wives and then married his ninth. This decision is particularly sig-
nificant given the high economic price paid for such an action. Sabanay had
to return all the gifts negotiated in previous marriage contracts. Semenia had
appeared to Sabanay while he was still a young adolescent and foretold of his
future marital circumstances.
Another dimension to the spirit-guide/adept relationship is also found in the
88 Asian Music: Summer/Fall 2005
musical inspiration the spirit provides. In her dream narrative, Lendungan de-
scribes the effect of the spirit's presence upon her in physical and emotional
terms: a force moves her fingers, sound resonates in her body, and clarity and
creativity embrace her. Spirit-guides are also considered owners of the musi-
cal compositions that they reveal through dreams. Compositions are given as
gifts to adepts in return for respect and tribute. However, it is understood that
musical knowledge must be used in ethically appropriate ways, for the trans-
gression of proper moral conduct invites retribution in the form of illness or
even death. On this point, ethics and aesthetics become closely intertwined in
T'boli expressive culture.
Many adepts will not perform when their spirit-guide is not present. Out-
ward signs, such as the appearance of a butterfly or another insect on the per-
former's instrument or near the body, or the perception of a fleeting move-
ment indicate whether a spirit presides over a performance. The awareness of
the adept's nawa in performance, as indicated in Lendungan's dream narra-
tive, with its feeling of embracing clarity and creativity, and the compelling
performance this state gives rise to, are both internal and external signs of this
presence. The enhanced facility for recalling and executing compositions and
the production of an optimum sound quality called meluk (a clear, fully pro-
jecting, unrestrained sound) are other signs of spirit presence. Similarly, the
places where terrestrial spirits dwell are believed to be enchanted with musical
sounds. Adepts vividly illustrate such beliefs in statements like the following:
The (fipple) flute (s'loli) comes from the spirit custodian of the bamboo (fu seben).
Some people know how to play this because they learn from dreams and because
they hear [musical] sounds from whence the bamboo (seben) is found. If you pass
by the bamboo you will hear the sound of the flute, especially when you walk alone
at night. People may also hear the sound of the lute coming from the top of a tree.
If a person is brave enough he stays and listens.
To some people a tree is a tree, but really a tree is a house of the spirits, as in
the case of the blete tree. For instance, the spirit custodian of the zither (fu sludoy)
or S'meleng, as he is also known, may play the zither in the tree and people can
imitate (d'nalang) their compositions (utom) from him. All spirits are one (sotu);
they can be in any place at anytime. The spirit of the zither can be in the tree, or
in the bamboo grove.
Mimesis
The references to imitation, or d'nalang, in the statements and practices of
adepts are pervasive and embrace a larger meaning than simply "copy" or
"likeness." While d'nalang refers to the act of learning by reproducing the
Mora: Mind, Body, Spirit, and Soul 89
physical movements, musical patterns, and song texts observed from spirit-
guides in dreams, as well as the act of learning from other adepts through
methods of observation and imitation, more significantly, it carries the sense of
"re-presentation."
The T'boli concept of d'nalang is closer to the idea of mimesis than straight-
forward imitation in the sense that musical mimesis is not only a mode of
representation, an artistic means for representing the world, but also a way of
entering into a relationship with that world. Mimesis possesses a power simi-
lar to that of magic, where the connection between contact and copy is crucial
(see Taussig 1993). The importance of these ideas for the study of T'boli music
is that the practice of musical mimesis not only parallels that of magic, but that
it may be seen as a rudiment of the compulsion to "become and behave like
something else" (Benjamin 1986, 333).
The T'boli adept re-presents extra-musical objects through musical pattern-
ings (combinations of melodic, rhythmic, timbral, and textual elements) so
that they resemble or reproduce some dimension of the object. In this way,
culturally meaningful objects, such as birds and insects, a river in spate, word
patterns, or a dance rhythm, are evoked through performance.
The following examples provide an insight into the process of re-presen-
tation through musical mimesis. The first concerns the duetting call of the
crimson-breasted barbet and a musical connection to another category of be-
ing, the celestial, intermediary spirits. The T'boli creation myth, which I have
discussed elsewhere (see Mora 1987), recounts the fracturing and remaking of
the world out of the great rapture in mythical times. Briefly, in this myth the
ancestral T'boli woman, Boi Henwu, ascends into the heavens with a celestial
deity. While ascending, she throws to the earth a pair of mallets, which she
had used for playing her musical instrument, the k'lutang or percussion beam
(see Figure 1). In so doing, she bequeaths to her earthly progeny an ancestral
symbol, for the mallets magically transform into a pair of crimson-breasted
barbets (a male and a female). In the forests surrounding Lake Sebu, a pair of
barbets sings in a duetting, antiphonal fashion, a marked feature of the birds'
co-operative behavioural patterns. This feature is symbolic of social behav-
iour, and particularly of gender relations. The feature of co-ordination and co-
operation as manifest in the birdcall is also explained in terms of musical poet-
ics, while the basic structure of the call is copied and transformed in musical
performance.
The antiphonal pattern of the birds' calls is transposed in terms of interlock-
ing, co-operative musical patterning found in a particular instrumental genre
called setang, in which one performer plays the main part or figure (utom)

