philippine-popular-culture WEEK 3 Historical Background.pdf

PHILIPPINE POPULAR CULTURE Module WEEK 3 3: HISTORY OF PHILIPPINE POPULAR...

PHILIPPINE POPULAR CULTURE Module WEEK 3 3: HISTORY OF PHILIPPINE POPULAR CULTURE (Week 5-6) LEARNING OBJECTIVE Trace the historical background of popular culture in the Philippines HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF POPULAR GROUP 1 CULTURE IN THE PHILIPPINES Popular culture in the Philippines was of recent awareness, exploration and even, definition. Popular culture is in question considering that the country is a Third World country, a developing nation, with many indigenous groups, still un-urbanized and with long history of colonization. There are two layers of cultural influence in the country: the Spanish and the American influence and the less discernible but deeply assimilated Chinese influence, and other Asian cultures. In the Philippines, colonized by Spain for 375 years (1521 – 1896), by the United Sates for 48 years (1898-1946) and within the US influence through economic dependence and the media, the question of culture is complex. It is not only overwhelmingly westernized, but also multilayered. Mass-media-generated culture also known as the popular culture is of recent phenomenon in the Philippines. Popular culture, according to National Artist for literature Bienvenido Lumbera in his book Revaluation: Essays on Philippine Literature, Theatre and Popular Culture (1984), is highly different from the Folk culture and Nationalist culture of the Filipinos. In a nutshell, Folk culture is the way of living in a place in a specific time and portrays the practices of a Bienvenido Lumbera 1|Page certain people, and how they cope to survive with nature. Nationalist culture is the culture created through colonial resistance with the collective of a people on a given place and time. These two are different from popular culture which can be traced even in the period of Hispanization of the Philippines. Folk Culture in the Philippines The Aetas, pronounced as eye-tas are among the earliest known migrants or inhabitants of the Philippines. Over the years, the majority of their population managed to keep their cultural practices and traditions. But sadly, as one of the indigenous groups thriving in the country, they also face challenges such as displacement, marginalization, and poverty. Philippine 'Smart City' Threatens Tribal Displacement. Aetas in Boracay must benefit from tourism industry. https://thediplomat.com/2020/01/philippines-smart-city- https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1039800 threatens-tribal-displacement/ Aetas are characterized by their skin color, height, and hair types. They mostly have dark to dark-brown skin, curly hair, and are usually below five-feet tall. Traditionally, Aetas are hunting and gathering indigenous people. They’re actually among the most skilled when it comes to jungle survival – they are even able to make use of plants as herbal medicines and possess tools and weapons. While they’re nomadic, they are able to build temporary houses made of sticks. The Aeta Chief – Jungle Survival Skills at Aeta's Native House Pamulaklakin Forest Trail Subic Pamulaklakin Forest Trail Subic 2|Page Indigenous Groups in the Philippines 3|Page  From Salinlahi Infographic Nationalistic Culture of the Philippines Spanish Era GROUP GROUP12 According to Lumbera, popular culture in the Philippines was created and used by the Spaniards to the native Filipinos or indios via plays and literature to get the heart of the natives and win it. The colonial origins of popular culture found in the Philippines can be traced by looking at salient developments in Philippine literature. The children of the native elite under the tutelage of missionaries became a core group of intelligentsias called ‘ladinos’ as they became instrumental “in bringing into the vernacular literary forms that were to be vehicles for the “pacification” of the natives.” Forms of popular theatre and literature such as “the pasyon, senakulo, and korido ensure the acceptance and spread of Christianity, and the komedya and awit did the same for the monarchy.” 