Global Education & Social Sciences Journal Volume I, No. 1 (March 2021) Page 65 ______

Tracing Ethnicity: The Quest for the Undocumented Folktales, Legends and Myths of San Jose City, Nueva Ecija,

Pauline Gladys C. Valdez and Mark Anthony G. Moyano

Central State University Email: [email protected]

Abstract

The study was conducted to document the unknown folktales, legends and myths of San Jose City, analyze their artistry through Formalist Approach, trace the ethnicity of San Jose City through Cultural Anthropology, and analyze the human behavior and social practices of the characters in these undocumented folktales, legends and myths. Seven folk literature, with their variations, were found in San Jose City- Pinili’s Pinakbet Aroma, How is Parilla named?, The Mermaid between Calaocan and Sibut; Rock Couple of Bagong Sikat, How is Malasin named?, Sto. Niño 1st’s Tamarind Tree, and The Market Creek. The elements in the obtained folktales, legends and myths were considerably simple. Characters were either straightly good or evil. There was an overt lesson to be learned. Despite the incompleteness of the plot, all the existing or visible elements were connected to the theme and moral of the story. However, variations are totally different. Variations differ according to the age of the narrator or interviewee. The ethnicity was described as inheritance from the early inhabitants of the respective villages of San Jose City. Beliefs were originally from the precolonial religion of the Filipinos. The Christianity of the Filipinos was the combination of Spanish Roman Catholicism and precolonial religion.

Keywords: ethnicity, myths, folktales, legends, San Jose City

Introduction Tracing the remnants athwart the days of yore, the Philippines scrawls lashings of chronicles and exempla that mirror its humanity. This flourishing archipelago is a kaleidoscope of cultures and traditions of manifold islands where several tales are given into birth, where the first steps of many adventures began, where numerous attempts of rationalization are conceived, and where the momentous odds and ends emerged. In all its ages, the Philippines is a genuine archetype of a wide array of history and ethnicity as flaunted by the abundance of its Global Education & Social Sciences Journal Volume I, No. 1 (March 2021) Page 66 ______literature. A part of Philippine literature is a revelatory fragment fundamentally describing the picture of the country’s setting in its significant past, tracking back to ethnicity called Philippine folk literature. Places in every islands and islets recite distinctive narratives like epics, myths, legends, folktales, proverbs, riddles and the like substantiating the indigenousness of the regions where such literature rooted even prior to Spanish occupation. Various regions in the country are banks of myriad literary pieces as proven by several folklorists. Notwithstanding the universality of folk literature itself, the Philippine folk literature established its sense of diversity through the different versions of tales presented from different places. This grand diversity is affirmed by a material entitled Philippine Epics, Folklore and Poetry (2017). Areas in Luzon such as the Ilocos, Ifugao and Bicol are renowned for their grand epics. The pride of Ilocandia is an incredible warrior named Lam-ang. On the other hand, the Ifugaos uphold Hud-Hud which tells the adventures and heroism of the native Ifugao. Aliguyon is the most prominent and well-admired. Journeying south, the has Ibalon, relating to the origin of the first man and woman of Aslon and Ibalon. In Visayas, Panay Island’s Chronicles is a history of chieftains of the island from the period of the Ten Malay who came from Borneo which narrates about the forefathers of the Filipinos. Another from Panay is the Haraya, a codified rules of conduct were specified in the form of heroic tales. Next, the Hari sa Bukid of Negros is a legendary epic of Kanlaon and Hinilawod made by the early tenants of Iloilo, Aklan and Antique who were also from Panay. Humadapnon, Hinilawod's hero, was of divine family line. Moreover, the inhabitants of Mindanao had wealthy literature that existed as it were in their minds and recollections. Only in the recent times were these Philippine epics put in writing, so these can be considered by the open. Locally called Darangan, these epic lyrics were comparative to those of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. Though the Philippines is considerably wealthy in literature, colonization and globalization took over the country which made the people forget the real Filipinism; thus, most of its people failed to keep their cultural identity. Lustig (2013) in Intercultural Competence Interpersonal Communication Across Cultures defined cultural identity as a “person’s sense of belonging to a particular culture or group which involves learning about and accepting traditions, heritage, language, religion, ancestry, aesthetics, thinking patterns, and social structures of a culture”. Yet, this cultural identity has become a vague notion to most Filipinos, especially to those who live in areas that had strongly been taken over by colonizers and modernity. Similar to other provinces, Nueva Ecija is not just a vast agricultural land but also a rich soil where folk narratives are born. Nevertheless, time and modernity took over the place and let its people neglect the ethnicity etched in the place for a long Global Education & Social Sciences Journal Volume I, No. 1 (March 2021) Page 67 ______

