Our group will be discussing the content analysis for Noli Me Tangere 1 which is based on Benedict
Anderson’s why counting counts wherein Jose Rizal’s novel Noli Me Tangere is examined through a
quantitative analysis of the scope and evolution of their vocabulary.
(next slide)
Five keywords are to be considered in this discussion: Racial Strata, Ethnicity, Political Vocabulary,
Tagalog and Chinese Mestizo.
(next slide)
The first topic that I will discuss is the Spanish Colonial “Racial Strata” and Ethnicity.
Just like a typical Spanish colonial society, the Philippines had a theoretical racial pyramid, wherein each
strata was marked by a certain biological, ethical and economic distance from the others.
At the top of the pyramid were the Peninsulares, these are the Spaniards born and raised in the imperial
center which in this case is Spain.
Below them were the Criollos or Creoles, just like the Peninsulares, they were Spanish by descent but
were born and raised in the Philippines, they were placed on a lower stratum because it was believed
that the local climate and culture had indelibly degenerative effects on the person.
Next in the pyramid were the Mestizos who were locally born in the archipelago and were products of
interracial sexual relationship; it was considered important to distinguish between Chinese Mestizo and
Spanish Mestizo
Lastly at the bottom of the pyramid are the indios or the natives, they were treated as a homogenous
mass even though the Spaniards were aware of the multitude of languages and culture were present in
the archipelago.
(next slide)
This will then bring us to the topic of ethnicity. Since the indios were treated as a homogenous mass,
ethnicity was only considered as a census category that appeared when the Americans seized the
archipelago.
In this, we can see that these strata were more than abstract constructs because the regime tried hard
to turn them into concrete social reality by imposing different legal statuses and tax burdens.
Now in terms of the usage of these terms in the noli me tangere,
Peninsulares was only used 4 times, Criollos and Creolles once each, Mestizo 4 times, while the word
indio was widely used by all the strata, from the peninsulares to the peasants, then chino was also very
common while moros were used 3 times but is no way related to the Muslims of the southern
Philippines, but the “Moors” in the Moro-moro play.
Meanwhile in terms of ethnicity, Tagalogs were referred to 5 times as a language and 6 times as an
adjective, then the word Visaya was mentioned 4 times as a noun and once as an adjective
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Then the Ilocanos who made up a large part of Manila’s class of domestic servants were shockingly
absent.
Through this, we can conclude that Noli generally ignores the huge ethnolinguistic diversity in the
Philippines,
This will lead us to question why that upper strata was so rarely mentioned but the ‘alien’ Chinese were
made so prominent?
This is explained by the rapid decay of traditional colonial racial categories and even Rizal’s intellectual
environment, cultural outlook and political stance
(next slide)
Next to be discussed is the Political Vocabulary and Concepts of the novel.
By the time when Noli me Tangere was published, there was still no generally used term that covers all
the people in the archipelago of the Philippines.
(next slide)
This is reflected in the way that the words Filipinas, Filipino and Filipina were used in the novel.
The place Filipinas itself is clear as to what it represents and it was used 58 times, while the noun
Filipino was used much rarer for a total of 21 times, wherein 18 instances were from the narrator, then 1
each for the Capitan General, Ibarra and an unnamed journalist.
As for Filipino as an adjective, there were 12 occurrences, 7 from the narrator, 4 from the Diario, 1 from
the Teniente, and even Ibarra used it once but this word was never used by Elias and Tasio. Elias
describes himself as an indio, not a Filipino.
This can be explained by the fact that out of the 354 pages in the novel, the use of the word Filipino to
mean something not related to the criollos occurs only 14 times. So we can assume that the use of the
word Filipino today has a different meaning compared to how it was used during Noli’s publication.
Now for the idea of the Philippines as a nation, the terms NACION, PATRIA AND PUEBLO comes up.
These words were used rarely by very few people and never about the Philippines.
And as stated earlier, there was still no generally used term to describe the Philippines.
The only characters in the novel who used a nationalist vocabulary were Ibarra, Elias, Tasio and mostly
the Narrator.
This could only mean that the ‘Filipino Nationalist Conciousness’ that we have today had not yet
surfaced. And a concrete example of this is Elias, the most noble character, calls himself an Indio, NOT A
FILIPINO.
(next slide)
To fully understand Noli’s political vocabulary, an important element to be considered is the semantic
cluster of terms that were used in the novel in descending order of frequency.
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First, Words connected to concepts of personal or national freedom/autonomy.
Second, Words connected to monarchy and empire
Third, Words connected to political parties and party-political orientations
Next, Variations on the root Filibuster.
Then Words connected to progress and reform
Another is Society
Seventh, Words connected to citizenship
And Lastly, words connected to revolution.
What we can see from this is that there is a highly restricted range of political vocabulary and these
words were only spoken by few; mainly Ibarra, Elias, Tasio and the Narrator. This means that Noli may be
somehow related to politics but its not the main focus of the novel, rather it is considered as a moralist
novel that tackles the unfortunate condition of the Philippines.
TOPIC 6 : NOLI ME TANGERE ( B. Anderson’s Why Counting Counts)
1. How did Jose Rizal represent the racial strata and ethnicity of the 19 th century Philippines? Did it
really reflect the real conditions in his time? Why or why not?
Jose Rizal represented the racial strata of the 19 th century by emphasizing the presence
of the Indio as a homogenous mass, and by making known the presence of the higher
strata peninsulares and, criollos and mestizo, but not as often as the indio while
ethnicity on the other hand was generally ignored. The racial strata that was present in
the novel reflected the real conditions in his time because it emphasized that no matter
how hard the empire tried to set the racial category into a social reality, it was
deteriorating. While the ethnicity of the 19 th century was not really reflected in the novel
because out of all the different ethno-racial groups present during this time, only a few
were mentioned in the novel. Although, both of the racial strata and ethnicity presented
could’ve been influenced by Rizal’s intellectual environment, cultural outlook and even
political stance so somehow it could be considered to be a little biased.
2. How did Rizal use the terms “ Filipino and nacion” in this novel? To whom do these terms
represent?
The term Filipino in the novel was mostly used to denote the criollos and other times it
was used to describe objects in the novel, and even Elias never called himself as a
Filipino, he referred to himself as an indio. Then nacion was rarely used, one was as an
analogy between cockfights and nation while Ibarra and Elias used it to speak about
European countries and never about the Philippines. By this, we can say that the
Filipinos of this time have not yet developed a nationalist consciousness.
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3. What are not represented/ absent in Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere ? Why?
4. Why Jose Rizal used Tagalog terms in the Noli? Among the characters who uses the most
number of Tagalog? Why Elias among the characters in the novel never speaks Tagalog?
Out of all the characters in the novel, the Peninsular Padre Damaso used the most
number of tagalog words. And Elias never speaks tagalog in the novel because he is a
serious, noble and long-suffering hero that is protected from any whiff of humor and
sarcasm, and since mixed speech is a sign of coloniality, just like Damaso’s creolized
Tagalog phrases. To prove the point that Elias is a man out of coloniality, he had to speak
purely
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