Southern Leyte Folk Literature Collection

Papers

For Editing and Compliance with Experts’ Suggestions.

Study Proposal 1

Southern Leyte Cultures as Seen in Folklores

Quimilat, MT.
Borong, N.
Molina, K. L.

Abstract

Introduction

Culture is generally seen as something that creates understanding between people, and it is argued that culture may be used as a tool to facilitate dialogue, interaction and cooperation (Commission of the European Communities [CEC], 2007). Furthermore, it has been viewed as a means in which history, tradition, genealogical, and cultural heritage are preserved in many communities (Hankins, 2011). The Cultural story began to be abandoned with the progress of the digital world (Rokhmawan, 2015). This culture began to fade with the advancement of the digital world and the modernization of wireless communication devices. As emphasized in “Cultural Education” (2015), the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) recognizes culture as a wellspring of national and global well-being. For this recognition, NCCA is geared towards the preservation of Filipino cultural heritage.

Oral literature is certainly a vehicle in the expression of a nation’s way of life, customs and traditions, and aspirations and beliefs. It is a national treasure in so far as it mirrors the people’s ideals, strengths, and cultural peculiarities. As such folklore also enriches culture (Lentejas, 1980). In addition, oral literature is an oral expression of a cultural community of a community or collective society spread across various plurality ethnic groups, form, and theme. Local oral literature is a type of folklore or oral folklore that is collectively spoken by a society within the local scope of its territory. Local territory, in this case, refers to a community with certain territorial and cultural/ethnic boundaries. This type is distinguished from the oral literature of the archipelago spoken in a wider scope (Rokhmawan, 2016; Rokhmawan & Firmansyah, 2015).

Folk literature is undoubtedly one of the best sources of man’s values, customs and tradition. Filipino literature is among the most colorful and interesting cultural contributions to literature in general. Our folk literature points intimate pictures of Filipino life and character unrecorded in historical documents and archeological relics, for literature expresses man’s innermost and unperceived thoughts, feelings, sentiments, ideals and aspirations.

The problem on how to curtail cultural, racial, and linguistic differences due to the use of foreign literature prompts teachers to use literature that are set in the Philippines setting so that the students will have little or no difficulty in relating to the literature presented in English class (Appell, 2014). Moreover, it is better of the teacher as well as the society will use literatures and languages which are close to their native roots. In that case, there are few researches that has been carried out on the domain of oral literature among the people of Southern Leyteños.

The conduct of the research is motivated by being conscious of this issue and of the value of literature for the preservation of culture. This study aims to collect and record the oral literatures represented in the folktales, folk stories, legend, myth, balak, idiomatic expressions, fables, fairytales, short story and jokes that provides a portrait of the essential meaning of life experienced of Southern Leyteños.

Study Proposal 2

Southern Leyte Culture as Reflected in Southern Leyte Folk Poetry

Galdo, M. B.
Balili, E. Jr.

Abstract

Introduction

For societies in which traditions are conveyed more through speech than through writing, oral literature has long been the mode of communication for spreading ideas, knowledge and history. It is broadly includes ritual texts, curative chants, epic poems, folk tales, creation stories, songs, myths, spells, legends, proverbs, riddles, tongue-twisters, recitations and historical narratives (Turin, Wheeler and Wilkinson, 2012). Moreover, it encapsulates the traditional knowledge, beliefs, and values about the environment, the nature of the society and its cultural identity (Appell, 2014 & Villafuerte et al., 2000).

Folk poetry is a poetry that is part of society’s oral literature in which portraits essential meaning of life as experienced by the society at its particular time and place with their existential challenges (Gwyndaf, 2006).

Go-Saga (2010), stated in her collection of folk poetry in Southern Leyte that folk poetry refers to the unwritten versified creation of people transmitted from generation to generation in the oral tradition. This literary materials are either spoken or sung, and are undated and unauthored that created by the people in their own dialect and music. Traditionally, writing did not play a prominent role in the transmission of folk poetry, which therefore tends to have the fluidity and flexibility that seems characteristic of oral literature.

Southern Leyte is rich in folk poetry. This oral tradition of Southern Leytenos consists of the different kinds of poetry such as riddles, proverbs, idiomatic expressions, ditties, folk songs, balitao, kulilisi, daygon, street pageants and pasyon. These oral traditions mirror the Southern Leytenos’ cultural heritage. Thus, the language of folk poetry in Southern Leyte embodies the popular Southern Leytenos’ attitudes, beliefs, customs, traditions, and values of the society where the poetry originated, so, enriching children’s consciousness and appreciation of the own cultural identity.

With the rapid expansion and arrival of literacy, the core of this oral literature such as poetry and its art eventually disappears. As stated in the report of UNESCO (2017), like other forms of intangible cultural heritage, oral traditions are threatened by rapid urbanization, large-scale migration, industrialization and environmental change. Internet, television, radio and etc. have damaging effect on oral traditions and expressions. However, Kim (2015) believed that despite the advent of contemporary literature, oral poetry are unique and different from other types of literary fiction in many ways. As emphasized in UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003), globalization and social transformation demand renewed dialogue among communities, educators and artists that are more motivated to protect and promote oral traditions and related cultural heritage.

The study seeks (1) to collect and document the folk poetry of Southern Leyte and (2) to identify the Southern Leyte culture as reflected in the documented genres of folk poetry.