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Hand-Outs in Philippine Literature [Literature 11]: Number THREEPrepared By: Donali Gem Goya M. Pableo

BRIEF HISTORY OF ORAL LORE FROM PRECOLONIAL

TIMES

TABON MAN

Was discovered in a cave in Palawan in1962

Allegedly speaks of a prehistory that goesback 50,000 years ago

[Early Filipinos] knew the use of gold and textiles,

and how to smelt iron and make glass, and

probably spoke a language or languages from

which all modern Filipino tongues are derived.

PHILIPPINIZATION OF SPANISH CATHOLICISM

Remark of John L. Plehan This remark is actually a recognition of the

tremendous bulk of prehistoric Filipino

culture with which a transplanted culture

came into contact.

The impact of Western culture was to growin intensity with the passing of time spent

under Spanish and American control.

Pervasiveness of the oral lore of the Filipinoswould continue, surfacing at certain

historical moments, but most of the time

remaining unobserved because submerged

in the culture of the colonial power.

WILLIAM HENRY SCOTTS OBSERVATION

[there is] a considerable discrepancy between

what is actually known about the prehispanic

Philippines and what has been written about it.

Much that has been said about precolonial Filipinosis misleading, when the amount of verified

information turned up by the studies of

archeologist, ethnologists and anthropologists has

certainly been considerable.

EARLY FILIPINOS LIVED IN SEA COASTS AND RIVER

BANKS, CLOSE TO THE MAJOR SOURCES OF FOOD

AND TRANSPORTATION ROUTES.

Much can be reliably inferred about

precolonial Philippine literature from an analysis of

collected oral lore of Filipinos whose ancestors were

able to preserve their indigenous culture by livingbeyond the reach of Spanish colonial administrators

and the culture of sixteenth-century Europe. They

have been able to preserve for us epics, tales,

songs, riddles and proverbs that are now our

windows to a past with no written records.

COMMUNALLY OWNED

Precolonial literature is literary works createdin the setting of a society where the

resources for economic subsistence (land,

water, forest) were communally owned.

They bore the mark of community.

SUBJECT MATTER: common experience of apeople constituting a village

CONVENTIONS OF VARIOUS LITERARY FORMS

1. Formulaic Repetitions2. Stereotyping of Characters3. Regular rhythmic and musical devices- These facilitated the transmission of poems,

songs, tales and sayings and insured their

survival into later times as they moved from

one individual to another, one community

to another, and one generation to another.

COMMUNAL AUTHORSHIP

Because ownership of the originating

individual is not emphasized in the process of oral

transmission, the receiving performer of the song

often feels that the work he is performing is

expressive of his own beliefs, attitudes andemotions.

NATIVE SYLLABARY

3 Vowels: a, i-e, u-o

14 Consonants: b, d, g, h, k, l, m, n, ng, p, s, t, w and

y

When the syllabary fell into disuse among

Christianized Filipinos, much valuable information

about precolonial culture that could have been

handed down to us was lost.

TWO WAYS OF INDIGENOUS CULTURES SURVIVAL1. Resistance to colonial rule- Maranaws- Maguindanaws- Taosugs of Mindanao- Igorots, Ifugaos, Bontocs and Kalingas of the

Mountain Province

2. Isolation from colonial powers

- Tagbanwas- Tagabilis- Mangyans- Bagobos- Manuvus- Bukidnon- Isneg

RIDDLE, PROVERBS, SONG

The simplest form of oral literature The audience is familiar with the situations,

activities, and objects mentioned in the

course of expressing a thought or emotion.

LANGUAGE OF ORAL LITERATURE: languageof daily life.

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Hand-Outs in Philippine Literature [Literature 11]: Number THREEPrepared By: Donali Gem Goya M. Pableo

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Any member of the society was a potentialpoet, singer or story-teller.

SOURCES OF RIDDLES AND PROVERBS

1. 1754 Tagalog-Spanish Dictionary2. Pedro de Sanlucar and Juan de Nocedas

Vocabulario de lengua tagala

AMBAHAN

Of Hanun00-Mangyans Is often chanted (without predetermined

musical pitch or musical accompaniment)

This might explain why vernacular Philippinepoetry is invariably performed in a sing-song

rhythm

SONGS

Tagalogs has as many as 16 songs Social Function of Songs (according to a

Spanish chronicler): political and religiouslife were preserved in songs. In this barbaric

songs were told the fabled genealogies and

vainglorious deeds of their gods.

PROSE NARRATIVES

Consisted largely of origin myths, hero tales,fables and legends.

Their function was to explain naturalphenomena, past events, and

contemporary beliefs in order to make the

environment less fearsome and to make idle

hours less tedious by filling them with humorand fantasy.

FOLK EPICS

The common features of folk epics, as described by

E. Arsenio Manuel in his 1962 study, are:

1) Narratives of sustained length2) Based on oral tradition3) Revolving around supernatural events or

heroic deeds

4) In the form of verse5) Either chanted or sung6) Embodying life-values of the people

PRIOR TO THE SPANISH CONQUEST

Filipinos had a culture that linked them with the

Malays of Southeast Asia, a culture with traces of

Indian, Arabic and possibly, Chinese influences.

Their epics, songs, short poems, tales, dances and

rituals gave them a native perspective which

served as a filtering device for the Western culture

that the colonizers brought over from Europe.

Reference:

Lumbera, Bienvenido and Cynthia Lumbera.

Philippine Literature: An Anthology.