Armor (Bicattago)
Text
This armor, made from water buffalo (carabao) horn places or places made of brass, linked together by brass chain mail, was used by high ranking male individuals of Islamic groups in Mindanao. Mail shirts and helmets, also made of brass, had a distinctive Spanish look (Casal 1981: 166), which might suggest that the Filipinos of Mindanao and Sulu had no pre-Spanish forms of armor. Some sources indicate, however, that chain link was present in the Philippines as early as the tenth century (Paterno 1995: 52). (Oliver Moiseanu 2009:67)
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Metadata
Identifier
MVW42171
Origin
Mindanao
Materials
Carabao horn, brass
Physical Dimensions
68 cm x 57 cm
Provenance
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.
Acquisition Date
before 1891
Display status
Not on display
References
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.
Paterno, Maria Elena 1995. Treasures of the Philippine National Museum. Makati. Bookmark.
Casal, Gabriel. 1981. The People and Art of the Philippines Los Angeles: Museum of Cultural History.
Paterno, Maria Elena 1995. Treasures of the Philippine National Museum. Makati. Bookmark.
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Source
Translated from German by Google Translate Record accessed March 2021
Cite this Page
“Armor (Bicattago),” Mapping Philippine Material Culture, accessed April 20, 2024, https://philippinestudies.uk/mapping/items/show/6064.
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