Pasyon: a Factor That Shaped the Filipinos’ Identity Essay

The review of the belles-lettres for this contain focuses on the significance of the Pasyon as one of the frequent forms of literature that fronts to overhear fascinated good deal throughout the centuries. This focuses on a number of distinct studies and published articles that supports the antecedent statement. Many writers put on proclaimed that Pasyon was utilise by the Spanish as one of the factors to slowly captivate the Philippines, in which it created a big impact in the minds of every Filipinos.One of these is Reynaldo Ileto who alluded to this significance One of the headspring ideas developed in this study is that the masses experience of Holy Week fundamentally cause the personal manner of peasant brother- hoods and uprisings during (the Spanish and untimely American colonial periods. Instead of glorifying the ancient rituals of the babaylanes (native priests) as resonating of the true native spirit, the fact has to be accepted that the majority of the lo wland Filipinos were converted to Spanish universality. The several(prenominal)(a) rituals of Holy week, in particular the reading of the story of Jesus Christ (Pasyon and Revolution, 1840-1910).Paul Spickard in his work, step on it and earth, quoted that Colonialism search to al charges result in racialized hierarchies between conquering muckle and the conquered. Colonialism brought more common items to the places that were colonized and resulted into fast decline of the natives goal, linguistic process, and traditions. Terms and Concepts Words matter. In this research, one finds several damage and concepts that be used in different chapters. Here atomic number 18 their definitions that will fleet and give us a little background about the study. Pabasa ng Pasyon.The Pasyon is normally heard during Holy Week in the Philippines, where its recitation, know as the Pabasa (Reading) can span several days over the course of the period, ext peculiaritying no posterior thanB lack Saturday. Readers will chant the verses of the Pasyon without pause from beginning to end in front of a specially-constructed shrine or altar. This non-stop reading of the Pasyon is facilitated by the chanters working in shifts. The reading of Pasyon must be finished before 3 pm of Good Friday (the time when Jesus died on the cross). Musical accompaniment to its recitation is practised by some though is by no means universal.(Pasyon, Wikipedia. org) Before evolving into the contemporary version of the reading and cantillate ritual in the Philippines during the Lenten season, the early form of the pabasa was introduced to the indigenous people of the Philippine islands by Spanish friars. The Spaniards brought Catholicism to the Philippines. Gradually, over the period of Spanish colonialism in the Philippines (15211898), the ancient Filipinos adapted the religious chanting introduced by the Spanish priests and incorporated it to their own custom of singing epics during native ce lebrations.(Pabasa (ritual), Wikipedia. org) Race One finds the word be given over used to refer to particular group of people competing each other for power or control. Race is one of the factors that shape the relationship between peoples. According to the pseudoscientists, there ar big races (perhaps four or five of them). In this view, race is about biology, genes, phe nonype, and the body. It is physical, inherited, and immutable. The races ar discrete from each other.Each race has not only specific distinguishing body features- skin color, hair texture, nose shape, and so forth- nevertheless specific suit qualities that cannot be erased they may be suppressed, but fontually they will come out. These qualities argon cultural aspects, such as language, citizen, pietism, child rearing practices, food habits clothing, and so forth. (Paul Spickard, Race and Nation, 2005) Language One finds the word, language used to refer to a complex and dynamic arrangement of conventio nal symbols that is used in various modes for favorite opinion and communication (qtd in COMA 104 notes).Language may refer either to the specifically human subject matter for acquiring and using complex administrations of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication. The scientific study of language in any of its senses is called linguistics (language, Wikipedia. org). acculturation One finds the word, cultivation used to refer to the totality of groups thought, experience, and patterns of deportment and its concepts values and assumptions about life that guide behaviour. (qtd. in COMA 104 notes) C. Statement of the ProblemLooking now at the kick in scene, many had claimed that the Filipino Language, culture, as well as history and identity were all distorted out of its accepted shape, its cowcatcher civilization. Using the pasyon as one of the tools introduced by Spaniards to slowly conquer the Philippines, we focus on this main que stion, what are the impacts of the Pasyon and its influences that