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Philippine Myths, Legends, and Folktales

The document discusses different types of oral literature including myths, legends, and folktales. It provides examples of early documents about Philippine languages and culture from explorers like Antonio Pigafetta. The document also summarizes the history of collecting and studying Philippine folktales and oral traditions.

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hannalynkaw
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101 views8 pages

Philippine Myths, Legends, and Folktales

The document discusses different types of oral literature including myths, legends, and folktales. It provides examples of early documents about Philippine languages and culture from explorers like Antonio Pigafetta. The document also summarizes the history of collecting and studying Philippine folktales and oral traditions.

Uploaded by

hannalynkaw
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

May 6 - Monday - Online

Myth, Legend, Folktale


1. Myth
● Accepted by faith, spiritual aspect. Main characters are usually gods and goddesses. Myths are
considered sacred stories.

2. Legend
● Possibility that it is based on real events.
● Example: Datu won in a battle, so he will share how he fought the battle and everything
● There can be variations and people may change some details but ultimately, it is based on
reality.
● Secular = chismis, kwento that goes around in the barangay

3. Folktale
● Explains natural events like earthquakes, eclipses, rain, sun, etc. since there was no science back
then
● People make kwento to explain things that happen in the environment
● Not considered dogma or history
● Pure fiction

First Period of PH Literary History


● The longest period
● Oral Lore: Form of human communication where knowledge, art, ideas, and cultural materials is
received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another

Antonio Pigafetta
● Venetian scholar and explorer
● Joined Spanish expedition to the Spice Islands led by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, the
world’s first circumnavigation, and is best known for being the chronicler of the voyage
● During the expedition, he served as Magellan’s assistant until Magellan’s death in the Philippine Islands,
and kept an accurate journal, which later assisted him in translating the Cebuano language
● It is the first recorded document concerning the language

Journal of Antonio Pigafetta


● March 29-30, 1521
● The way he described PH was that PH was rich (wore large pieces of gold very casually like datu’s plate
and teeth, poste, sword handle, etc.)
● Social hierarchy is present
● They had a sense of style (as shown with the clothes they wore)
● Datus had tattoos = symbol of leadership. There was no negative connotation around having tattoos.

(he started talking abt history and boats but i wasn't listening)

Discovery of Tabon Man (Tabon Cave)


● Palawan 1962
● Prehistory that goes back as far as 50,000 years ago
● Remains of fossilized fragments of a Female
● One of the oldest Filipino settlers

2007: Callao Man or Homo luzonensis


● Found to be 134,000 +- 14,000 years old (Older than the Tabon cave man)

Prehistory show how the early Filipinos grew in control over their environment enough until, at the beginning
of the Christian era
● They knew the use of gold and textiles
● How to smelt iron, make glass
● Probably spoke a language/languages
● Incomplete, didn't see the rest

Binukot (From Visayas/Cagayan)


- Considered to be princesses of their area
- Story tellers
- They aren't allowed to walk on the dirt/ground
- They are carried everywhere
- Only comes out on special occasions, a very lonely job

Epics, Tales, Songs, Riddles, and Proverbs


● Cultural items useful in the reconstruction of a period in our literary history that has been obscured by
the intrusion of a foreign culture

Plaza
● There is a Church, Catholic school, surrounded by old houses
● The closer your house is, the more power/control you have which is why indigenous people opted to
live in the mountains/far from plaza – they resisted (helped to preserved oral lore)
● Important because it’s part of your identity & connection to that place
● Plazas were made in the Spanish period to control the movement of people
● Easily identify who the insiders/outsiders are

May 9 - Thursday - Online

Collecting Activities
● Collecting oral lore is important to preserve culture/evidence/etc
● No collection was published during the 3 centuries of Spanish colonization
○ Why didn’t Spanish collect and print / make a record of our oral lore? – to maintain power
(make it seem like PH really doesn't have a system/culture of its own)
○ Latter part of 19th century Jose Rizal took interest in a fable
● The only folktale published was The Tortoise and the Monkey by Jose Rizal in 1889
● He compared it to the Tortoise and the Crab from Japan – he was the first to make a comparison
between 2 asian fables

