Manobo, Bagobo, and Mansaka Indigenous Cosmology: Rediscovering Culture through Dramatist Pentad Structures of Folk Heroes
Angelo Lenard Yu | Joanna Z. De Catalina
Discipline: Cultural Studies
Abstract:
This study investigates the culture of Manobo, Bagobo, and Mansaka
Indigenous Peoples in Mindanao. It utilizes the qualitative-descriptive method
to describe culture based on the practices of folk heroes in the collected
oral narratives. Furthermore, the study uses the dramatist pentad theory of
Kenneth Burke, including act, scene, agent, agency, and purpose, to produce
cultural interpretations. Hence, the study reveals the culture mirrored in the
oral narratives such as: (1) Manobo, pangayaw (hunting of enemies) and
transcendental belief in Tubaran (magical instrument); (2) Bagobo, hunting
of wild chickens and encountering Busaw (evil spirits); and, (3) Mansaka,
courtship and marriage to a mythical creature and hunting of birds. This
research facilitates critical discourses on culture through oral narratives. It
may foster a sense of place and cultural identity among academic scholars
to rediscover the epistemological and ontological knowledge of Indigenous
Peoples in Mindanao.
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