time. Despite this unfortunate occurrence, a myth is remaining stalwart to a particular place in the province, it is the giant of Pantabangan named Minggan as narrated by Elito Circa or Amang Pintor. Some remaining cities and municipalities in the province are yet to be discovered like San Jose City. San Jose City, formerly known as Cabaritan in the pre-Hispanic era (Ercilla & Rueda, 2012), is the northernmost city in the province of Nueva Ecija. Its wide plains serve as agricultural land to its people who are mostly farmers, making the city as a part of the rice granary of the Philippines. Aside from rice, the city contributes in the major production of onion, corn, tomato, bitter gourd, mango and other fruits and vegetables. With these harvests provided by the city, it is referred as the “City of Golden Harvests” and “Rice Bowl of the Philippines.” Thus, the city undoubtedly attains economic stability through agriculture. Every year, the city celebrates a festival called Pagibang Damara as representation of harvest time. Aside from the abundance of harvests, a part of San Jose City remains to be nurtured- its folk literature. Folk literature in the place is purely oral. Thus, San Jose City is still a home of undiscovered folk literature. With that, the search for these folktales, myths and legends could demystify the imprints tracing San Jose City’s ethnicity. Three theories were applied to the problems that this study served to answer- Cleanth Brooks’s (1951) tenet on Formalist Criticism, the dogma of Franz Boas’s (1940) Cultural Anthropology, and Herbert Spencer’s (1898) ideas in Principles of Sociology served as the foreground of analyses of every variation. Brooks (1951) wrote an article in the series, “My Credo” in Kenyon Review. Included there were the faiths of Literary Formalist critics. In this study, Formalist Approach was applied to describe the craftsmanship of the variations of each folk literature. The tenet below was taken into consideration in the implementation of analysis of this research: That the primary concern of criticism is with the problem of unity- the kind of whole which literary work forms or fails to form, and the relation of the various parts to each other in building up this whole. This principle of Formalism from Brooks served as the basic tenet in studying the craftsmanship of variations of the folk literature gathered. The first concerns on the building blocks that make the work as a whole. Connections among the elements of fiction ruled the analyses of the craftsmanship. Elements and other parts were analyzed to give meaning to the totality of the story. Another theory focused to determine the ethnicity of San Jose City is Boas’ (1940) thoughts in Race, Language and Culture were applied in the analysis of the undocumented folktales, legends and myths. Several ideas of Cultural Anthropology based on the said book aided the procedure in tracing the ethnicity of San Jose City. Though there are more specific thoughts from Boas about Cultural Global Education & Social Sciences Journal Volume I, No. 1 (March 2021) Page 68 ______Anthropology, all pointed to the gist focused on culture through historical methods which also included arts. One of those concepts from Race, Language and Culture (1940) is the relationship between the physical features and thinking patterns of socially or geographically connected groups of people. Also, the methods of cultural anthropology, the customs and beliefs themselves are not the sole objects of study but the reason why such customs and beliefs exist. Another is the conclusion that racial descent determines the causes of character of the certain race as well as geography is directed to ethnicity. Included in the principles is the notion that the beliefs in folk stories would not be seen and soon be vanished. Related to this is the account that the development of ethnology is related to the development of the lives of the people. It is closely related to the principle that cultural anthropology does not only describe the beliefs of the people but focused on the reason why such beliefs exist. All these principles are from the theory of Cultural Anthropology. On the other hand, Sociological Approach in this study concerns The Principles of Sociology or the beginning of Descriptive Sociology. Herbert Spencer popularized that parts of society as “organs” that work toward the proper functioning of the “body” as a whole. The principles from the theory of Descriptive Sociology according to Principles of Sociology by Herbert Spencer (1898); each of them were presented in the form of ideas such as the behavior of a single inanimate object depends on the cooperation between its own forces and the forces to which it is exposed; society ascribed implications of knowledge of the past; the ideas of souls, ghosts, spirits, demons, and the like; moral influences of priesthood; ideas of visit; ideas of present; original external factors; militant society; social metamorphoses; idea of theory of things; intrinsic and external factors of a social phenomena; primitive relation of the sexes; the industrialization of society; and the idea of dreams. Methods This study employed qualitative method of research. Specifically, this study applied the phenomenological research in which interviews were conducted to document the unlettered folk literature of San Jose City, and readings of related literature for analyzing and tracing ethnicity from the interviewed oratures. Interview is the most suitable method in data gathering to investigate the unlettered folk literature which, according to Gill et al. (2008), aimed to discover the experiences, opinions, beliefs or aspirations of people on particular matters, in here, on the undocumented folk literature. In the selection of the respondents or the interviewees, two criteria were taken into consideration, yet the paramount criterion was their knowledge of the folk literature to be narrated. The locale of the study was chosen for the city had no sufficient wealth in folk literature. The process in this literary undertaking began in the establishment of the problems which concerned in the identification and the quest for the undocumented folktales, legends and myths in San Jose City. The research process started with a general impression about San Jose City’s folk literature to the identification of its cultural identity through the interrelationships of the dogma presented in the different analyses. Global Education & Social Sciences Journal Volume I, No. 1 (March 2021) Page 69 ______Also, the undocumented folktales, legends and myths scribbled in this study attained a set of qualifications such as variations, and