Isugid sa luy-a: "Professional" competence in Tibiaoanon's healing rituals and practices —from 1978 to 2021

Abstract

Following the interactions between the local healer’s ethnomedical knowledge and professional’s modern medical practices, this study forwards the idea of professional competence, as a reciprocation of Cross et. al’s Cultural Competence theory, which shifts the focus of examination from medical experts to Tibiao traditional local healers who had subscribed and adopted the methods and principles of medical professionals. A documentation of the predominant healing rituals in Tibiao, Antique, namely, pangluy-a, pagbutbot, and pagtong-li as well as Tibiaoanon’s concept of health and illnesses was done to anchor the analysis of professional competence. Using the idea of Espanola on cultural competence, particularly, on cultural self-assessment and integration of knowledge in the health practices, this study analyzed the narratives of the respondents and proved that professional competence manifested in how manugbulongs or local healers assessed and acknowledged their views about their selves and about medical professionals and their practices throughout the period of 1978- 2021. Another manifestation of professional competence is the integration of medical knowledge through having referral systems to the doctor and the use of modern synthetic medicine to complement the healing rituals. Key informant interviews and participant observation were done with 15 respondents (manugbulongs and their patients) coming from Barangay Malabor, Barangay Martinez, and Barangay San Francisco Sur in Tibiao, Antique. Expanding on the cultural competence theory, professional competence, therefore, showed that manugbulongs did not necessarily resist and reject the influences of modernity but rather acknowledged and appropriated it to their own ethnomedical system.