Back from the Crocodile's Belly: Philippine Babaylan Studies and the Struggle for Indigenous Memory

Strobel, Leny Mendoza

Mendoza, S. Lily

Education & Teaching

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

How does one embody the spirit of the Babaylan? How do we heal from colonial and sexual trauma by invoking the healing spirit of the Babaylan? Can the Babaylan narrative be a powerful critique and salve for the psychic split of modernity? This collection of scholarly essays and personal narratives by decolonizing scholars, poets/writers, artists, culture-bearers, and activities, offer the wisdom and insights gleaned from their engagement with the Babaylan tradition and practice. The writers all share this belief: If we can articulate the Babaylan healing practice and Kapwa psychology as our intellectual, emotional, cultural, and spiritual capital -- then we have much to offer to each other, to our communities and to the world. We offer these gifts to everyone ready to receive the call of the Indigenous.

Babaylan: Filipinos and the Call of the Indigenous

(Interior pages with greyscale images) Back from the Crocodile’s Belly is a celebration of the beauty, richness, and diversity of indigenous ways of being as revealed in the critical studies and creative performances of living native traditions in the Philippines and in the United States diaspora. Through the use of primary and secondary research, the re-reading of historical and cultural archives, and the articulation of silenced stories, the book seeks to open up space for an alternative discourse on indigenous knowledge that does not merely reproduce progressivist and social evolutionary paradigms that invariably position the Indigenous Subject as “primitive,” “barbaric,” and nothing more than a “quaint relic of the past.” In revealing the beauty and vibrancy of native Filipino cultures, the book lays claim to the relevance and power of indigenous epistemologies in healing colonial and civilizational trauma brought on by the violent conscription of native peoples into the project of Modernity. In the face of growing economic, spiritual, and ecological crises portending global collapse, the book affirms that the abjected “Primitive,” who now stands as Modernity’s only remaining Other, has much to teach us not only about survival but about living generously and fiercely “with all our relations.”

In this second edition of Coming Full Circle: The Process of Decolonization Among Post-1965 Filipino Americans, Professor EJR David writes a new FOREWORD and the author has a NEW INTRODUCTION.Coming Full Circle is about the healing of the Filipino colonized psyche through the recovery and re-imagination of Filipino identity and culture. It is about the emergence from the 'culture of silence' to critical consciousness that is able to develop new conceptualizations and frameworks about the Filipino American experience.Decolonization is a psychological process that enables the colonized to understand and overcome the depths of alienation and marginalization caused by the psychic and epistemic violence of colonization. Decolonization transforms the consciousness of the colonized through the reclamation of the Filipino cultural self and makes space for the recovery and healing of traumatic memory, and healing leading to different forms of activism. It is an open-ended process. It is a new way of seeing. As a way of healing, it is also a promise and a hope.

Coming Full Circle: The Process of Decolonization Among Post-1965 Filipino Americans

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Glimpses: A Poetic Memoir (Through the MDR Generator) began as a daily meditation practice of reading a poetic line from Eileen Tabios' Murder, Death, Resurrection, and then allowing the heart's response to flow without censorship. The meditations offer us a glimpse of Leny's life-long reflections on love, history, decolonization, healing trauma, finding belonging and purpose, and building community."Taking another poet's lines as her starting points, Leny creates mediations and meditations within which she tells her story and invites her readers to come in and dwell a while to contemplate what she has created: a retreat, a cocoon, a place in which to see oneself and to be seen, from which to spin forward and inspire other poetic awakenings."--Myriam J. A. Chancy, Guggenheim Fellow, author of The Loneliness of Angels, and HBA Chair in the Humanities, Scripps College

Glimpses: A Memoir: Through the MDR Poetry Generator

Biographies & Memoirs

Memoirs

Paloma Press

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Books by Strobel, Leny Mendoza

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Strobel, Leny Mendoza. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Back from the Crocodile's Belly: Philippine Babaylan Studies and the Struggle for Indigenous Memory

Babaylan: Filipinos and the Call of the Indigenous

Back from the Crocodile's Belly: Philippine Babaylan Studies and the Struggle for Indigenous Memory

Coming Full Circle: The Process of Decolonization Among Post-1965 Filipino Americans

Glimpses: A Memoir: Through the MDR Poetry Generator