Jonas Lemuel C.

Datu

Juan Francisco Marco R. Valenciano

Jae Danielle Adeva

Cherokee Cochise Diolata

The Anthropology of the State of Sabaw-ness

Sorry sabaw ako. Walang tulog eh

Language, as a thing, is dynamic. It is flowing, changing, adapting. It breathes. It lives.
Language has always been present from the beginning, in different forms that is; but till now, it is
still developing, constantly changing and adapting given the different circumstances.
One of the factors that greatly affects how language can be shaped is through
internet/social media. Through this incredible technology, one can easily dissipate an idea or a
concept to thousands and millions of people around the world in a flick of the finger. With a large
group of people conforming to these new ideas, it now becomes a trend. With this trend continue
growing and manifesting, it now becomes a norm. Thus, the change.
Taking for example, the concept of being in a state called sabaw. Sabaw is originally a
Filipino word which means soup, or broth. It was only later through social media that a new
definition of sabaw flourished. The new definition itself doesnt fall far from its original
meaning. The only difference is that it can now be used as an adjective to describe a person. In
its context, comparing to a dish, being in a state of sabaw means that all whats inside the brain is
gone. Just like in a dish, when all the meat and veggies are gone, only the broth or the sabaw is
left. This correlates being sabaw as walang laman ang utak.
Being born out of social trends and conformities, there isnt much deeper analyzation of
the concept of sabaw; and thats what we are going to find out in this article. A more complex
study to the state of sabaw-ness. How does it manifest in our body system? What feeling do we
get when we are in this state? How does it affect us both physically, mentally, and
psychologically? How does it relate to our senses?
Asking out hundreds of correspondents, we collected information regarding to what they
felt like when they were sabaw. Although we have received numerous responses, we actually
found out that these responses can be grouped or classified to the varieties of sensory experience.
This senses include Visual, Auditory, Olfactory, Gustatory, Proprioceptive- kinesthetic,
Vestibular, Muscle and Tendon Tension, Gastrointestinal distention, Temperature, Skin Pressure,
and O2 and CO2 level.
Starting with the Visual sense, the correspondents reported having hazy eyesight, as well
as blurring of the vision. Some also stated that their eyes were unfocused, resulting to doubling
of objects. Dimming of the eyesight is also a common phenomenon. By definition, this sense
focuses on the light waves in the surrounding environment. This means, it affects how we see the
world literally. It seems that being sabaw greatly affects the functionality of our eyes as an organ.
It reduces the efficiency and precision of our eyes to gather and input information from our
surroundings; the light waves specifically.

As for the auditory modality, commonly known as the sense of hearing, it was observed
that Dulled hearing is common to many respondents. Contrarily, some accounted a deafening
ringing noise can be heard. The auditory sense affects on how we collect information through
soundwaves. Through further investigation, it was found out that the dulling hearing can be
related to the deafening ringing noise. It is actually due to this noise that the sabaw people had
a hard time perceiving the sound waves around them, resulting to the dampening of their sense of
hearing. This means that this state prohibits them from distinguishing which soundwaves came
from noise, and which came from actual information.