Magic, luck, and permeable personhood in the Philippines

Abstract The Cebuano term palihi denotes a range of rituals to induce desired outcomes through analogical causation. It is predicated on the understanding that at inceptions - including the New Year, building, planting, and pregnancy - qualities may be transmitted from an entity or process to another that is in genesis or renewal. A type of sympathetic magic, palihi is intended to direct these forces to bring luck, such as prosperity, intelligence or vigorous growth. Drawing on ethnographic research on Siquijor Island and interviews with Filipino diaspora this article explicates key patterns and principles underlying palihi, situates these within an international scholarship on associative magic, and considers what palihi and related taboos illuminate about Visayan concepts of personhood, particularly the development, boundaries, connections and malleability of people. The article advances a case for anthropological conceptualizations of personhood whereby bodily boundaries/permeability are not necessarily fixed, but subject to sometimes dramatic temporal flux.