Unit 5: Philippine Literature during the Precolonial Period

The Precolonial
Period
WARM-UP ACTIVITY
1.Form groups with four members each. Assign a
member to be a “storyteller,” a “listener or recounter,”
and a “recorder.”
2.The storyteller will be shown an English version of a
Filipino short story (of about one to two paragraphs
long) and he/she will read and memorize as much as he
or she can of it. Without reading from the paper, the
storyteller will retell the story to the listener or
recounter only. The listener can have the story repeated
to him or her as many times as needed.
WARM-UP ACTIVITY
3.The listener then heads to the recorder to
again retell the story. The recorder can also
listen to the story multiple times.
4.Lastly, the recorder heads to the board and
writes the story that he or she has listened to
but in Filipino.
Guide Questions

1. What was challenging about your role as

storyteller, listener, or recorder?
2. How similar is the recorded story to that of
the original? What made it so? What made it
different?
LEARN ABOUT IT.
• Most literary works during the precolonial period
were transmitted through oral tradition.
• In some cases, our ancestors made use of a writing
system to pen down some works of literature.
• Early literary written forms of pre-colonial
Filipinos were destroyed by the Spanish friars .
• Surviving texts were restored because of resistance
and geographical isolation.
 E. Arsenio Manuel
a literary scholar notable for his
studies on Philippine folk
literature, divided Philippine
precolonial literature into three,
namely the Mythological Age,
Heroic Age ,and Folktales from
all ages.
 Mythological Age
the period when our ancestors told stories
about the creation of human beings and the
world, natural phenomena, and deities and
spirits
• Variations of the creation story of Greek
mythology can be found within many ancient
texts. The most complete example
is Theogony by the Greek poet Hesiod, who lived
around the 8th century BC. His work combines
all ancient Greek myths and traditions up to his
time.
In Greek Mythology, Everything Began with Chaos
• According to Theogony, in the beginning only
chaos and void existed throughout the entire
universe. It is worth noting here that the Greek
word chaos does not have the same meaning as
it holds today - it simply meant ‘empty space or a
dark void.’
• Chaos was followed by Gaia (which means
earth) and Eros (which is love). It is not specified
if Gaia and Eros were born from Chaos or
whether they were pre-existing; however, Hesiod
mentions that Gaia came into existence in order
to become the home of the gods. This is similar
to other ancient myths, such as the Sumerian
creation myth, which describes how Earth was
initially created as a dwelling for the gods.
 Heroic Age
•Ordinary mortals and cultural heroes
became the chief subject matter in this
period .
•Epics became a popular genre.
•Epics are chanted during important events in
the community to inspire people.
•Epics are also performed to remind the
community of their ideals and values.
The Amazing Lam-Ang
• One of the most interesting epic tales that
I encountered during my elementary days
is the Biag ni Lam-Ang (The Life of Lam-
Ang) from the Ilocano people. It was
passed down orally and then finally
written by the blind Ilocano poet, Pedro
Bucaneg. This tale narrates the quest of an
extra ordinary man named Lam-Ang. The
day he was born was already a prelude to
the greatness he would achieve, for he
could speak from the moment he came
out of the womb.
 Folktales
•These are traditional stories that had
humans, animals, and even plants as
characters.
•These are fictional tales that have been
modified through successive retellings
before they were finally recorded and
written down.
Baybayin writing system - derived from Kawi, a
Javanese (Indonesian) script
• Early Filipinos wrote on palm leaves or bamboo using
knives as pens and sap from plants and trees as ink.
• The ancient Tagalog script had seventeen basic
syllables composed of three vowels and fourteen
consonants.
• Vowels: a, e/i, o/u
• Consonants: ba, ka, da/ra, ga, ha, la, ma, na, nga, pa,
sa, ta, wa, ya
• Symbols used could be modified to present different
vowel sounds.
 How can knowledge of
our earliest traditions
help you to better
understand our present
culture and attitudes?
1.Form groups of three. Research on other pre-colonial
creation myths.
2.Each group’s task is to come up with your own creation
myth, drawing inspiration from your research. The
creation myth must feature characteristics of Philippine
pre-colonial literature, and follow the standard
conventions of a story.
3.Present your myth in a makeshift storybook. You may
supplement your text with illustrations. Each group may
be called to present their work in class. Your classmates
may comment or ask questions.