We owe the first significant collections of folk narratives to American teachers assigned to the Philippines
during the early part of the American occupation
● 1906-1907 – Berton Maxfield and W.H. Millington assigned to Iloilo and Mandurriao, in Panay,
published 26 Visayan legends and folktales collected from their Filipino cp-teachers and students.
● Working among the Tagalogs, Fletcher Gardner collected and published a total of 23 folktales, 12
legends 2 Tagalog versions of Cinderella, and one version of Aladdin
● 1908 – Another substantial collection ofTagalog legends and folktales was that compiled in 1908 by
Lucetta K. Ratcliff, an American teacher assigned to Laguna
● Three folktales were published in 1908 by Clara Kern Bayliss
● 1904 – Circulated in manuscript form for some time under the title “The Laguna Sketchbook” the
collection was later expanded and published in 1949 under the title “Filipino Folklore”
● As published, it contains 22 legends and 20 folktales (Ratcliff, 1949)
The next group of significant collections came from American Anthropologists working in the Philippine
● 1913 – Laura Watson Benedict’s “Bagboo Myths” contained 8 heroic legends, 11 legends about the
Buso “who haunt graveyard, forest, and rocks” and animal tales
● 1915 – The husband & wife Fay-Cooper Cole and Mabel Cook Cole helped enrich existing collections
● Fay-Cooper Cole’s Traditions of the Tinguian (Cole 1915) contained mostly myths and 15 fables
● 1916 – Mrs. Cole’s Philippine Folk-Tales contained 58 legends and folktales from 11 ethnolinguistics
groups, thus becoming the first collection that aimed at a national representation.

Most substantial and most scholarly collection of legends and folktales before the war
● Dean S. Fansler: Filipino Popular Tales (FPT) – 64 folktales and 18 legends. Collected from Christian
Filipino students of UP from 1908-1914
○ Richness and variety of tale types in the Christian Filipino folk narrative tradition
● Fansler’s manuscript
○ 4,000 folk narratives
○ Collected over a period of 28 years
○ None of it are duplicated from FPT
○ Some of it is held in the Main Library of UP

Post-war collection
● No notes but it’s in Page 159

Oral Literature
● Literary works created in the setting of a society where the resources for economic subsistence – land,
water, and forest – were communally owned.
● Christianity removed our connection to nature but if you look at indigenous people, they still connect
with nature
● We now worship saints rather than nature
● We now believe that the environment is communally owned and that we should maximize resources
given to us by the earth whereas indigenous people believe in protecting it

Classification of PH Folktales
1. Animal Tales Fables
ANIMAL TALES
● Non-mythological stories
● Human qualities are ascribed to animals. To show cleverness or stupidity of the character
● Example: Monkey and the Turtle; Monkey and the Crocodile – both are trickster tales where
monkey tricks the other animal
FABLES
● Carries moral applicable to humanity
● Example: Grasshopper and Ant; Eagle and Ant; Horse and Carabao

2. Marchen (Tales of Magic)


● Hundreds of story patterns and motifs
● Fansler’s collection did not include ethnic minorities (because they mostly have folktales)
● Examples on page 163 if you wanna read them

3. Novelistic Tales (Romantic Tales)


● “Novella”
● Different from Marchen because there is no explicit magical or supernatural element.
● Showcases how the main character used human wit and intelligence to win
● Examples on page 166

4. Religious and Didactic Tales


● PH folktales in general are didactic
● Goodness is rewarded, cruelty and selfishness are punished
● Primarily told for moral instruction

5. Humorous Tales (Trickster and numskull tales)


● Trickster Tales: Features a character that is not very admirable. They are deceitful, dishonest,
and cunning. Engaged in notorious escapades, practical jokes are always amusing. Rarely
villainous. Each region has its own “trickster” like Juan for Tagalogs.
● Numskull Tales: Stupid and fun. Source of fun in gatherings.
6. Miscellaneous Tales (Anything that cannot be classified)

Who are allowed to be storytellers


● Any member of the community was a potential poet, singer or storyteller as long as he knew the
language and had been attentive to the conventions of the forms.
● In Mindoro they pass down oral lore (example how to do indigenous medicine/healer) to the chosen
ones/people who are gifted/people they feel are worthy. Doesn't mean your mom is a healer, she will
teach you how to be a healer

EPICS
● Sacred, only select people are allowed to share

Oral vs Folklore
● Once it is written, it is not considered 100% oral lore anymore (?)