and another the support part or ground (tang). There are nine different cate-
90 Asian Music: Summer/Fall 2005

Tangen (bong uni / 'large pitch')

S _" " ....c _ -- Utomen (udi uni 'small pitch') - - ,-- . - -

3.5/4.5 Metres

Bogul / wooden mallets

3-- 35cm

Figure 1. The K'lutang, wooden percussion beam

gories of setang; one category is played on the percussion beam and is called
k'lutang seko.4 The seko category uses two performers (normally women), each
holding a pair of wooden mallets. One performer plays the utom and the other
plays the tang in a closely coordinated, interlocking manner. Musical example 1
is a transcription of a seko performance5 of the composition entitled "Utom
K'lutang Kayung" (the percussion beam of heaven, upper world).6 The left and
right hand of each performer is indicated in the transcription in order to illus-
trate the close interlocking coordination. This example shows how the mythi-
cal memory of the celestial spirit Boi Henwu is inscribed in the call of the
crimson-breasted barbet and the related imitative musical practice of setang.
More generally, it provides evidence for the intrinsic relationship that exists
between musical patterns and sound patterns emanating from nature and the
symbolic meanings ascribed to them.
The powerful relationship between copy and contact in the context of every-
day, interpersonal relationships is exemplified in a composition by Galang
S'bagung, an esteemed flute player, which imitates the utterances of a dying
woman. On one occasion when Galang was visiting relatives in the Lake Sebu
area, near the Santa Cruz Mission, he received news that a woman from his
hinterland community was dying at the mission clinic. He arrived at her death-
bed just in time to hear her utter her last words. The dying woman was la-
menting the absence of her kinfolk but found comfort in Galang's presence. He
remained with her until she died. Galang subsequently fashioned the sound of

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Mora: Mind, Body, Spirit, and Soul 91

iNTADiibUCTORY ECI ON
Utosl , ,, _ .x . ,z 1'o

~- --- AI~NS~E'C JFONcU-' E -

PPu~ler 0
14)

[,.aL AFfm fl" ha fld [- i [ IM

I P10 44 S1 &MH,
[[ t9t
raq

4ccI1if
S[1? 13

Musical example 1. Utom K'lutang Kayung

her last words into a flute melody, which came to stand for her 'last breath' and
is celebrated throughout the Lake Sebu region.
Galang's recording of the sound of the dying woman's appeal, copied and
translated into musical pattern, registered her death in a way that interfused
person, place, and time. It was a testimony both to her death and his con-
tact with her during her last moments. His composition, as a record of the
event, averted any suspicion that her relatives might have had about the cir-
cumstances of death, for it gave witness to her last breath and utterance.
Final utterances are considered tokens of the dying person. They are par-
ticularly meaningful because they represent the last trace of life just before the
soul leaves the body and journeys to the underworld (mugul). The imitation
of such words in musical composition not only ensures the memory of per-
son and event, but it also becomes part of the life of the imitator, the adept.
Galang's repertoire of flute compositions, as is the case with many renowned
adepts, is a register of people, places, and things and, as such, serves as a kind
of autobiographical map of the passage of his own life.

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92 Asian Music: Summer/Fall 2005