shaped the Filipinos identity? Here are some additional questions that service us determine the premier(prenominal) question What are the factors that affect the perception of both races in understanding the pasyon.Do both races shit different understanding on the reading? How did the translation affect or create an impact to the peoples perception? Moreover, what were the other Christianization Strategies employed by Spaniards to successfully convert the Filipinos to papistical Catholicism given the fact that the both places were having communication problems? To answer these queries, we are going to examine the subject and the history of the pasyon oddly the Pasyon Mahal.And likewise, we will study both races (Spanish and Filipino) to determine how the pasyon influenced their culture, language, and values to what it is today. D. Objectives of the Study The general objective of the study is to bring out the changes and transformation of the Filipino ordination in legal injury of the influences brought by the Pasyon. We are overly interested in the different custom, tradition, and ideas brought by the colonizers during their invasion. For the most part, Pasyon will be examined as one of the main reasons of how our culture, race and language in the Philippines evolve.We will also analyse and appreciate the content of the pasyon as a factor that shaped the Filipinos identity and to be able to learn how the Filipino culture and language evolved and adjusted for many old age so to understand also the current situation of Filipinos identity. Pasyon was used by the Spanish colonizers as one of their Christianization Strategies therefore we will also look for the impacts employed by the said reading in Filipinos original customs and tradition. Lastly we will explain why both races digest their own perception in understanding the Pasyon.E. Theoretical and Conceptual framework Theoretical f ramework The following are the theories and concepts related to this study Medium Theory - medium affects perception, also known as channel possibility, or media formalism. McLuhan (1964) challenged conventional definitions when he claimed that the medium is the message. With this claim, he stressed how carry differ, not only in terms of their content, but also in regard to how they fire and alter thoughts and senses. He distinguished media by the cognitive processes each required.McLuhan popularized the idea that channels are a dominant force that must be understood to know how the media influence society and culture. (Medium theory, utwente. nl/cw/theorieenoverzicht/) Standpoint Theory A standpoint influences how the people adopting it socially construct the world. Social group social rank affects peoples standpoints. The inequalities of different social groups create differences in their standpoints (Standpoint Theory, Wikipedia. org). Conceptual frameworkSapir- Whorf hypothes is would help us understand the different perceptions of the different races with different language of an event with the same situation. Since it assumes that different language produce different way of behaviour, this could help solve our question Do both races have different understanding on the reading? . This would help us understand that the impacts of the pasyon could have produced more than one In media theory, it is supposed that medium affects perception. This idea would help us lead to a conclusion on how the Pasyon was presented to the audience as the factor that affects their understanding.While the standpoint theory, could help us solve the problem by qualification social status as the main factor of the problem since it indicates that people with different social levels have different perceptions since they are affected by the hierarchies they are in. F. Significance of the study As Communication humanities students, we believe that this study will help us deepen o ur understanding about language and culture, particularly in race and language where we can see the relation of how race, language and culture bit by bit changes. By this we will fully understand how these three elements are continuously shaping each other.We will also learn to see how people in early times communicate and how they relate messages in to reality. In this object lesson, we will have the idea on how people have varieties of notions and interpretations depending on the situation they are in. We are looking forward that our study will also contribute to the body of literature, specifically, to the history of Philippine literature. In terms of appreciation of our Philippine culture, this study aims to desire and value the early literatures written by our early writers here in the Philippines and how this writings awakened the minds of our early heroes.It would also make us understand that the religion of most Filipino today is not solely influenced by the colonizers bu t a religion gradually modified by our very own native Filipinos. Chapter II Research methodology A. Research project Content abbreviation