Philippine Culture and Filipino Essay

Understanding the Philippine Values and Culture To a person who is non familiar or aw atomic number 18 ot the Philippine culture, discernment Filipinos is similar playing a game one has never played before and of which the rules induce not been explained very well. understanding the determine of Filipinos pose a ch onlyenge, to enjoy the game without missing the Joys and fun of the like living in the Philippines. A stranger or foreigner who has a liveledge of or icon to the Filipino societys customs, etiquette, and manners, is less likely to experience intense culture shock. The Philippine Islands and Filipino ProfileThe Phlllpplnes Is cool of 7,107 Islands with a total land atomic number 18a of 296,912 squ be kilometers (1. 6 kilometers equal 1 mile). This betrays it a slight large than the British Isles and a little piddlinger than Japan. Its land argona Is eight times larger than Taiwan, 213 the size ot either Thailand or spaln, but less than 1/30 ot the size ot th e united States or Mainland China. The country is bounded on the west by the China Sea, on the east by the peaceful Ocean, and on the south by the Celebes Sea. It lies a little above the equator and is 965 kilometers (600 miles) off the southeast coast of the Asiatic mainland.It Is about 160 kilometers (100 miles) below Taiwan, and 24 kilometers above Borneo. Just being above the equator. puts the Philippines in the typhoon belt. The two pronounced seasons in the Philippines are the rainy months from June to October and the dry months from November to May. In between these seasons come a issue of typhoons that hit the country yearly. The Philippines has a population of more than 50 million. The population of the country is sort of unequally distributed on the larger islands due to livelihood opportunities, sociable and economic organizations and historical factors.Its biggest islands In addition to the terce (3) main islands (Luzon, Vi regularizeas and Mindanao) are Mindoro, S amar, Panay, Cebu, Palawan, Leyte, Bohol and Masbate. Its largest cities are Manila, Quezon, Davao and Cebu. The Philippine population Is characterized by an almost equal number of males and females. ot Flllplnos are below 15 years of age. Literacy stands at 82. 9 percent. The Philippines has for its languages Pilipino, English and Spanish it has 87 different major dialects. English is widely spoken In fact, this country is the third largest English-speaking nation In the humankind.Philippines is the beginning democratic country in Asia. Welcome to the Philippines Welcome to this country of warm smiles and vivacious people. Getting to know the Filipinos is easy enough. If you speak English, you will find that most of the Filipinos speak the language and whats more, they are but too happy to make your acquaintance in English. steady if you dont, the Filipino is so surpass by nature that making friends out of total strangers or chance acquaintances is simply being in character. T he Filipinos are a happy blend of several races, prefatorialally Malay with Chinese,Spanish, Indian and Ameri seat admixtures. Their values and ways of life were shaped by several, sometimes conflicting cultures and the resulting blend is what makes their give birth uniquely Filipino. In their veins run the rich Christian values of Europe, the pragmatic and democratic values of America, and the spiritual values of Asia. The seven distinct elements in Filipino culture are values, rudimentary personality, basic social unit, politics, economics, technology and ecology. separately of these aspects of the Filipino culture has a body of ideas called content which gives form and message to each aspect.This form and meaning are expressed through structures or institutions which the Philippine society creates for the orderly regulation of behavior in established ways. Filipino cultural values are widely held beliefs which make some activities, relationships, goals and feelings importa nt to the Filipino peoples identity. When these Filipino values coalesce and mesh in a mutually positive system, it is called Filipino value system. The content of the Filipino values are the Filipino myths and religion man the structures are the Filipino oral and written traditions, churches, acred places, temples and mosques.The Filipinos internalize these values of their culture and thus create for themselves a world of meanings. The Filipino basic personality is determined by the Filipino culture because of the selection of those congruent types that are congruent with the culture. The content of the Filipino basic personality is made up of Filipino beliefs and knowledge art object the structure is organise by the Filipino initiation and various rituals and formal and informal education. The Filipino basic social unit is the family which contributes to and maintains the Filipino values.The content of the Filipino social unit is the family, groups and community life while t he structure is the lineage, marriage descent, neighborhood, peer group and villages. The Filipino politics are the Filipino ideas and structures r triumphal to the diffusion and channeling of index finger within the Philippine society for its well-being, order and regulation. The content of politics is the Filipino traditional power units and democracy while the structures are the law, parliament, councils, elders and chiefs. structures which it creates for provision of food, clothing and shelter for its members.The content of Philippine economics is the ware by private enterprises while its structure is capitalism and socialism. Filipino technology includes all that the Filipinos have invented to make their life easier, less arduous, and shifted from the brink of mere survival thus changing their way of life and well-favored them more control of their physical environment. Its contents are communication and health while its structure is calm of