Galang's physical presence, his sensual contact with the dying woman - his
"breath" (nawa) imitating her "breath" (nawa)-is central to understanding
the efficacy of music for the T'boli.7 Galang's composition obtains its power
through the process of mimetic creation in the same way that a magical object
obtains power through contact and imitation. Through contact (contagion),
Galang produces the imitation (sympathy) of the last sounds of the dying
woman.
In the T'boli case, when sounds and words are represented as musical pat-
tern they not only retain their power, but it could be argued that their power
is enhanced. For mimetic forms "have a way of calling attention to themselves
... they thicken the normal transparency of the sign, forcing us to focus on the
signifier itself so as to grasp the meaning" (Brogan 1993, 1038).8
Conclusion
T'boli thought about breath and soul suggests a reality where selves are under-
stood as dovetailed into the spiritual/natural world, a world of resemblance be-
tween things human or non-human, real or imagined. The concepts of nawa,
utek, loyof, and tulus are interrelated; each is a counterpart that supports a bal-
ance between the maintenance of self and integration with the "other." This
epistemological and phenomenological universe stands at variance to the ten-
dency in post-Enlightenment, Western thought to gravitate towards individua-
tion, in which persons or selves are considered as separate from, and differ-
ent from, anything non-human (see Johnson 1985); or toward the concept of
the disaggregation of the mind, body, and soul, in which the mind is given
priority over the body (see Johnson 1990; van Peursen 1966; Wozniak 1996).
Rather, T'boli thought on this matter shares many points of similarity with
ontological frameworks in other parts of Southeast Asia that are based on the
construction of a fundamental resemblance between humans and other natu-
ral entities (see Johnson 1985; Benjamin 1979; Roseman 1988, 1991). At the same
time, the fundamental principle of complementarity evident in the relation-
ship between utek and nawa readily invites comparison with the South Asian
Tantric principle of dharmta, in which the essence of reality is regarded as the
totality of basic elements (Fremantle and Trungpa 1975). The T'boli under-
standing of nawa also shares close metaphysical proximity to the principle of
prana in Tantric philosophy. T'boli epistemological thought then can perhaps
be regarded as one segment of a greater mosaic of ontological inquiry that can
be found throughout Southeast and South Asia.
The T'boli concept of being impinges on musical practice in various ways.
Most clearly, it underpins the relationship between the adept and spirit-guide,

Mora: Mind, Body, Spirit, and Soul 93

and determines the forms of concomitant imitative practices such as, for in-
stance, in the way the adept/spirit-guide relationship influences and mirrors
the state of the adept's nawa or "breath." In the narrative, Lendungan describes
the experience of physical contact with the spirit in terms of peace of mind,
clarity (tikaw nawa), and an intensification of creative awareness. Her zither
resounds with fullness and resonates in her body when he is near. In his ab-
sence, by contrast, she is often unmoved and finds difficulty in performing.
When adepts talk about their calling, images of the body and self inevitably
refer to the benefits of closeness and contact with the "other."
Knowledge, immanent in nature and imitated from nature, is contingent
upon the activation of the breath and the sensory contact with spirit beings.
The source of inspiration lies not in the idle contemplation of the world as it
is perceived; rather, it occurs through interaction with a living and breathing
world. And that contact, the fusion and identity with the "other," is possible
because it is grounded in concepts of being and knowledge that are fundamen-
tally different from our own. These concepts are manifest in lived experience,
in a dynamic interplay or back and forth resonance between humans and the
wild, culture and nature, mind and body, the imitator and the imitated. This
dynamic connection enables music to cohere with a wider world, and it en-
ables the adept to harness an affective and spiritual power that lies both within
and beyond the musical imagination.

University of Hong Kong

Notes
'The author wishes to acknowledge the support of a Competitive Earmarked Re-
search Grant from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong.
2However, for many younger T'boli who have been educated in schools and are
familiar with Western educational ideas, the utek is regarded as the principal means of
knowing.
3For instance, the complementary categories of gentleness (lemnoy) and strength
(megel) pervade cosmology, human character, artistic style, and the classification of
musical instruments and may also be found in other Southeast Asian cultures (see Mora
1987, 1992; see also Kartomi 1981, 1990).
4 Also called k'lutang sewaten.
5 Played by two women from T'bong, Lake Sebu municipality.
6The transcription is read from left to right and down the page along the paradig-
matic axis. As well as illustrating the relevant features of performance practice, the tran-
scription illustrates the typical structural segmentation of T'boli musical composition.
The principal segments are marked by dotted brackets. The number of recurrences of
smaller melodic-rhythmic segments (in paradigmatic axes A and B) is indicated by the
numerals enclosed in parentheses. The notes with upward stems indicate the part played
by the tau mutom (person making the utom), while the downward stems indicate the
part played by the tau metang (person making the tang). Here the main part of the com-
position or utom is typically characterized by variable melodic-rhythmic patterning,
while the tang component provides a non-variable tonal-rhythmic support.
7 The importance of physical contact in the mimetic process brings attention to what
Michael Taussig refers to as the "two interwoven meanings of the mimetic - imitation
and sensuousness" (Taussig 1993, 220).
SFor an example of how "last utterances" may be interconnected with musical per-
formances at the penultimate moment before death, see Mora 1992.