The Philippine Culture: Customs, Traditions and Beliefs of a Filipino Family as a Basic Way of Communication

Tradition was the name given to those cultural features which, in situations of change, were to be continued to be handed on, thought about, preserved and not lost. (Graburn, n.d., p. 6)

These traditions lead us to suspect that tradition is not just a conservative force, but rather a principle that ensures the continuity and identity of the same attitude through successive generations. (Congar, 2016)

Aside from tradition there is also Customs, It is generally defined as the usual way of acting in given circumstances [or] a practice so long established that it has the force of law. [In Sociology it is] a group pattern of habitual activity usually transmitted from one generation to another. (Dictionary.com, 2016)

One example of the custom’s definition of a habitual practice or a practice so long established that it has the force of law is Ethics. It refers to well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues. (Velazques et al., 2010)

On the other hand, Beliefs is simply defined as a feeling of being sure that someone or something exists or that something is true [or] a feeling that something is good, right, or valuable (Merriam Webster, 2015)

Sometimes beliefs become very strongly entrenched or emotional. In this way, beliefs can influence our behaviors, even our thoughts, in very powerful ways. If you truly believe that eating fish will give you eternal happiness, and you desire eternal happiness, then you will probably eat a lot of fish. (Chris, 2010)

We create beliefs to anchor our understanding of the world around us and so, once we have formed a belief, we will tend to persevere with that belief. (Changing Minds, 2016)

However, customs, traditions and beliefs of a country, an individual or a certain population were all part of the people’s way of life which is “culture”.

According to Garcia (1994, p.35), Rubenstein defined culture as — the body of customary beliefs, social forms and material traits constituting a distinct complex of tradition of a racial, religious or social group.

In his book “Patterns of Culture” Benedict (2005), every human society everywhere has made such selection in its cultural institutions. Each from the point of view of another ignores fundamentals and exploits irrelevancies… One culture hardly recognizes monetary values; another has made them fundamental in every field of behavior. One builds an enormous cultural superstructure upon adolescence, one upon death, one upon after-life. (24)

In sociology, culture is defined as “what is common to a group of individuals and as what ties them together”. In its broadest sense, culture can now be regarded as the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of a society or a social group. It includes not only the arts and literature, lifestyles and fundamental rights of human being, but also value systems, traditions and beliefs. (Silent Garden, 2016)

The Philippines was described by some philosophers and scholars as a country that is rich in culture. Throughout the years hitherto, Filipinos had been described as a race that has been influenced by various cultures (i.e. Spanish, American, Japanese, Chinese, etc.).

The Philippine culture as a whole has evolved due to the country having rich foreign culture encounters in its history not only during the Spanish, American and Japanese colonial times but during its — early contact with traders who introduced Chinese and Indian influences [,] Islamic traditions … to the Malays of the southern Philippine Islands in the 14th century. ( Living in the Philippines, 2016)

Also, the study of culture in the Philippines is a very complicated concept because of the archipelago setting of the said country and of the different practices in every region and island which in turn has resulted in Filipinos being exposed in different practices and way of living.

The Philippine culture was influenced by the different practices in countries such as Spain, America and Japan etc.; this is because the Philippines was once under the colonization of the said countries.

Filipino is a race of people famous for being hospitable and their “bayanihan spirit” (i.e. helping each other in times of crisis) — they can be seen around the globe — There are Filipinos travelling from the land down under up to the busiest town in America, living among the seafarers of pacific ocean up to the workers in the Middle East… Filipinos are everywhere! However, how can other cultures affect Filipino’s way of living?

Being a Filipino is a cultural identity and In the study of foreign policy — culture and identity have likewise figured in attempts to explain foreign policy behavior of a nation-state assumed to be a unitary actor. (Baviera, n.d.)

Alberto and Favila(p. 6)cited Kim’s 2007 work which defined Cultural identity as a person’s sense of self. It is not entirely based on his/her race, and is not limited to only one culture which he/she is part. Ethnographers believe it is a “communally shared system of communicative practices unique to the community and enduring over time”.

Being a Filipino is also social identity — [To] ‘Social Identity’ we refer, in Tajfel’s own words, to “that part of an individual’s self-concept which derives from his knowledge of his membership of a social group (or groups) together with the value and emotional significance attached to that membership” (Philosophy, 2011)

Gillis (p. 15) said that according to Benedict, most people are shaped to the form of their culture because of the enormous malleability of their original endowment… they are plastic to the molding force of the society into which they are born….It does not matter whether, as with the Northwest Coast, it requires delusions of self-reference, or with our own civilization the amassing of possessions.

Then in what way are the Filipinos have been shaped by their Customs, Traditions and beliefs?

In my experience when I was doing my on-the-job training, I was given a work which topic is to observe a Filipino family and identify how their customs, traditions and beliefs.

Upon observing the family, I notice that their culture is rooted on Catholicism and some of the family members believe in “pamahiin” which is the Filipino term for superstitions.

One example of their superstitious belief is that the money that were put in the hands of the person that is about to be buried will bring luck to the person who will keep it. Another example is that the coffin of the person who is about to be buried should not touch the ground.

However, upon further observation, I realized that even if only some of the members of the family members believe in this kind of superstitions; they as a Filipino family became more united and connected upon performing this kind of tradition. After all, “pamahiin” is part of the Filipino culture.

Another thing I have observed was their family business. The members of the family, specifically the sisters, have established various “sari-sari” stores (This is a shop in the Philippines that sells various items, “sari-sari” is a tagalong word and in English it means “Various”). “Sari-sari” throughout the years, had also become a part of the Filipino culture, it is one of the most common type of business in the Philippine. “Sari-sari” stores are almost everywhere in the said country.