the like. The phases of the study contain the details on these sets criteria. It should be noted that this part study is all about the documentation of undocumented folktales, legends and myths. Checking its validity could be another form of research. After the identification of the undocumented folktales, legends and myths, transcription and translation of the interview were made. The translation was reviewed and verified by a translation expert. Then, the qualified undocumented folktales, legends and myths were identified. Then, these undocumented folktales, legends and myths analyses through different lenses of literary criticism were applied. Craftsmanship was based according to the unity of the visible elements in each variation to the theme it imposed (Brooks, 1951). In tracing the ethnicity of the San Jose City, Franz Boas’s (1940) ideas on Cultural Anthropology from Race, Language and Culture served as the bases of the analyses that appertained to the ethnicity of San Jose City. Lastly, in the identification of human behavior and social practices, Herbert Spencer’s (1898) Descriptive Sociology from The Principles of Sociology sufficed the analyses. With the combination of identification of the undocumented folktales, legends and myths and their analyses, a descriptive analytical method was used. Results and Discussions To find answers to such objectives, a qualitative research was done to determine and analyze the folktales, legends and myths in San Jose City. Cleanth Brooks’s Formalism, Franz Boas’ Cultural Anthropology and Herbert Spencer’s Principles in Sociology were used as the foregrounds of the formalist criticism and sociological criticism, respectively. Respondents were chosen based on their knowledge on the folk stories they narrated. Interviews were made to gather data. Functional translation was given to each variation and interview. Out of several roosting folk literature in San Jose City, seven are found. Each of them contains two to three variations which are found in San Jose City particularly in the following villages: Pinili, Bagong Sikat, Malasin, Pinagcuartilan and Kumunoy Sto. Niño 1st, Villa Joson, Sibut and Calaocan. Each of the folklores are narrated in two to three variations: (1) Pinili’s Pinakbet Aroma with two variations; (2) How is Parilla named? with two variations; (3) The Mermaid between Calaocan and Sibut with two variations; (4) Rock couple of Bagong Sikat with three variations); (5) How is Malasin named? with two variations; (6) Sto. Niño 1st’s Tamarind Tree with three variations; and, (7) The Market Creek with two variations. The craftsmanship of the variations of the undocumented folktales, legends and myths of San Jose City was determined thorough the principle of Formalist Criticism by Cleanth Brooks (1950) that a story should be analyzed based on the connection of all the elements to its theme. In this case, the craftsmanship of the variations was not analyzed according to the narration, but its analysis was only based on the visible elements in the folk literature. There were plotless stories found in the variations and Global Education & Social Sciences Journal Volume I, No. 1 (March 2021) Page 70 ______not all the elements were visible. However, the theme in most variations has connection to the visible elements. The ethnicity of San Jose City was traced using principles of Cultural Anthropology using Franz Boas’ (1940) which involved historical traces of the origin of the people in a certain place. San Jose City’s ethnicity came from different provinces of Luzon. These traces were done the identification of the first inhabitants of the village and the race where they come from. With this the historical background of the barangays presented more ethnicity from the Ilocano culture than other cultures in Luzon. Thus, the traces form the variations of the found undocumented folktales, legends and myths of San Jose City mostly reflected from the Ilocano culture. In analyzing human behavior and social practices, three volumes from Herbert Spencer’s (1898) The Principles of Sociology served as the guiding principles through the presented ideas in the chapters that provide suitable description to every folk story. Basically, humans, based on the narration, were described as primal and typical beings. As reflected to some of the folklore, they behaved according to their needs disregarding outcomes and values. Hence, in those stories, characters were focused on satiating their needs. Moreover, as presented in other stories, people tend to seek explanation of the death in their villages yet science was out of line so they tend to believe in the existence of deities and supernatural causing all of those. On the other hand, some folklore presented the purity of hearts of the people during the old times through generosity, love, and real kindness. Most especially, people made some of the stories to scare the children to keep them away from danger. Simple way of thinking was also found. Lack of knowledge of the characters or illiteracy was the issue for some characters in the folk literature. Social practices in some of the stories were reflected to welcome visitors, and to see beauty. calling places a new name, having a strong sense of Ilocano culture and the labors they do in their everyday lived like farming and fishing. Folk ways were determined in the folk societies from the variations. Moreover, it was described that most of the people in San Jose were farmers. Moreover, some of them were Ilocanos and some of them were Tagalogs. Conclusions and Recommendations Four concluding sentences cover this section of this study: (1) There were seven undocumented folktales, legends and myths of San Jose City. Each of them has two to three variations. Every side of the city from its urban and rural areas provide a good array of folk stories. Generally, most of the gathered stories pertained to the origin of certain places and stories of fear. Some teach lesson for children and for all ages, some are narrations of belief and fear. Therefore, San Jose City is a home of undiscovered folk storiesl (2) Based on the Formalist criticism used in the analysis, most folk stories found in San Jose City had no well-developed characters, settings mostly described the beauty of nature, their plots were incomplete, visual imagery was commonly used and the themes are obvious and direct from the story. However, some of the element present had no connection to the theme. Most of them were told in Filipino language, very few were told in Ilocano language (3) The ethnicity of people of Global Education & Social Sciences Journal Volume I, No. 1 (March 2021) Page 71 ______

