Lecture 1.

3: The Humanities and

the Filipino Personhood
(Pagkatao)
Date: Monday, November 15, 2021

Prospero Covar's Filipino Anthropology

Pagpapakatao

The process by which one becomes a human being

Katauhan

Biological: Born as a human being act of being human “personality.”

Pagkatao

Kultural: Becoming a human being process of becoming human “personhood.”

Filipino Personhood
Manunggul Jar

Lecture 1.3: The Humanities and the Filipino Personhood (Pagkatao) 1

 890-710 BC in Tabon Cave, Palawan.

1. Labas ng Pagkatao (Katawan/Physical)

kulay ng balat (maputi, maitim)

tindig (matangkad, andak)

ilong (matangos, pango)

dibdib (malapad, malaki)

2. Loob ng Pagkatao (Kalooban/Intellectual, Emotional and Moral)

isip (matalino)

ugali, asal (mabuti)

3. Lalim ng Pagkatao (Kaluluwa/Spiritual)

anito (banal)

Non-dualistic Relation of Terms

1. Labas ng Pagkatao

Lecture 1.3: The Humanities and the Filipino Personhood (Pagkatao) 2

 malapad ng noo

salubong ang kilay

malagkit ang tingin

maduming bibig

2. Loob ng Pagkatao

matalino

matapang o galit

umiibig

masamang magsalita

3. Lalim ng Pagkatao

malinis ang kaluluwa

matuwid ang budhi

Non-dualistic Relation in Filipino Psychology

Labas Loob

hipo dama

pigil timpi

dinig ulinig

tawa tuwa

saya ligaya

sarap ginhawa

The Humanities in Filipino Concept

Pagpapakatao

The process how a human being becomes a Filipino.

In the study of Humanities, as Pagpapakatao, the students would discover and

realize their own identity as a Filipino.

Lecture 1.3: The Humanities and the Filipino Personhood (Pagkatao) 3

 Filipe del Leon Jr. (2011)

Defining the Filipino through the Arts.

Cultural Identity

The worldview and values, beliefs systems, knowledge, skills and practices,
core principles and ideas shared by a society

It is a sine qua non for becoming active in the world… a source of social
empowerment. Rob a people of their identity and they become passive, lost,
indolent, uncreative and unproductive.

The first objective of a colonizing power is to erase the cultural memory of the
conquered people, to induce a collective amnesia about their past and supplant
it with the culture of the colonizers. In this lie the roots of Filipino derivativeness
and inferiority complex vis-a-vis the West.

Pre-Colonial Period (Before 1500’s)

Had our own cultural identity.

Colonial Period (1500-1950)

Our identity destroyed by colonizers: Westernization of Filipino Culture making

us alienated from our own.

Post-Colonial Period (1950 onwards)

Reclamation, affirmation and definition of our identify in our own terms.

Forms of Alienation caused by Westernization of Filipino Culture

Alienation from Community

Alienation from Our Sources of Cultural Energy: Thinking in Borrowed Forms and
the Economics of Dependency

Alienation from Our Race: The Doña Victorina Syndrome

Alienation from the Indigenous: Denigrating the Local

Alienation from the Land

Alienation from Being Filipino

Alienation from Sustainable Living

Lecture 1.3: The Humanities and the Filipino Personhood (Pagkatao) 4

 Recommendations for Developing a Filipino and Humanistic
Perspective
Heightening social consciousness and sense of responsibility to the nation.

Promoting people participation, local genius, and cultural diversity.

Promoting the local but thinking national or global: human communities, not the
state, are the ultimate actors in the development process.

Integrating the arts to social and cultural phenomena as lucid mirrors of social
consciousness.

The Communal Character of Philippine Traditional Cultures as

reflected in the Arts
Integration of the arts with other values and functions 

Unity of the arts

Art is integrated with everyday life and not regarded as a separate activity. 

Equality of opportunity for participation in the artistic and creative process. 

Flexibility of material, technical, and formal requirements

Use of available resources for artistic creation

Emphasis on the creative process rather than the finished product

Simultaneity of conception and realization

Becoming Filipino through the Arts

The Process of Pagpapakatao

“The arts can provide us the most vivid images of social relations
and cultural values. They are perhaps the most lucid symbols of a
people’s quality of being or consciousness. Contemplating the arts
is like reflecting on the psychic template of an artist or a cultural
community.”

Lecture 1.3: The Humanities and the Filipino Personhood (Pagkatao) 5

Lecture 1.3: The Humanities and the Filipino Personhood (Pagkatao) 6