4|Page  The pasyon is a verse narrative about the life and suffering of Jesus Christ. The verses are structures in five-line stanzas, with each line containing eight syllables. The pasyon is commonly sung during Holy Week, starting Holy Monday. This practice is seen by practitioners as vow or panata. The senakulo (from the Spanish cenaculo) is a Lenten play that depicts events from the Old and New Testaments related to the life, The earliest known Filipino pasyon sufferings, and death of Christ. The senakulo is traditionally performed on a proscenium-type stage with painted cloth or paper backdrops that are called telon. The korido (from the Spanish corrido) is a popular narrative song and poetry that form a ballad. The songs are often about oppression, history, daily life for peasants, and other socially relevant Senakulo topics. The komedya otherwise known as moro-moro or pretending to be Moors, is a traditional Filipino play in the vernacular adapted from the Spanish comedia de capa y espada. It was used by Spanish colonizers to evangelize and strengthen the faith of indios to Christianity. The awit (Tagalog for "song") is a type of Filipino poem, consisting of 12-syllable quatrains. It follows the pattern of rhyming stanzas established in the Philippine epic pasyon. The existence of the awit/korido in the various Philippine languages and up to the present time attests to their continuing popularity, especially Ibong Adarna, Siete Infantes de Lara, Don Juan Tioso, and Florante at Laura. Moreover, features of this genre interweave with the Philippine poetry and novel traditions. 5|Page  Popular culture as introduced by the Spanish was “popular” to the extent that it was a “watering-down of Spanish-European culture for the purpose of winning the general populace over to the ‘ideology’ of the colonial regime.” Popular culture at the time was created by colonial authorities, with the aid of the local intelligentsia, to promote the interests of the Church and the State. However, once the native intelligentsia saw the effects of popular culture and knew how to work its way as propaganda, they soon used the Spanish weapon against them. In the 19th century, through the Propaganda Movement, the native intelligentsia used the same forms of popular culture to “undermine the power of the abusive friars and rally the populace to put an end to colonial rule;” one example is the work of Marcelo H. del Pilar when he soon used prayers such as ‘Aba Ginoong Maria’ and ‘Ama Namin’ in a sort of parody to strike against the abusive Spanish friars. Dasalan at Tocsohan by Marcelo H. del Pilar was written in 1887-1888 during the Propaganda Movement. To expose the abuses of the friars, he parodied Spanish Creeds and prayers. It was published like the Catholic Novenas (formatted as GROUP 3 pamphlets). American Era GROUP 2 The advent of American colonialism brought the properly so-called, popular culture to the Philippines. The liberal policy regarding the printing press, soon through radio, television and film, increased the circulation of popular cultural forms. Not only through these forms but also in new media then, such as films. Hollywood films had a near-monopoly in the Philippine market especially in the absence of European movies due to World War I. Early on, the local intelligentsia has the same apprehensions over mass media as they called it commercialization, or vulgarization of art. The local intelligentsia noticed that… "Popular literature as a commodity intended for a mass market was seen to pose a threat to serious artistic work, because the writers 6|Page accommodated his art to the demands of the publishers and editors who were more interested in sales rather than aesthetics." "...popular culture is not created by the populace... rather, it is culture created either by the ruling elite or by members of the intelligentsia in the employ of that elite, for the consumption of the populace "....'packaged' entertainment or art intended for the profit of rulers, be they colonial administrators or native bureaucrats and businessmen." Popular Culture at Present GROUP 3 The present socio-economic state is predominantly agricultural, semi–feudal and neo- colonial with the presence of multinational corporations and economy dependent on foreign economies. Determining what is popular in the Philippine context is not an easy task. The concept of popular culture is not just ‘of the people” but of the mass generally understood to be urban and industrialized. In the Philippines, people belong to the different levels of urbanization with only a small percentage being urban and industrial in the Western mode. Mass media- generated culture in the Philippines promotes popular culture. The Filipino popular culture is now adapted and practiced by many Filipinos. We can all agree that it has positive and negative effects in our identity and country. We just have to look at the brighter side the history has given us. 7|Page PHILIPPINE MODERNITY AND HEGEMONY Modern technology has changed our lives in Cultural hegemony refers to domination or rule maintained ways we cannot begin to imagine. Satellite through ideological or cultural television, the fax machine, the personal computer, means. It is usually achieved through the Internet, the cellular phone and the whole social institutions, which