SOCIAL ISSUES

WHAT IS CULTURE TO ME?

I read a post from a friend’s wall in Facebook that says, “Your culture is your brand…” This got my attention for it

made me think of what really is my brand. As it is defined, brand is a name, symbol, logo or other item used to distinguish a product or service or its provider. It is also pertains to a company’s image. A certain product is identified by its brand. Paralleled to culture, it is a distinguishing mark of what a person is.

I am raised in the lowland, under Ilocano way of living. My father who is an Ilocano was born with parents who are farmers. According to him, their living is so simple and socialization is not their priority, they woke up early and off to the fields where they spend the rest of the day. But this changed when my father finished his Bachelor of Commerce major in Banking and Finance. He introduces new way of living to his parents like building a bungalow house instead of the old bahay-kubo, buying of sala set and other house furniture, attending to gatherings in the barangays and even changing their manner of clothing. But their distinct characteristics of being an Ilocano which are hard-working and “kuripot” remained. I grew up with the understanding that every centavo counts and we need to work for our living. I was reared in the idea that hard-earned money should be well spent, not for pleasure but for other more important things. We only buy new pair of clothes and shoes for special occasion and so with cooking of special delicacies. The system of “pagmamano”, giving reverence to the elderly, the “ninang” and “ninong” practices and the use of “bagoong” in every meal are just a few of the norms and traditions being inculcated to me.  

When my father died on October 14, 1990, my mother decided to go back to her hometown in Bagulin., La Union, a place where in the upper part, nearby Buguias and Kapangan, Benguet is populated by kankana-eys.. A radical truth changed within me. I learned that my mother is a full-blooded Igorot and that makes me an Igorot, too. The culture is far different from the way I used to. Their way of living is also simple, they work hard too but they are more carefree in comparison to the Ilocanos who are uptight. Right there, I learned to adapt the new culture. I learned the language (kankana-ey), the norms and traditions, tried to wear the ethnic costumes, dance with the gongs and solibaos, eat salted meat (kini-ing), attended wedding celebrations even if it is from one mountain to another, witnessed burial, caňaos and other kankana-ey traditions.

                        With these two kinds of culture merged within me, I tried to evaluate myself, what really now is my culture? What is my brand?

                        Living in Loakan for 16 years now, where the community is populated by Ibalois and few kankana-eys, my culture is being dominated of being an Igorot. My total way of life now is based on what are the acceptable behaviours, beliefs and values in my community in order for me to be accepted. I am now a refined mixture of a modern Igorot where the traditional way of living is accompanied with what is practical in modern days, a modern (sophisticated) Igorot as they say. I do and participate in the classic traditions, norms and beliefs as long as it is logical, practical and still acceptable. One example of this is the practice of offering animals if one of the members of the family is sick for him to be well. I respect this belief but I am not practicing it because I do believe that offering an animal will not cure the sick one, medicine does. Yet I still pray that he/ she will be well.

            I do eat pinipikan, salted meat and other Kankana-ey delicacies but I am also delighted to eat other modern foods like spaghetti, lasagne, pizza, cakes and the likes.

            I am a sophisticated Igorot by heart and mind, still a traditional but practical and logical one, this is who I am, and this is my culture, my brand.

           

What is your sub-culture?

In a large group of Ibaloi and Kankana-ey people in Loakan exists a 57 year old church, the Loakan Baptist Church. Here, the members are from different walks of life, different tribes like Ibaloi, Kankana-ey, Ilocano, Ilonggo and Tagalog. But all co-exist, sharing the same belief and faith.

Members gathered on regular Sunday Worship Service, prayer meeting, youth and children’s activities on weekly schedule. The church is family-oriented, where almost our children grew up together, sharing the same activities like Sunday School, AWANA and Junior Varsity, cantatas, mission outreaches and others. The church became our second home catering to more or less 350 regular church members and 150 walk-ins or frequent visitors. We are being identified as “mga Baptist yan” in our community, commonly invited to pray during special occasions within the community like Barangay Fiesta, school programs, burial, weddings and reunions. We are frequently invited as resource speakers on topics pertaining to moral, values and religion and even ask as counsellors in cases of family problems, conflict mediation and youth reformation.

These made us distinct among the majority, which I consider as my subculture.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of living in a multi-cultural society?

Living in a multi-cultural society made us flexible in any given situation, even drastic changes may occur. The knowing of “what” of one culture to another is very advantageous to adaption and interpersonal relationship. This will give us the opportunity to easily mingle with others, adjust on a given situation and further broaden our perspective and understanding of ones behaviour or actuations. We would be able to understand preferences like for example why the eating habit, attitude towards food and taste different from one person to another. This will make us consider our responses, reactions and opinions over such. Moreover, the negativity of ethnocentrism will me minimize in multi-cultural society. One will avoid the tendency to look at something from his/her own perspective based on his/her culture. The person would see to it that balance is achieved and objectivity is applied in all situations.

In a multi-cultural society, the freedom of exchanging ideas, practices, beliefs, traditions and norms is fully accepted without committing offense. There is respect for one another's stand in this kind of society. Learning will become dynamic and proactive resulting in a faster and unified response to achieve change. Since the consideration here is the knowing of ”what” or “who” the people are, goals and objectives are specific taking into consideration the varied cultures existing in said community.

However, this also has its disadvantages. As a universal rule, the more varied a matter is, the more complexities there is. Leaders in a multi-cultural society must take consideration the entire existing group so as not to create the feeling of ‘favouritism’ or the favouring of one group over the other. Another disadvantage is the diverse personality one should deal with especially that each one has its unique beliefs, practices, traditions and norms. One practice is acceptable for their group while that same practice is an abomination to the other. Let us take a look at the Muslims’ practice of not eating pork where in in a gathering he was being offered to eat one, or worst, there is no variety of food choices where he can forego the meat (pork).  

Another disadvantage of a multi-cultural society is the difficulty to draw unification in goals and ideals. Because each one would like to advance his/ her own culture, there will be a tendency of judging according to its own standard and its significance to their own culture. Sometimes, we tend to consider things based on how it benefits us and how it will advance our own interest.