Syncretism in rituals and performance in a culturally pluralistic society in the Philippines (original) (raw)
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2014
Music has been a medium through which humans have expressed their relationship with nature. To further understand the relationships between ethnic music and nature, this study examines bangian as part of the pamaguan rice festival or traditional work songs in a Mangyan community in SitioAlangan in Oriental Mindoro, Philippines. Through thematic interpretation of the musical content and its social context and music theoretical analysis of the bangian, the study has unpacked how bangian ritualizes the community’s reality, how nature provides materials for performance of bangian, how bangian tells about everyday life and reinforces communal bonds, and how nature shapes the performance, execution, and notation of the work songs. Implications and contributions of the study to cultural preservation and identity construction are also highlighted.
philippineislands.ph
The Kalanguya are an indigenous people group of the northern Philippines with a population of approximately 70,000. One of the authors (Arsenio) is a member of this ethnolinguistic group who manages a touring ensemble that incorporates traditional music and dance in performances for Kalanguya communities. Like recent efforts by UNESCO and other transnational cultural organizations, we advocate for strengthening local practices over preserving captured images and sound recordings. While there are important roles for archives and libraries, traditional performing arts are by definition dynamic, culture-making activities that problematize objectification and static forms of documentation. This paper explores the role of these Kalanguya ensemble members as agents of preservation of cultural knowledge that is no longer practiced in its traditional contexts. By analyzing the structure of the group's performance, we investigate how the performers negotiate: 1) their own contingent, constructed, and shifting identities that often fall "in-between" standard classifications of the major ethnolinguistic groups of the northern Philippines; 2) ideas of authenticity regarding the representation of these traditions via new performance contexts; and 3) changes in the meanings of the generations-old rituals for the current generation.
International journal of humanities & social studies, 2023
is one of the countries in Southeast Asia that has a range of cultures that are very diverse and diffused from Sabang to Merauke. East Nusa Tenggara is one Province in central Indonesia that possesses a collection of cultures, traditions, rituals and arts. Culture at a certain point can be a piece of authentic evidence, a culmination of change, and also a development that takes place in a certain time and space (Gregor Neonbasu, 2021:15). It is considered to have seven aspects, namely: • Religious systems, beliefs and religious ceremonies, • Systems and community organizations, • Knowledge systems, • Languages, • Arts, • Livelihood systems, • Technological systems (Koentjaraningrat 1985: 180) By understanding the explanation above, it can be concluded that culture is a manifestation of the unity of the community's sense of culture that is carried out to create values that are inherent in the community. Culture itself is something complex, which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, habits, and values acquired by humans as members of society (Haviland, 1999:332). Culture in East Nusa Tenggara has born and developed for centuries by the indigenous people. It is heavily influenced by the environment, ancestral beliefs, and inculturation that develops in the local community that owns the culture itself. The inherent values can then be defended and enhanced by the owner community through various approaches such as art, rituals, etc. Cultures that are considered positive will be passed on by a group of people from generation to generation, while cultures that are considered conservative, damaging and negatively charged will be rejected. The condition of positive cultural inheritance as well as active art development occurs in many regions in Indonesia and one of them is on the island of East Nusa Tenggara. One of the regions in Java that still holds the existence of Ruwat bumi is in Purbalingga Regency, Central Java, where the implementation of this Ruwat bumi tradition is usually carried out in the month of Sura or the Islamic New Year. Ruwat bumi in the Purbalingga area is unique compared to other types in other Javanese regions. The existence of puppet shows in a series of ruwat structures is one form of activity that cannot be separated. Art in the people of Nagekeo is a means to deepen relationships between communities because art is something that can be appreciated by all groups regardless of social status in society. One of the rituals in Indonesia that is derived from the Flores region of East Nusa Tenggara is the Ngagha Mere ritual.
Interculturalism and the mobility of the performing arts. Sound, movement, place—choreomusicology of humanly organised expression. New research: revitalizing and conserving, 2015
Amongst the Bajau community in Semporna, Sabah, igal (dance) or mag-igal (dancing) is associated either as sacred performance in rituals or secular performance at social occasions such as weddings and festive celebrations including the annual Regatta Lepa Festival held since 1994. The highpoint of igal performance at non-ritual celebrations is seen at the Regatta Lepa Festival, where igal is performed by various Bajau dance troupes. Igal performances at the Regatta Lepa Festival can be divided into four different sub-categories; (1) A solo dance performance, (2) Choreographed pieces, (3) A mass dance performance, and (4) An improvised-spontaneous dance performance. The Regatta Lepa Festival implicitly requires these dance troupes to rework their dance heritage to present the spectacularity as well as demonstrating cultural adaptiveness of this community. This study seeks to explain how this former sea-nomadic community negotiate dance practices and performances in relation to constant interactions with the Suluk, a non-Bajau group representing the Tausug of the Philippines. The study suggests that as a result of intercultural experience between the Bajau and Suluk, igal or mag-igal is restructured, rearranged, and reproduced in new choreographies signifying intercultural appropriation through fresh understanding of the performative signifiers, and choreographic elements to conform with multi-layered gazes and expectations of the diverse audiences during the Regatta Lepa Festival.
