PA104 TFE

FILIPINO WORLD: Ethnography of Local Knowledge F. Landa Jocano

Introduction
In Jocanos introduction he said that the study of the Filipino Worldview
has not received full attention yet. He stressed the need to go beyond the
concept of worldview as arts and humanities to one that focuses on how Filipinos
perceive their surrounding world, what this world means to them and how they
respond or adapt to it. How these concepts and meanings of the universe affect
Filipino way of life. He defined worldview way a people characteristically look
upon the universe. The way Filipinos look and the way they respond to our
surrounding world pave the way to highlight the local knowledge of the universe.
This knowledge includes the concept of nature, society and the self. Together,
these concepts, make up and define the way of life we call culture.
He discussed and introduced the notion of the Filipino worldview in
relation to our culture. He explained that the world view is the essence of our way
of life. He gave various definition of culture and from those definitions he derived
that central to the concept of culture is the idea of a shared knowledge. This
knowledge consisting of abstract concepts are made manifest as objective reality
by associating it with concrete material objects. He concluded therefore, a
worldview to be understood properly, it must be seen, evaluated, and appreciated
in its cultural context. He also relates worldview in the context of language as a
bearer of culture and means and medium of meaning and expression. There is
an identification of material things before one can put meaning into. He also
pointed out that seeing is cultural. He also explained that we communicate our
image of the world through religion, especially in religious rituals and ceremonies.
He explained that in celebrating or performing a simple religious rite, any object
is transformed from utilitarian and secular to religious and sacred in societys
belief system. Customary practices however, are actually rites of interaction.
They constitute another set of observable behavior that makes explicit the
peoples view. The studys data is mostly derived from their field research in rural

sectors of Filipino society as focus of this study because many of the traditional
belief are still intact. The data gathered are from lengthened residence and
participant observation in different communities as well as interviews. They
retained many native terms to keep the original meaning and context of local
context. The use of the English language is to reach a wider audience.
Jocanos study of the Filipino worldview is very dynamic and in his
introduction he gave the interrelation of our worldview in different abstract
concepts. Concepts that are very close to us such us language, religious
practices and customary practices. He also gave sufficient explanation and
examples of these abstract concepts. I agree to the use of native language to
preserve the meaning and context of the local concepts. However, I think by
using the English language, it may change the interpretation of the local concept
being explained.