or textual analysis is a methodology in the social sciences for perusing the content of communication. Earl Babbie defines it as the study of recorded human communications, such as books, websites, paintings and laws. According to Dr.Farooq Joubish, content analysis is considered a scholarly methodology in the humanities by which texts are studied as to authorship, authenticity, or meaning. Harold Lasswell formulated the core questions of content analysis Who severalises what, to whom, why, to what extent and with what effect?. Ole Holsti (1969) offers a broad definition of content analysis as any technique for making inferences by objectively and systematically identifying specified characteristics of messages. outgrowth This introduction to case study research draws upon six processesB. Method of Analysing the Data Since we are determine d to seek for the history and analyse the content of the Pasyon, a certain descriptive data, must undergo the process of case study method to fully understand its contents. We will access the existing information gathered from the aside as well as to dissect the contents into different parts (preferably stanza by stanza) for us to address its ideas and the meanings it imparted. By using the method of case study, we will see why the pasyon has two contradictory determinations in the past society.To expand, we will determine and define the research questions, which are already stated in the power part of this paper Select the cases and determine data gathering and analysis techniques Prepare to collect the data, since we already have the existing datum, which is a copy of Reynaldo Iletos pasyon and revolution book Collect data in the field, collect records that are related to the making of the Pasyon and how it was used by the early people, considering also its impacts imparted to the society treasure and analyze the data, scrutinized the contents of the said records, and relay it to explain the ideas imparted, say the stanzas of the pasyon and how the Filipino culture relate it to their way of life, next, we also need to compare these collected data and look for the similarities as well as the differences of the subjects, say the culture of the Spanish against the culture of the native Filipinos. Chapter IIIResults and discussion.In this study, we used the Pasyon Pilapil, since it is commonly used, actually the second, and the least-polished of three church-approved pasyons. This popular name for the Casaysayan of 1814 originates from a traditional belief that it was written by a native priest named Mariano Pilapil, but recent scholarship has established that Pilapil merely edited the 1814 text, the author of which remains unknown (Ileto, 12). For the Content itself In Reynaldo Iletos textual analysis of Pasyon, he claimed that the existence of Jesus Chris t was concurrent to the mass experiences where His sufferings are much closely understood by the peasant Filipinos, as if their agonies are much like His. claim for example, despite the fact that from the Spanish perspective, the more effective tool, to discourage Indios from enriching and educating themselves to the point where they might constitute a threat to colonial rule, is the pasyon, the perspective of the mass audience, the identification of the wealthy, educated Pharisees, maginoo and pinunong bayan (local Ieaders) with Christs tormentors could not drop to have radical implications in actual life. Take the following pasyon Stanzas in which the priests and gentry demand that Pilate clip Jesus to death (Ileto, 15-16)At caming nagcacapisan dito sa iyong harapan (And we gathered here before your Excellency) Guinoot, pinunorig bayan, (Are aristocrats and town chiefs) di mu pa paniualaan (So you have no reason to doubt) sa mga sumbong ng tanan. (all our accusations. ) Caming n aghahabla rito (We plaintiffs here) di sinungaling na tauo mayayama,t, maguinoo (Are truthful people gentlemen of rank and wealth) houag nang paniindimin mo (so away with your misgivings) hatulan mo nang totoo. (hand subjugate the verdict. ) (1146-7)The words were used as obviously boastful and vain that to the extent it imparted an idea of aggression against the low-cal and poor, making more the character of Christ as the opposite personality. As for the Filipinos, the pasyon carries a language that attracted them to bring to pass like the characters of Christ. It gave them a feeling of subversion, a feeling to oppose the maguinoong friars. Even if we, for the moment, limit our attention to the Pasyon Pilapil as a text, its bearing on popular movements and social unrest can already be seen. For one thing, the inclusion of episodes relating to the Creation of the World, the Fall of Man, and the Last Judgment makes the Pasyon Pilapil image of universal history, the beginning and e nd of time, rather than a simple gospel story.In its narration of Christ suffering, death, and resurrection, and of the Day of judgement it provides justly images of transition from one state or era to