Anthropology of Dance Culture - Presentations of the Dance Anthropology Conference in Debrecen, 2023
This study focuses on three Catholic ritual dances on the island of Luzon in the Philippines: Sayaw ng Panalangin, a fertility dance in Obando, Bulacan, the devotion to the Holy Cross through the subli in Batangas, and the kuraldal in Sasmuan, Pampanga, which centers on the devotion to St. Lucy. Using the etic approach, it aims to provide an anthropological framework in which Catholic ritual dances can be analyzed. Relying on the narratives provided by four selected texts, a framework was derived that explains how these ritual dances underwent transculturation and transformative continuity. It was found that transformations resulting from the two notions are still sustained in the ritual dances at present time with the images of saints and panata (vow) of devotees at its core. Liminality, communitas, and the syntagmatic relationship of the elements in each dance ritual existed in the context of the three ritual dances.
Humanities Diliman, 2019
Cultural performance first appeared in the language of the academic community when Milton Singer published his book When Great Tradition Modernizes (1972), in which he proposed cultural performance as a unit of observation in an anthropological inquiry. Since then, cultural performance has become a useful tool to provide a frame for the understanding of the self, society, and culture. This essay reflects on the concept of cultural performance in a preliminary attempt to historicize and to contextualize it using Philippine culture as a starting point. The first part is a descriptive illustration of how the term evolved from being a social scientific concept to an important subject in the humanities, particularly in the fields of theatre and performance studies. Included in this section is a proposal based on reflections by anthropologists, folklorists and performance scholars for a model illustrating some identifiable markers that signify an activity as a cultural performance. The second part is a paradigmatic schematization of the specifics of how cultural performance may be understood in the context of the Philippines. Using the phenomena of panata, pagtitipon, and pagdiriwang, this paper argues that Philippine cultural performances are artistic communications in small groups performed publicly as a community gathering, even if the intentions of many performers are personal. The preliminary arguments found in this essay are based mostly on sporadic field notes in various locales in the archipelago.
Cultural Practices of the Tribal Communities in the Province of Ilocos Sur, Philippines
2017
This study aimed to determine the extent of observance of the cultural practices of the tribal communities in the Upland municipalities of Ilocos Sur, Philippines. The respondents of this study were the federated officials of the tribal communities in Ilocos Sur, Philippines. This study employed the descriptive survey research with a questionnaire as an instrument in data gathering. The researchers’ findings and conclusions are as follows: Despite the fact that people are now living in the modern age, the tribal communities still preserved some of their cultural practices. Much of the value system being practiced by the tribal communities since the early days is still presently observed. The traditional justice system is sometimes observed by them. Their observance of value system and traditional justice system brings some degree of prosperity to their families and community. In the political arena,the upland areas in the Upland areas of Ilocos Sur, Philippines are better prepared a...
Scaping the Bajau Through Rituals and Celebrations in Maritime of Malaysia and the Philippines
Borneo Research Journal
Lexically, the word scape is referred to a specific analogical view of something visible to people on the ground. In cultural studies, the scape is interpreted beyond a physical and visible context. It is a blend of both tangible and intangible cultural dimensions such as music/soundscape and dancescape. Bajau-Sama communities on the East Coast of Sabah and Bajau Laut in the Philippines live harmoniously in an environment where the living of the spiritual world is significant and vital. Balancing the people in the physical and spiritual world through rituals as efficacies are to be performed according to the bonding through inheritance of heirloom for many generations. All scheduled ritual performances not only are fulfilling the agreement between the physical and the spiritual world, but it also produces sounds and movements which add to the scapes of these communities' world. Music and dance performances in these rituals are identic to the soundscape and dancescape with many types of specific ritual music and dances, i.e., igal soundscape and igal dancescape. The male and female music sounds, dance movements, and phrases in different kind of rituals are not only fulfilling the "manifest functions" but also signify the "latent functions". Based on the observations of a few rituals among these communities in Semporna, Sabah and Sitangkai Island, Philippines; this paper analyses the scapes of Bajau as both tangible and intangible. This paper will also discuss the significance of these scapes in sustaining Bajau-Sama identity of these areas particularly to Malaysia and the Philippines.