the various media, professional organizations, medicine, hospitals and laboratories.Filipino ecology is the relation of the Filipino to the ecosystem such as temperature, ype of soil, amount of moisture, types of crops that can be grown or types of animals present in the Philippines and other environmental features. The content of Filipino ecology is the identification of the Filipino with nature and its structure including hunting, fishing, nature worship and irrigation. Cultural Contrast The Filipino, compared with Westerners, prefers a unified way of life rather than one in which he can be assertive of his own individuality.Thus, a Westerner will find the Filipino less autonomous and more dependent. This is because of the social oncept of the Filipino self-esteem. His concept of self is identified with his family. Right from childishness he is made to believe that he belongs to the family. Since childhood a Filipino is encouraged to tell all of his thoughts to his parents and submit to his parents direction, counsel and advice. He is admonished to be adept because any disgrace that he commits is a disgrace to the family.In times of misfortune he is guarantee of his familys support, sympathy and love. By western standards, the Filipino parents can be con arrayred oerprotective and sometimes intrusive. However, if one understands this plain unreasonable control in the context of the Philippine culture wherein exists the belief in the primacy of the extended family over that of the individual and that the only source of emotional, economic, and moral support is the family, one will be more spacious and respectful of such actuation.The Filipino Family and Kinship The basic units of the Philippine social organization are the primary(a) family which includes the mother, father and children, and the bilateral extended family which embraces all relatives of the father and the mother. Of special importance is the sibling group, the unit formed by brothers and sisters. There are no clans or s imilar unilateral kinship groups in the Philippines. The unproblematic family and the sibling group form the primary bases of corporate action. influence of kinship, which centers on the family, is far-reaching.The persuasive influence of the family upon all segments of Philippine social organization can be illustrated in many ways. Religious responsibility, for example, is familial rather than church-centered. Each home has a family shrine. The influence of the family upon conomic and entrepreneurial business activities is also great. The so-called corporations found in urban areas are generally family holdings. The prevailing family structure emphasizes loyalty and support of the family, not of any high level of social organization.The Filipino family is the nuclear unit around which social activities are organized it is the basic unit of corporate action. The interests of the individual in Philippine society are secondary to those of the family. Ethical and prescriptive Behavi or of Filipinos Ethics bases itself on what is human. Not everything is universal in human nature. As Clyde Kluckholm and Henry A, Murray say Every man is in certain respects (a) like all other men (b) like some other men (c) like no other man. It is within the context of (b) that ethical and prescriptive behavior of people in the Philippines has its distinctive characteristics. The Filipino cultural orientation is supported by divided values which function as the basis of shared behavior common to most Filipinos. Values have reference to standards people use for evaluating what is right or wrong, good or evil. Values are elated to norms which are rules of conduct specific to given social situations. The Filipinos have two sets of paradoxical traits and patterns of relationship that are imbued by his culture.The first set is the super structured and authoritarian familial set-up where roles are prescribed especially for younger members of the family. This is characterized by autoc ratic leadership of the elder-members, submitting ones self to the decision of the family elders, and almost one-way communication in the pecking order. The second set of social relationship that the Filipino has, which ronically exists side by side with the highly structured set-up, is the strong communitarian practice called Bayanihan which literally means being a hero. This practice ignores social ranking, structures, leadership roles and authority relationships. The roles in the structured set-up mentioned earlier cease to exist. Surprisingly, the Filipino is at home with twain cultural practices in his social life. He shifts from one setting to another with unbelievable ease and grace. In the first set up, there is no way that a child can lead the elders in any form of decision-making. In the Bayanihan set-up, however, if a child proves that he has the right qualification needed for the task, he may lead the elders, not excluding his father and elder brother.There are three ma in imperatives that be Filipino value orientation relational imperatives (actual person to person encounters), emotional imperatives (emotionally perceived and that the most virile moral imperative in Filipino culture is utang na 100b or debt of gratitude/loyalty or commitment). strange in other Asian countries, women in the Philippines occupy a high status. Equality with men is a birthright of the Filipino women. Unlike her Western sisters, they didnt have to march the streets to be heard.Women are highly respected in the Philippines. They may walk alone on the streets. They can also drive alone. Filipinos are fond of giving and attending parties. Any event can be an excuse for having a small or big party the baptism of an infant, a birthday, a daughters debut, a wedding, or an engagement. Even a promotion in a Job, passing a government exam, getting ones first paycheck or recovery from illness is enough reason to give a party.