another. (Ileto, 14) The material contains encouragement of snub against the abusive controls of those who are in power more than the Spanishs plan of taming and encouraging acceptance of the church since the characters encrypted have symbolism that is not far from the masses (Christ) and Spanish colonizers (roman type Friars) roles in reality. In terms of observing the context structure and word translations, it can be purely seen that errors in composition are highly persistent. The Pasyon Pilapil was, in fact, soundly criticized in the late nineteenth century by Aniceto de la Merced, a native priest, in a pamphlet titled Manga Puna (critique).The account, writes De Ia Merced, will open your eyes to the errors, unnoticed hut rampant in that book called Pasong Mahal, which is real ly the work of an ignoramus. The major criticisms of the Pasyon Pilapil are its incoherence, faulty scholarship, repetitiveness, and clumsy, inaccurate use of language. (Ileto, 13) However, in terms of the translation, we open out that the original Pasyon, which we discovered that it was really a Filipino who wrote the book. Gaspar Aquino de Belen, a bilingual poet and a translator made the first Pasyon under the order of the Spanish missionaries, the Encomienda System that orders the people to convert the people into Catholic religion.In this case, we found out that neither the Pasyon was modified from the Book of the Bible and was from Spanish nor from Roman origin thus it was a customization of the story of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. However, in terms of the alteration of the meaning, though the text was converted and modified, we have observed that the sense that the reading wants to impart are still the same since both the Bible and The Pasyon contains the story and the life of Jesus Christ, though the latter is in poetic form. For Social Hierarchy It was said that the power dynamic that makes racial difference historically has been fasten to colonialism. Some, incorporated fairly fully, forcing their national language (or atleast its writing system) (Paul Spickard, Race and Nation, 2005). In, Leslie E.Bauzons work, Influence of the Spanish last, she pointed out that Spaniards transplanted their social, economic, and political institutions for about 333 years of colonial sovereign (1565-1898). Moreover, in order to administer the Philippines, the Spaniards lengthy their royal government to the Filipinos. This highly centralized governmental system was theocratic. on that point was a union of Church and State. The Roman Catholic Church was equal to and coterminous with the State. In addition, when we look into the perspective of the colonizers, the use of the pasyon apparently affirms prevailing social structure in which the virtue of meekn ess and resignation to suffering, rather than the confrontation of the oppression, seems to have been encouraged.Filipinos then, were isolated in the idea that a Christian must follow its duties because reward is forthcoming in heaven. Because of that it was obvious that the Spaniards take advantage of the situation that the natives will not rebel against them since they respect the Friars as a leader who teaches the gospel of the Lord. Meaning, having the thought of opposing the Catholic Church, suggests that you also oppose God. (Filipino Heritage. com) Therefore, it could be the influenced of the colonizers social status in which they stand as the powerful and dominant in which the natives did not seem to see the idea of revolution. Since, the area where they view the framework is less viewable than the view of the others who sees it.However, on the side of those who were classified as low class, the native Filipino, the interpretations of the pasyon are more viewed as a social a wakeners and rootage of revolution than just a pure passionate reading for the religion. Just like what the Standpoint theory tells, . The inequalities of different social groups create differences in their standpoints. It was clear that there were functions in which the pasyon may alter popular consciousness. However, because of the social levels they are in, the interpretations of the meanings of the book were altered. For the Culture (in terms of religion) To understand this factor, it is good to look back the practices and behaviour they both (Spaniards and Filipino) had before the settlement take place. There, we must observe, and study their similarities and differences.For the Spanish Spain, as it has been observed, is a nation-state born(p) out of religious struggle mainly between Catholicism and Islam, but also against Judaism (site) The culture of Spain is a European culture based on a variety of influences. These include the pre-Roman cultures, mainly the celts and t he Iberians cultures but mainly in the period of Roman influences. In the areas of language and religion, the Ancient Romans left a lasting legacy. The accompanying course of Spanish history also added elements to the countrys cultural development. Spain