I noticed that although the sisters’ home were close to each other and has established a business of the same type, there was never a competition with each of the members of the family. This is because they had an agreement that each of them will never sell something that the other member is selling.

For example, one of the sisters sells a dried milk fish, then if the other sister also wants to sell a fish; then she should sell a fish of a different variety. This in turn caused the sisters to have a good business and at the same time, no competition against each other. This is also a way of being unified as a family, and it clearly shows that their cultural identities as Filipino family members made them have a good understanding on what each of them needs and wants happen i.e. all of the sisters whose home were close to each other wants to run a “sari-sari” store as a business but at the same time wants to avoid competition with each other.

On the other hand, Religious beliefs serve a social function in human groups, providing a shared identity of where people came from and where they are likely going after death. (Yelnick, 2016)

As I have said earlier, the family’s religion is rooted to Catholicism. Upon my observation, I noticed that the family is consistent on doing the religious practice of Catholicism (i.e. following the sacred sacraments, going to mass every Sunday, etc.). On the sisters’ only brother’s death anniversary, one of the sisters invited a priest in order to bless the graveyard of her brother. Upon performing the prayers and the sacraments, I noticed that all of the family members present are constantly doing the things that a catholic should do on such an occasion — the family members are doing it in a unified manner. This in turn, shows that the way they are connected to each other not only as family members but also as Catholics (which is the dominant religion in the current cultural setting of the Philippines) made them have a good communication process in which they do a lot of things with each other without having argument against each other.

This in turn, shows that if the cultural climate of the family is deeply rooted, then that kind family will make communication much more easier where most of the psychological communication barriers are sure to be prevented from occurring upon the communication process.

Therefore, the accepted norms of tradition, culture and customs of a certain population gives way for everyone to be able to have a basic way of communication in which everyone could relate to and understand.

Furthermore, the multifaceted concept of culture is what defines the social identity of a person or of someone who belongs to a certain country, organization, community, or group.

Man creates culture, which animal counterparts do not, or cannot, but culture, in turn, creates us. We construct a social environment of our own, inventing and sharing the rules and patterns of behavior that shape our lives and we use whatever knowledge we have acquired in modifying that environment. Shared culture is what makes our so-called social life possible. (Garcia, p. 33)

Culture… is also the domain in which we set collective tasks for ourselves and begin to grapple with them as changing communities (Cultural Studies at UNC , 2016)

Therefore, the importance of understanding culture is as such where people will be able to learn about the various systems of traditions, customs and beliefs that each and every person has; this in turn would help people to become more patient and open minded upon living or adapting to a different community or talking to someone with a different culture.

Works Cited

Living in the Philippines. (2016). Culture & Arts. Retrieved May 12, 2016, from Livinginthephilippines: http://www.livinginthephilippines.com/culture-and-people/philippine-culture/969-culture-arts

Alberto, F. M. (2012). Purong Pinoy:The Cultural Identity of Filipino-Foreign Youth as Manifest by their Communication Practices. University of the Philippines Diliman.

Baviera, A. (n.d.). CULTURE AND IDENTITY IN PHILIPPINE FOREIGN RELATIONS: NATION-STATE IN SEARCH OF SOVEREIGNTY. Retrieved May 12, 2016, from Philippinesintheworld.org: http://philippinesintheworld.org/?q=node/282

Benedict, R. (2005). Patterns of Culture. Retrieved May 12, 2016, from Books.google: https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=Da78mq9fUWcC&pg=PR3&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=false

Changing Minds. (2016). What is Belief? Retrieved May 30, 2016, from Changingminds.org: http://changingminds.org/explanations/belief/what_is_belief.htm

Chris. (2010, 18 August). The difference between beliefs and values. Retrieved May 30, 2016, from Chrisakins: http://www.chrisakins.com/the-difference-between-beliefs-and-values/

Congar, Y. (2016). The Meaning of Tradition. Retrieved May 30, 2016, from Ignatiusinsight: http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features/congar_introtradition_dec04.asp

Cultural Studies at UNC . (2016). What is Cultural Studies? Retrieved from http://culturalstudies.web.unc.edu/: http://culturalstudies.web.unc.edu/resources-2/what-is-cultural-studies/

Dictionary.com. (2016). Custom. Retrieved May 30, 2016, from Dictionary.com: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/customs

Garcia, M. (1994). Introductory Sociology: A Unified Aproach. Manila: National Book Store, Inc,.

Gillis, J. (2014, April 17). Patterns of Culture. Retrieved May 12, 2016, from Slideshare.net: http://www.slideshare.net/micrimson/patterns-of-culture-a

Graburn, N. H. (n.d.). What is Tradition? Retrieved May 30, 2016, from Web.law.columbia.edu: https://web.law.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/microsites/gender-sexuality/What%20is%20tradition.pdf

Merriam Webster. (2015). Belief. Retrieved May 30, 2016, from Merriam-webster: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/belief

Philosophy, S. E. (2011, March 1). Social Norms. Retrieved May 12, 2016, from Plato.standard.edu: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/social-norms/#SocIde

Silent Garden. (2016). Culture. Retrieved 13 2016, May, from Silentgardens: http://www.silent-gardens.com/culture.php#

Yelnick, J. (2016). What is Religious Belief?- Definition and Systems. Retrieved May 30, 2016, from Study: http://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-religious-belief-definition-systems-quiz.html