Oral Literature
● Communal Authorship: Ownership of a literary composition by the originating individual is not
emphasized in the process of oral transmission
● There were two ways by which the uniqueness of indigenous culture survived colonization
○ Resistance to colonial rule
○ Virtue of isolation from centers of colonial power
● This was how the Meranao, the Maguindanaoans, and the Taosugs of Mindanao and the Igorots,
Ifugao, Bontocs, and Kalingas of the Mountain Province were able to keep the integrity of their ethnic
heritage.

Riddles and Proverbs


● Riddles and proverbs are the simplest forms of oral literature. In them, we get a sampling of the
primordial indigenous poem, at the heart of which was the Talinghaga.
● Proverbs are quotes/sayings that show the values of people back then

Dictionary
● Pedro de Sanlúcar ad Juan de Noceda Vocabulario de la lengua tagala is one of the rare Spanish sources
that provide us with samples of early oral lore obtained direct from the peoples
● The sample sentences used are mostly riddles which helped to preserve old riddles.

Folk Epics
● The most significant pieces of oral literature that may be presumed to have originated in prehistoric
times are the folk epics.
● E. Arsenio Manuel has surveyed these “ethnoepics” and in his 1962 study he was able to describe 13
epics found among pagan Filipinos, 2 among Christian Filipinos and 4 among Muslim Filipinos
○ Ethnoepics: The title of the epic is named after the main character of the Epic

NOTE: Eugenio: teacher of folklore studies in UPD, another Filipino who studied PH epics – idt i have
notes on this guy ooops

● Ancient Filipino tales of love and adventure are about superheroes that fought monsters, won over
formidable armies, rode the wind, traveled on flying shields, and led the earliest communities in the
islands
● Songs (aka epics) on the exploits of these superheroes were sung during festivities and proper occasions
as part of our oral tradition
● Stories of ancient superheroes are not always regarded as function
● They can be described as old time history because they can be used to study the lives and beliefs of the
people who produce them
● They have been considered as lost because they were almost forgotten by Filipinos who came under the
heavy influence of Spanish colonization.
Common Features of the Folk Epics
a. Narratives of sustained length
b. Based on oral tradition
c. Revolving around supernatural events or heroic deeds
d. In the form of verse
e. Which is either chanted or sung
f. With a certain seriousness of purpose, embodying or validating the beliefs, customs, ideals, or life values
of the people

Note: Different people memorize different parts of the epic which is why it’s hard to track and preserve. If one
chanter dies, without passing it on to other chanters, then the epic won't be complete.

Aliguyon
● He is the hero of the Ifugao “Hudhud” He is invincible in battle. He could catch spears in the air
● He made duel with Pumbakhayon, a warrior of equal strength
● They fought for one and a half years until a compromise was reached. This reminds us of India’s
Mahabharata

Humadapnon
● He is the Western Visayas hero of the Sulod “Hinilawod”
● He is believed to have a divine ancestry and possessed a supernatural strength (Just like Samson and
Hercules)
● He had a golden boat (made of metal) and was held captive by an enchantress

Tuwaang
● Pagan epic discovered by Manuel in 1956 among the manuvus of central mindanao
● Manuvu (pronounced as manobo)
○ Alt names: Bagobo
○ Location: Mindanao
○ Population: ~30k
○ Language: Manuvu/Bagobo
○ Religion: Indigenous beliefs

Common questions

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The survival of Filipino oral lore during Spanish colonization can be largely attributed to the resistance against colonial rule and the isolation of indigenous groups from centers of colonial power. This allowed those groups, such as the Meranao and the Maguindanaoans, to maintain the integrity of their ethnic heritage and preserve their unique cultural expressions . Additionally, the Spanish did not actively collect and publish oral lore as a means to assert colonial dominance, which paradoxically created a space for indigenous narratives to persist .

