Most civilizations in the world draw much of their historical past from stories and tales that have been passed down through generations. The study of these stories have given us the opportunity to explore in-depth the kind of lives that people in the past used to live and the circumstances in which most decisions that shaped the world as we know it were made. Filipino culture is characterized by numerous stories and myths of heroes and heroines who were revered for their wisdom, supernatural powers and deity like characteristics that enabled them to act in such a phenomenal manner that enabled them to influence the cultures of the communities that they came from the Philippines.
Historians have been able to study Filipino culture and ancient ways of life through ancient pieces of literature that date as far back as 1225. From these classic pieces of ancient history, we are able to appreciate the cultures, ethnic practices and beliefs of the people who first inhabited Payan, one of the islands in Philippine. The original people of Payan and other Islands in Philippines practiced numerous traditional rituals which existed until the time when the Borneo and the Romans migrated into Payan and influenced the way the original people of Payan. This interaction affected the way the Hiligaynon and Kiniraya dialect that was the two main languages spoken by the people at Payan. Both languages were attributed to the Visayan. A further influence on the languages spoken by the people at places like Payan came from the Sanskrit, which was the main reference from which they obtained most of the words that they used in their communication.
This influence is however not exhibited by the present day Payan dwellers. It is as a result of the influx of people from other countries like the Americans and the Hispanics who were the initial immigrates to the island of Payan. The age old debate of whether it is the language that influences peoples’ cultures or if it’s the culture that influences people's dialect, plays out in most historic details obtained from ancient records and witnesses accounts. It is hard to establish which, between the language and the culture, influenced the other. This difficulty is brought about by the interactions that communities have had with each other thus making it difficult to really establish which influenced the other because most of these communities that have interacted exhibit common traits and beliefs even though a little variation exists on the facts.
Preservation of information about their heroes and heroines was an important part of the inhibitors of the Filipino Islands. Folktales told by the different subgroups living on the islands had various similarities in the heroes that influenced their way of living. It was common placed for the people living on the islands at the time to praise hard work and abhor laziness. Hardworking individuals were rewarded and celebrated by members of their communities. Hard work was also an attribute of the gods, and so it was the gods’ responsibility to punish laziness of all sorts. Most of the communities living on Filipino Island believed in spiritual beings. These spiritual being had greater powers than human beings. It was a widespread belief among the islands dwellers that these gods were the ones who created the world as we know it now. The deities were different in all the tales that were told, but the common thing about them in all the communities was, the fact that all of them did something extraordinary so as to ensure that the earth was formed. It was these gods who formed all natural phenomena like thunder and rain which are caused by the gods being angry and when a god is crying. The duality of deities is a common theme in most ancient tales in Filipino communities. Creation of the earth, natural phenomena and human beings was normally undertaken by two spiritual beings. A slight variation is observed on the sexes as not all tales consisted of male-female combinations. Others had two male gods who would be brothers or just gods. It is also clear that most communities in the Philippines believed that the origin of all the deities was unknown to man and beyond his comprehension.
Information in most Filipino communities was preserved through word of mouth. Tales were told by the older generation citizens to the younger generation. Consequently, the younger generation would pass the same information the generation that followed them. Recording information on paper came with modern civilizations like the Hispania and the Americans. Paper was a good way of preserving information. However, it suffered the disadvantage of loss after a given period and after elements of nature has acted on the paper destroying in the process. It made historians rely on word of mouth so as to get the true picture of how life was in the past. It proved to be an effective means of preserving information as some commonality was established from the accounts of all the people that were asked to give an account of past lives. Some commonality was able to be established between the accounts as most people mentioned similar characters from famous myths and tales that were told to them by the generations before them.
Ancient literature remains to be relevant to the modern contemporary world despite the time constraint that exists between the modern world and the world described in most ancient literatures. It is common placed to observe the writer's attention to issues that existed in the past, but still influence the way people live in the modern world. Some of these issues that are articulated in this ancient literature include issues to deal with the role of the women in the society. In one of the creation stories, the female deity was so obsessed by her beauty and the husband though that this preoccupation was robbing her the time to do something meaningful. After a slight disagreement, he sends her away only to send the whole of his life in loneliness after realizing the joy that his wife was bringing to his life through her beautiful voice. Other themes that are covered in ancient literature and are also common in the modern world are politics that is well detailed in a tale about the ten dates. Marriage and its sanctity borrow heavily from ancient literature. Other themes that are of importance are trade and burial rituals, which help use to see how life was honored.
Works cited
William Henry Scott. Old Folkways, New Societies. Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society, Vol. 7, No. 1/2 (March-June 1979), pp. 69-82
