Recording Maladies and Remedies: Isabelo de los Reyes and Folk Medicine in Late Nineteenth Century Philippines

Abstract

Renowned as the pioneering figure of Philippine folklore studies,
Isabelo de los Reyes exhaustively documented and wrote about the
Filipino people’s customs and ways of life, including popular
knowledge about health and medicine. Considerably his magnum
opus, Isabelo’s El Folk-Lore Filipino (1889–90) houses an abundance
of folkloric notes relating to Philippine medicine, exhibiting the wide ranging varieties of folk medical knowledge from the natural to the
supernatural. Despite this, numerous scholarly engagements with
Isabelo’s intellectual endeavors have yet to carefully delve into the
many mentions of medical knowledge present within his works on
folklore. In response, this essay explores El Folk-Lore Filipino as an
overlooked archive of Philippine folk medicine, covering folk medical
knowledge existing by the late nineteenth century. This essay also
attempts to locate El Folk-Lore Filipino within the rising professional
medical community at the time, particularly the reception of Isabelo’s
work on folk medicine. Against a backdrop of colonial rule, Isabelo’s
keen attention to medicine in his research not only fulfilled his
proposed understanding of folklore, but also contributed to his
aspirations toward the development of the Filipino people’s conditions
at the time.

Keywords: folk medicine; El Folk-Lore Filipino; Isabelo de los Reyes;
folklore; history of medicine