became an almost entirely Roman Catholic country and Catholicism became their state religion in 1851. (Culture of Spain, Wikipedia. org) For the Filipinos, their God, Bathala was the supreme god of the pre-Spanish Filipinos.They attributed to Bathala, the creator of the heavens, Earth, and man. There were lesser gods and goddesses, like a god of death, a god of agriculture, a goddess of harvest, sea gods, river gods, and the like. It was also believed that things found in nature were full of spirits more powerful than man was. Spirits of dead relatives were also revered. Sacrifices were offered to all of them. The ancient Filipinos believed in the immortality of the soul and in life after death. Disease or indisposition was attri buted to the whims of the environmental spirits and the soul-spirits of the dead relatives. The pre-Spanish Filipinos also revered idols, called anitos in Tagalog and diwata in Visayan.These seem to be the counterparts of the present saints, to whom Filipinos offer prayers and food, much like their ancestors did. (Philippine History, asiarecipe. com) Their likenesses of their religion are much likely far from each other. As we observe, Spanish religion is purely an influence from Roman civilization and Filipino religion is a culture that blooms naturally as their civilization grows. The Spanish believes in one God hence, Filipinos were animists. That is why, when the colonization took over, majority of the Filipinos jilted their own religion. Moreover, considering some factors that give difficulties to penetrate the areas, colonizer almost failed their mission.However, in 1599, negotiation began between a number of chieftains, their unembellishedmen, and the Spaniards. The natives agreed to submit to the rule of a Castilian king and in return, the natives were indoctrinated into Christianity and were protected from their enemies, mostly Japanese, Chinese, and Muslim pirates. However, the conquest and conversion efforts were neither as easy nor as negotiable as this contract. The missionaries faced many obstacles and successes along the path to Christianization. When, Miguel Lopez de Legaspi set up the colonial system beginning 1565, he implemented an encomienda system where a native could acquire land if he underwent baptism and registered as a Catholic. Massive conversion occurred at this time.Many of which have, since then, adopted the same values of Catholics. It was clear to understand that they accepted the conversion only for certificate and not as a pure religion. (Roman Catholic, Wikipedia. org) The pasyon is a Tagalog prayer book introduced by the missionaries and one of the tactics used for evangelism. Because of that, there is be a possibility that if natives refuse to follow the Spaniards, it could be an act of revolt of their new religion since they still have the faith of the former beliefs and since the conversion was only forced. However, these evidences are not strong enough to support the culture as the main factor that triggers different understanding on the reading.Moreover, as the colonization took place, and the catholic religion was introduced, the religious culture was slowly evolving and modified by several aspects, one of these is the Pasyon. But like other regions of Southeast Asia which domesticated Hindu, Buddhist, Confucian, and Islamic influences, the Philippines, despite the fact that Catholicism was more often than not imposed on it by Spanish missionaries, creatively evolved its own station of folk Christianity from which was drawn much of the language of anticolonialism in the late nineteenth century (Ileto, 11-12) Chapter IV Summary, inference and recommendation The Pabasa or Pasyon have become a part of the Filipinos religious life ever since the colonization begun.As what history tells, it was used to tame and convert the native Filipino from being pagans to Christian. But, unfortunately the function did not worked accordingly to the Spanish since it had caused the Filipino people to revolt against them. It had become a tool that helped the Filipinos awaken their minds and thought about their present standing.We will try to determine the major factor that contribute to this event by gathering data, analyze and evaluate the data collected. Our findings lead us to this conclusion, according to the numbers of accepted data and by deep analyzing of the three supposed factors, the content of the pasyon and the social hierarchies are the main root why the revolts of the mass have ascended.Though we consider the culture in terms of religious aspects as an undersized contributor, it is likely stands more on the fact that the culture is the one modified by the Pasyon since the b eliefs of the Philippine culture eventually changed in time colonization. Bibliography Ileto, Reynaldo. Pasyon and Revolution Popular Movements in the Philippines. Manila, Philippines Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1979 Spickard, Paul. 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