{"id":1546,"date":"2016-02-23T12:00:59","date_gmt":"2016-02-23T16:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/tudsc\/?p=1546"},"modified":"2023-01-17T15:03:22","modified_gmt":"2023-01-17T19:03:22","slug":"southern-philippines-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/tudsc\/2016\/02\/23\/southern-philippines-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Cultural Perspective of the Southern Philippines"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Joyce Rasing<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Looking back at last semester\u2019s work, I realized that I plunged right into the data without an in depth research about the Abu Sayyaf Group, especially since this semester I want to perform a small network analysis project by the end of the semester. In addition to working on a side project for Peter Logan, I was able to split the time to focus a bit more on the ethnography of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG).<\/p>\n

According to the Global Terrorism Database (GTD), various news sources, as well as academic sources, the ASG is responsible for specific terrorist attacks that happen in Malaysia and the Philippines. I already know that the ASG is centralized in the Southern Philippines, which is known to have a high population of Muslim adherents in comparison to a predominantly Catholic and Christian country. Malaysia\u2019s religion is predominately Islam.<\/p>\n

Here is how the cultural filter works in my mind:<\/p>\n

Southern Philippines & Malaysia ==>\u00a0Mindanao (Philippines) & Sabah (Malaysia) ==>\u00a0Moro People, Islam ==>\u00a0Bajau, Tausug\/Suluk<\/strong>, Yakan<\/strong>[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

Tausug\/Suluk is significant because, going back to the listing of the two individuals associated with the ASG on the FBI Terrorist Watchlist, both Hapilon and Sahiron speak Tausug. Hapilon speaks Yakan in addition to Tausug. Both Tausug and Yakan are tribal groups and<\/em> languages in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). This can influence who ASG members\u00a0associate with and talk to, and who they don\u2019t associate with and talk to, especially based on the history of the tribal groups. It can affect recruitment strategy, and the slang used for certain activity[2]<\/a>. Overall, knowing this positively affects my understanding of how the ASG functions[3]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These are the very beginning stages of trying to connect the ASG with the worldwide Islamic fundamentalist terrorist network. The ASG pledged allegiance to ISIS, and ISIS has returned recognition. Perhaps neither the ASG nor the Philippines will be significant in the average person\u2019s understanding of ISIS and world affairs, but it does not discount the significance in which the ASG is a branch of the tree, and the same process can be applied for any group.<\/p>\n

Since most of my progress has been through reading and taking notes, I have no digital production progress at this time. However, I am working on revising last semester\u2019s Python script using the folium package and CartoDB basemaps for a live and interactive map with zoom capability, instead of static maps on QGIS or ArcGIS in addition to developing a database of ASG members and reading about their current activity.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>
This is image is a screenshot of what was written from a Python script using the folium package, using a CartoDB basemap. It focuses on a one mile radius of Jolo’s town hall of Jolo’s island, and those are attacks that occurred within the mile radius. Let’s put this into perspective when we imagine a 1-mile radius of Philadelphia’s City Hall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sources:<\/p>\n

Soderberg, Craig, Seymour A. Ashley, and Kenneth S. Olson. “Tausug (Suluk).”<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Journal of the International Phonetic Association<\/em> 42, no. 3 (December<\/p>\n

2012): 361-64.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> These groups are not the only ones of\u00a0which ARMM is comprised. There are many, many more ethnic groups missing from the Mindanao region. These are only groups that are predominately associated with the Philippines and Malaysia.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Of course, I will not know for sure and nor is one semester enough to entirely grasp the ASG\u2019s recruitment strategy. However, I am interested in displaying the connectivity of the members that I find that do exist, and have had significant influence within the group that have affected current members\u2019 participation and activity.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a>\u00a0I do not believe that the identification of an Abu Sayyaf Group member relies solely on his or her ethnicity,\u00a0nor do I believe that\u00a0language association adequately serves as sufficient grounds for identifying an ASG member. Those two premises\u00a0should not serve as necessary conditions for identification of an ASG member. However, recruits must have the ability to communicate with higher ranking members in order to carry out attacks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Joyce Rasing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7796,"featured_media":1547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[182],"class_list":["post-1546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grad-students","tag-network-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/tudsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/tudsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/tudsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/tudsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7796"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/tudsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/tudsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/tudsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/tudsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/tudsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/tudsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}