the San Jose City was described as the culture of the Ilocanos and the culture of the Negritos but rare was the culture originated from the Tagalog and Kapampangan sides of Nueva Ecija. Therefore, the people of San Jose City, mostly originated from the Ilocano provinces of Luzon, practice the Ilocano culture of they inherited from their ancestors; and (4) The characters in the story were mainly primal but not described as the most basic type of primitive. Scientific explanations for something were out of their reach. They did not think of pros and cons of their deeds. Fear for the unknown was generally felt. Regret was always in the end. They thought according to their racial origin. They were described as appreciative in beauty. They treasure heritage. Also, they have sense of unity. Moreover, a strong belief in the existence of supernatural beings was clearly observed to them. Social practices were minimally developed in the place. Folk societies presented in the variations practiced similarities of emotions (fear), profession (farming and fishing), and behavior (hospitable and uncontented). The society tend to believe on the non-scientific answers and passed on to the next generations. The folk society of San Jose City was not well-educated, but gradually progressed to a better one. Based on the foregoing conclusions, the following are the recommendations: (1) The quest for the undocumented folktales, legends and myths of San Jose City must be continued by scholars to find more folk literature in the city; (2) Traces of ethnicity in a non-culture-based society are difficult to find. Every resident must practice imprints of ethnicity distinguished uniquely from San Jose City; (3) Separate study on the translation of the undocumented folk literature should be done; (4) Emic perspective could be used as a verification factor to foreground the research; and (5) The found undocumented folktales, legends and myths of San Jose City must be included in the subjects of high school and elementary students. References Boas, F. (1940). Race, language and culture. The Macmillan Company. Brooks, C., (1951) The formalist critics. Credos: The Kenyon Review,8(1), [On line]. Retrieved from https://www.kenyonreview.org/kr-online-issue/ Lustig, (2013). Intercultural Competence Interpersonal Communication Across Cultures. Spencer, H., (1898). The Principles of Sociology, 1. D. Appleton and Company. Spencer, H., (1898). The Principles of Sociology, 2. D. Appleton and Company. Spencer, H., (1898). The Principles of Sociology, 3. D. Appleton and Company.