American scholars and teachers significantly contributed to the documentation and dissemination of Philippine folklore by collecting and publishing various legends and folktales. For instance, Berton Maxfield and W.H. Millington published 26 Visayan legends and folktales. Lucetta K. Ratcliff compiled Tagalog legends and folktales in 1908, and Laura Watson Benedict's 'Bagobo Myths' expanded the representation of different ethnolinguistic groups . These efforts created a more comprehensive understanding of Philippine cultural narratives and aimed to represent the country's diverse folklore on a national scale.

Trickster tales, featuring characters who are deceitful or cunning, serve as a source of amusement in social gatherings, offering entertainment while reflecting societal norms and cultural values . These tales illustrate the Filipino value of wit and intelligence over brute strength and often subvert traditional notions of morality and authority. The portrayal of such elements in a humorous context reveals cultural traits that prioritize cleverness and adaptability, highlighting social dynamics that appreciate intellectual resourcefulness.

The concept of communal authorship in oral literature means that literary works do not emphasize individual ownership but are collectively owned by the community. This allows stories to be adapted and changed over time to reflect current cultural contexts and values, ensuring their continuous relevance and survival through generations . Because multiple members of a community may know different versions or segments of a story, this collective memory facilitates the resilience and perpetuation of oral narratives.

Language played a crucial role in Antonio Pigafetta's chronicling of early Philippine culture as he documented not only events but also the Cebuano language, making his work the first recorded document concerning the language . This contribution provided a linguistic foundation that informed later studies of Philippine languages and cultures. Pigafetta’s careful documentation highlighted the importance of language in understanding cultural and social structures, influencing subsequent linguistic analyses and translations.

Myths are considered sacred stories accepted by faith and often involve gods and goddesses, emphasizing spiritual aspects . Legends are narratives that might be based on real events, with variations over time, and often relate to historical figures or events, carrying a more secular tone . Folktales, on the other hand, are fictional narratives that were created to explain natural events and phenomena in the absence of scientific knowledge and are not considered sacred .

Cultural isolation, often due to geographic separation or intentional resistance against colonial powers, fostered the development of diverse oral narratives in the Philippines. Groups such as the Meranao, Maguindanaoans, and various indigenous communities in Mindanao and the Mountain Province maintained distinct oral traditions due to their limited interaction with Spanish colonial centers . This separation allowed them to preserve unique cultural expressions, leading to a wide array of narrative forms and themes that reflect varied regional beliefs and practices.

Christianity altered Filipino communities' connections to their environment by shifting the traditional practices of worshipping nature to the veneration of Christian saints, transforming communal and spiritual relationships with the natural world. Pre-colonial practices that emphasized harmony with nature gave way to a belief that resources were there to be maximized, whereas traditional beliefs focused on protecting these resources . Thus, Christianity created a cultural and religious shift that redefined human-environment interactions.

Filipino folk epics are characterized by long narratives that revolve around supernatural events or heroic deeds, often delivered in verse form and chanted or sung. These epics convey serious themes that embody and validate the beliefs, customs, ideals, or life values of pre-colonial Filipino society . Through stories of superheroes and their adventures, these epics reflect values such as bravery, community leadership, and harmony with nature, providing insights into the cultural ideals and historical perspectives of early Filipino communities.

The plaza in colonial Philippines, often surrounded by a church, Catholic school, and colonial residences, symbolized the imposition of Spanish colonial power and social hierarchy. Proximity to the plaza equated to greater power and control, reflecting the Spanish objective of centralizing colonial administrative and societal influence . Indigenous peoples, resisting such control, opted to live in more isolated areas, thereby preserving traditional social structures and oral lore. The establishment of plazas not only facilitated colonial governance but also delineated social boundaries between colonial insiders and outsiders.

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