o - Aceh Books website

496 MARANAO
pinos and foreign colonial powers until recently. The mountainous terrain between
the coast and Laka Lanao has made it difficult for outsiders to influence
the Maranao. A cement road between Marawi City and Iligan City and improved
roads elsewhere in the area are changing this situation.
Of the major Muslim ethnolinguistic groups in the Philippines the Maranao
were the last to be Islamized. They were also a major center of fierce resistance
against the Spanish, the Americans, the Japanese and the Republic of the Philippines,
especially after martial law was declared in September 1972.
The population of the Maranao in 1983 is estimated to be around 840,000,
making them numerically the second largest Muslim group after the Maguindanao
in the Philippines. About 90 percent of the Maranao live in the province of
Lanao del Sur, while the remaining 10 percent live in Lanao del Norte and parts
of Cotabato, Zamboanga del Sur and Bukidnon.
The Maranao are primarily agriculturalists and fishermen. The land on the
eastern side of Lake Lanao is a fertile rice-growing area. With modern techniques,
using irrigation and new seed varieties, it is estimated that the rice yield from
this area could be tripled annually. In other areas of Lanao the combination of
fertile soil, abundant rainfall and a pleasant climate makes it possible for farmers
to produce a surplus of corn, peanuts, sweet potatoes, coffee, citrus fruits and
exotic tropical fruits. Besides the staple, which is rice, the most common food
of the Maranao is fish.
Other economic activities of the Maranao include such cottage industries as
cloth and mat weaving, wood carving, and metal work in brass, silver and gold.
One of the ways that other ethnic groups of the Philippines become aware of
the Maranao is through the Maranao merchants who travel throughout the Philippines
selling straw mats, yard goods, blankets and metalwork.
The commercial, cultural and educational center of the Maranao is Marawi
(formerly called Dansalan), on the northern tip of Lake Lanao. With a population
of around 50,000 people in 1970, it is the largest city in Lanao del Sur. It is
also the provincial capital. Maranao from all around the lake travel by water or
by land to sell their products at Marawi's market, so that they can buy clothes,
household utensils, farm tools and other items not available in the villages.
The cultural value system of the Maranao revolves around such principles as
hospitality, maratabat (a sociopsychological force involving notions of pride,
honor, self-esteem, face and rank) and the centrality of kinship relationships.
Islamic values are strong.
The Maranao village is made up of several nucleated households. Several
nuclear families may live together under one roof or join together with other
families in a food-sharing relationship. A typical traditional Maranao house has
no partitions inside. Along both walls of the house are sleeping areas with an
aisle down the center. Each nuclear family occupies one sleeping area made up
of a kapok mattress, straw mats, embroidered pillows and a cloth canopy from
which is suspended a mosquito net. In the rear of the house is a common kitchen,
shared by all occupants of the house. Usually all the occupants are related directly