Sword (Kampilan)

MVW42165

Mindanao

Iron, hardwood, rattan, boar bristles

L 94cm

Schadenberg; before 1891 Alexander Schadenberg (1851-1896) was a chemist and ethnographer, and a natural history enthusiast. Born in Breslau, Germany, he studied chemistry and botany. After receiving his Ph.D., he worked as the assistant director of the Potassic Salt Works in Stassfurt. In 1876, he went to worked as a chemist for the drug company Pablo Sartorius in Manila and in 1879, illness forced him to move back to Breslau. From 1881 to 1883, Schadenberg and his friend Otto Koch visited southern Mindanao to carry out ethnographic and linguistic studies, basing themselves in the Bagobo village of Sibulan. There, they also made ethnographic and natural history collections. Upon their return to Germany Schadenberg spent several years working on his collections, publishing, lecturing and corresponding with museums and anthropological societies throughout Europe. Schadenberg later returned to the Philippines and became a partner of Pablo Sartorius. He settled with his family in Vigan in 1885 and continued his excursions among the native people of the islands. After Schadenberg's death in 1896, his collections passed to several museums in Dresden, Vienna, Berlin, and Leiden.

before 1891

The kampilan sword was primarily used by noblemen. The longest sword among the weaponry of Muslim ethnic groups of the Southern Philippines, it was favored especially by the Maranao and the Maguindanao of Mindanao. Warriors were tying the hilt to one hand to prevent slippage, using lashings called munsala (Lawrence 2009: 18-19) Shorter munsala also served decorative or talismanic purposes, however. Usually a kampilan hilt was decorated with carved  floral and geometrical patterns in the so-called okir style; its bifurcated end is said to depict a naga snake with open mouth or can also be interpreted as the bakunawa - a gigantic sea serpent, considered god of the underworld and believed to bestow its fearsome powers upon the wielder in battle (Casal 1981: 175-178). (Oliver Moiseanu 2009:65)

Not on display

The Philippines: Museum of Ethnology, Vienna : Early Collections. Vienna: Museum für Volkerkünde, 2009. Print.

Casal, Gabriel. 1981. The People and Art of the Philippines Los Angeles: Museum of Cultural History.

Lawrence, Mark 2009. Philippine Weaponry. FMA Digest Special Edition. The pdf can be accessed here:

https://www.usadojo.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/FMA-Special-Edition_Philippine-Weaponry.pdf

Translated from German by Google Translate Record accessed March 2021

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