potters; the one on the right is a
bayok in female attire () Homosexual relations practised by both sexes were common and bore no stigma in
pre-colonial Philippines. There are numerous accounts of feminized men in early Spanish records, with such individuals described as wearing female clothing, working in traditionally female roles, and being treated as women by the community. They were considered as comparable to
cisgender women aside from their incapability for childbearing. with others married to women, though this did not preclude homosexual relationships. Among the heavily-tattooed
Visayans,
asog were also exempted from compulsory male
tattooing customs (
batok). It was normally considered shameful and unattractive for adult men to have no tattoos, which were indicators of achievements and bravery. It was otherwise socially acceptable for
asog to be
mapuraw or
puraw ("unmarked [skin]", compare with Samoan ), if they choose to be so. Shamans were highly respected members of the community as ritual specialists: healing the sick, keeping
oral histories, performing sorcery, and serving as
spirit mediums for communicating with ancestral and nature spirits. They were below onlythe
nobility in the social hierarchy, and could function as a community's interim leader (similar to a
regent or
interrex) in the absence of the
datu. In
Historia de las islas e indios de Bisayas (1668), the Spanish historian and missionary
Francisco Ignacio Alcina records that the
asog became shamans by virtue of being themselves. Unlike female shamans, they neither needed to be chosen nor did they undergo initiation rites. However, not all
asog trained to become shamans. Regardless, the majority of shamans in most Philippine precolonial cultures were female. The most strongly affected by this religious shift to
Abrahamic religions were the feminized male
asog shamans. During the 17th to 18th centuries, Spanish administrators in the Philippines
burned at the stake those convicted of homosexual relations, and confiscated their possessions in compliance with a decree by the president of the
Real Audiencia, Pedro Hurtado Desquibel. Several instances of such punishments were recorded by the Spanish priest Juan Francisco de San Antonio in his
Chronicas de la Apostólica Provincia de San Gregorio (1738–1744).
Asog shamans were leaders of several revolts against Spanish rule from the 17th century to the 18th century. Notable ones include the
Tamblot uprising of
Bohol in 1621–1622 and the
Tapar rebellion in
Panay in 1663. Later rebellions in the 19th and 20th centuries were also led by male shamans. However, these later shamans (collectively known as the
dios-dios, "god pretenders") followed
syncretic Folk Catholic systems instead of pre-colonial
anito shamanism. Though they still dressed as women in rituals, they were married to women and unlikely to be homosexual. Feminized men were also persecuted harshly in the (then recently)
Islamized ethnic groups in
Mindanao. In
Historia de las Islas de Mindanao, Iolo, y sus adyacentes (1667), the Spanish priest
Francisco Combés records that their "
unnatural crime" was punished by Muslim peoples in Mindanao with death by burning or drowning, and that their houses and property were also burned as they believed that it was contagious. Despite this, the colonization of the Philippines did not fully erase traditional equivocal views of Filipinos of queer and liminal sexual and gender identities. Though there are still problem areas, Filipino culture as a whole remains relatively accepting of non-heteronormative identities like the
baklâ. ==Culture==