Slaung - Blaan man's headgear

Text

Annotated text (Blaan Kastulen June, 2022)

SLAUNG 

The headgear is only worn by elders or the identified leader of the Blaan community. It was noted that the Blaan leaders no longer wear this type of headgear, but that it could be a good marker of cultural distinction especially as opposed to the wearing of the Otob(man's head scarf). In 1913, Fay Cooper Cole observed that "Ordinarily the men dispense with head covering, or at most twist a bit of cloth into a turban, but for special occasions they wear palm leaf hats covered with many parallel bands of rattan and crowned with notched chicken feathers." (Cole, 1913:134).

Original Text

Man's round hat (slaon or salaon.). Palm leaf base, thin wood strips, sewn with twisted plant fiber thread and covered inside and out with thin horizontal bands of bamboo. An interior wicker framework supports the hat atop the wearer's head. Bamboo head rest, a coconut shell disk on top, band of blue-black trade cloth along the rim decorated with white bone buttons, and ornament made of plumage of wild cock or chicken feathers affixed to the hat. Field Museum Catalogue Number: 129360. See this for a similar Slaung.

(Note: all instances of either B'laan, Bilaan or Bila-an in the Mapping Database have been changed to Blaan after specific requests from the Blaan of Sarangani Province June 2022. This would differ from the terminology in the original record, which is considered derogatory by the Blaan.)

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