PRE-COLONIAL ERA Flashcards
(27 cards)
Ethnic literature may be classified into three groups.
folk speech, folk songs, and
folk narratives.
It reveals subtle resemblances between two unlike objects; it whets one’s wits and sensitizes one’s perceptions of things often taken for granted.
Riddle/bugtong
These instill values and teach lessons.
proverbs and aphorisms
These are short, pithy sayings, which encapsulate and preserve a community’s beliefs, norms, and codes of behavior.
Proverbs
The idea, strength in unity, is expressed through the figure of the ____, a commodity in the Tagalog area.
abaca
It is rather extended form of wise saying; a monorhyming heptasyllabic quatrain, which expresses insights and lessons on living.
Tanaga
these are extended didactic sayings; these verse forms often employ a central metaphor to convey their thesis.
Basahanan
These are sung to put children to sleep
Lullabyes
These songs are sometimes senseless, always playful and light, they reflect the child’s carefree world; they may be sung and danced to
Children’s songs
These songs are most prominent in many folk lyrics. Some verse forms are sad lyrics about unrequited love, while others celebrates the lovers’ power to demolish—or at least their will to demolish—whatever barrier divides them.
Romantic love songs
Songs that Many celebrate the beloved’s beauty while expressing the lover’s disconsolation without her.
Courtship songs
A poem with seven syllables per line, the ending syllables following a rhyme scheme, frequently deals with love, though not always romantic love, as some are about parental love and friendship; is also used as a form of social entertainment and as a tool for teaching the young.
Ambahan
Songs which foster cohesiveness within the community. They depict the different forms of livelihood in the country—farming, fishing, embroidery, salt making, pottery, hunting,
rowing, woodcutting.
Work songs
Songs sung during carousals. Often brief, always merry, almost hedonistic, many of them originated in the Bicol area, where they are called tigsik.
Drinking songs
Songs of lamentations, in which the deeds of the dead are recounted.
Death songs/Dirges
Songs used in prayers of thanksgiving, requesting good harvest and blessing.
Religious songs
______, generally called _______ among the Tagalog, are of different kinds: myths, legends, fables, and trickster tales.
Folk tales/Kuwentong bayan
These are often regarded as sacred; they explain the origin and the goal of the cosmos. They usually involve divinities and spirits who interact with humans.
Myths
These are believed to be about more recent events and, like myths, they explain the origin of things. They are also used to teach lessons in life.
Legends/Alamat
These are short tales, usually involving animals, which teach a moral lesson. Usually, a comparison between two animals is made to highlight the moral.
Fables/Pabula
These recount the adventures of a clever hero who outwits authority figures, usually coming from the upper classes.
Trickster tale
These revolve around supernatural events or heroic deeds, and they embody or validate the beliefs, customs, and ideals of a community; are less humorous, loftier, and much lengthier than the folk tales. These are either sung or chanted during communal affairs such as harvest, weddings, or funerals, by bards chosen for their wisdom or age.
Epics
This is a popular Philippine (Ilocano) epic where the hero dreams that his father is being killed by the Igorot, the traditional enemies of the Ilocano, and awakes to slaughter a group of Igorot. He returns to his hometown, where the
women bathe him. The dirt from his hair pollutes the river and kills all the fish. His prowess is demonstrated anew when he slays a fearful crocodile. He then courts and marries Ines Kannoyan, besting his rivals with his magical powers. When hehunts the rarang, a giant clam, a fish swallows him. His pet rooster, however, restores him after his bones are recovered.
Biag ni Lam-ang
This epic involves romantic entanglements. The hero Labaw Donggon gets himself a wife time and again until he meets his nemesis, Saragnayan, lord of the arc of the sun, who refuses to surrender his wife, Malitung Yawa Sinagmaling Diwata. Saragnayan fights Labaw Donggon and succeeds in wearing him out, for, unknown to Labaw Donggon, Saragnayan’s life force is kept inside a pig’s body; thus, Saragnayan is invincible. Saragnayan imprisons Labaw Donggon in a pig pen until he is rescued by his sons, who, having been informed by their ancestors about Saragnayan’s life force, defeat Saragnayan and his allies. When Labaw Donggon is freed, he still insists on obtaining Malitung Yawa Sinagmaling Diwata; and, although his other wives object at first, he gets her in the end. He asserts his manhood by shouting thunderously. His voice reverberates around the world.
Labaw Donggon
