Lutes, Gongs, Women and Men: (En)Gendering Instrumental Music in the Philippines

Abstract

Gender relations in island Southeast Asia are largely based on studies of Bali, Java and the eastern Indonesian islands and are often characterised in terms of binary opposites or complementarities. However, the issue of gender is multifaceted and goes beyond a two column representation of gender, one defined by and limited to biological divisions. Among the T'boli of the southern Philippines, complex dynamics interpenetrate masculine and feminine principles across almost all areas of cognitive, social, cultural and aesthetic domains, including music. However, gender complementarity and difference between women and men carry a degree of ambiguity and mutual inclusiveness as illustrated in the constitution and performance of the two genres associated with courting and marriage, the seguyun and the sebelang.