allow amazing culture of “texting,” just to take the most those in power to strongly influence the values, norms, ideas, expectations, recent examples, have massively altered the way worldview, and behavior of the rest we experience and look at the world, and relate to of society (COLE, 2020). one another. Modernity is the term we use to refer to a mode of experiencing the world as an environment of ceaseless change. The complex process that brings this change about is called modernization. Modernist is the term we apply to those who thrive and make themselves at home in such a world, while Traditionalist refers to those who are intimidated by the new and derive comfort in nostalgic recollections of the past. Modernist Traditionalist Passive modernists are caught in the Passive traditionalists retreat into swirl of a world they cannot hope to their cocoon of memories and become control; theirs is a life of constant grumpy classicists—they measure coping under pain of isolation. everything in the venerable canons of the familiar. Active modernists in contrast, try to Active traditionalists, on the other assert control over some aspects of hand, take up the ideologies and their situation by anticipating events worldviews of the past and invest them and planning ahead; theirs is a life of with eternal meanings; they organize adaptation, non-stop experimentation constituencies against modernity and and passionate engagement. strive to return humanity back to the fold of an idealized past. Modernist impulses have flourished in our society mainly via four important channels: Filipino parents know that only formal education can rescue their children from the The School vicious cycles of poverty. It is formal education that has created the Filipino middle class. We are a nation of tireless shoppers, and our fondness for imported goods is The Market legendary. We often see it as a colonial hangover, but in many ways, our receptiveness to things foreign is what makes us so open to the modern. 8|Page  Television, in particular, has exerted a profound influence on the way we live. Because of the pervasiveness of English, Mass Media we are a natural market for American programs and American movies, which are the most effective carriers of modernity. If one examines Philippine social history, one would be hard-pressed to find any other phenomenon that has had as dramatic, as Overseas Work deep, and as comprehensive an impact on the collective fate and private lives of Filipinos as overseas employment. On the other hand, modernity has been impeded by three basic forces: THE FAMILY THE CHURCH TRADITIONAL POLITICS The Filipino modern family The Church is important to More than the family or the consists of father and every Filipino family. The Church, however, it is the mother, who, oftentimes, Church’s teaching provide traditional politicians who are both part of the working inspiration for them to have prevented our people sector while the children are serve one another, to live from fully taking up the left in the care of either a in faith and to build a challenge of modernity. nanny or the grandparents. home. Unable to justify their bid for Parents are more focused public office in terms of to provide for the education carefully thought-out visions and future of their children. and plans, traditional politicians operate by tapping existing networks of interpersonal obligations and by exploiting the short-term material needs of voters. “To be modern is to open ourselves to the possibilities brought about by the unending flux of innovation and obsolescence. It is to welcome change, and to be at home in it, rather than to sneer at the new from the vantage point of a romanticized past, but to be modern is also to grow in freedom with time, to strive to reduce our vulnerability to unsettling events and phenomena, and to discipline and form ourselves into a confident, stable, and peaceful nation.” – Marshall Berman 9|Page MODULE 3 ASSESSMENT Student Name: Ricardo Dalisay Course, Year and Section: BSEd 2 Filipino Instructor: Jarmaine Samonte Subject: Philippine Pop Culture Module: Module 3: History of Philippine Popular Culture Instruction: Read the article “Pinoy Pop Culture’s Big Influence” on https://www.pressreader.com/philippines/manila-bulletin/20180610/282119227241506 Summarize the article by creating a graphic organizer (table with bullet points) on the history of Philippine Popular Culture after the war (1950-2000). Include graphics along with your textual answers. 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Reminder: Submit your word/pdf file in the following format (edit the file name): YourName_PPCModule3_Course&Section (Surname first), e.g. DalisayRicardo_PPCModule3_BEED2 10 | P a g e