An Inheritance that Cannot Be Stolen: Schooling, Kinship, and Personhood in Post-1945 Central Philippines

Abstract

This article seeks a deeper understanding of inheritance by examining how kinship and personhood propel, and are altered by, schooling. It foregrounds kinship's and personhood's transformative and historical dimensions with an eye to their complexity and unevenness. The post-1945 generation in the central Philippines considers schooling (edukasyon) as their inheritance from their parents, who had few or no educational credentials themselves. This view reflects edukasyon’s increased value after the war, how people both judge and emulate the old landed elite, and the ongoing salience and elaboration of hierarchical parent-child ties. Alongside this view, children are recognized as completing, redeeming, and compensating for their parents. Attainment of edukasyon is seen to require not only personal striving but also solidarity and sacrifices among siblings. Yet, edukasyon also fosters autonomy and at times severs kinship ties. Finally, as an inheritance, edukasyon both depends upon and generates inequality, with long-term intergenerational implications.

Imagining and living new worlds: The dynamics of kinship in contexts of mobility and migration

“…Recent research on kinship and migration in the central Philippines carried out by Resto Cruz (2019) shows how, in an extended sibling group, older siblings often take responsibility for financing the education of younger ones. When one sibling has acquired skills and qualifications and the documents that attest to these, she may migrate to the US or Britain to take up a nursing career, and send home regular remittances that enable a younger sibling to plot a similar trajectory.…”

Siblingship beyond siblings? Cousins and the shadows of social mobility in the central Philippines

“…Those born from before and immediately after the Second World War grew up with their cousins and other relatives often living in the same or adjacent compounds. Those with minimal age differences (especially if of the same gender) tended to be playmates and friends; they attended the same schools and shared in the walks that characterized everyday life (Cruz 2019). For these older villagers, the proximity amongst cousins resulted from the closeness of siblings in preceding generations: siblings grew up together and generally remained in the village even after marriage, and derived their livelihood from the same sources.…”

“…I will discuss filiation in the next section, so my discussion here is limited to siblingship. For the post‐1945 generation, it is common to have helped in the schooling of siblings (younger usually), at times sacrificing personal ambitions (Cruz 2019). In some cases, these flows of support have extended to nieces/nephews.…”

“…As I elaborate elsewhere (Cruz 2019), although the post‐1970 generation's parents grew up in a context where parenthood was shared amongst genitors and their siblings and cousins, it was also a time when filiation obtained considerable weight. Echoing other parts of the lowland Philippines, children in Santa Rosa are seen as owing their parents an unpayable debt of gratitude for the gift of life, and for schooling and other opportunities.…”

“…Notably, the upwardly mobile segment of the post‐1945 generation speak of kinship using a language of family, lineages, inheritance, and co‐substantiality that privileges immediate and lineal kin, and which echoes elite articulations of kinship. They describe their schooling as their inheritance from their parents, even if their parents had little or no formal education, and notwithstanding the role of their parents’ siblings and cousins and those of their own in achieving educational and professional ambitions (Cruz 2019).…”