[An-lang] Austronesian culture

[Christopher Sundita]

Hello,

I hope AN-LANG is the appropriate venue for this, but if not, then please
ignore it.

Pretty much of all of us agree that there is such a thing than Austronesian
languages, right?

A recent debate with Hispanist Filipinos (as well as non-Filipino Hispanists) &
me, prompts me to ask "Do you, as scholars in this field, see a common
Austronesian culture or identity?"

My position is that if you remove the foreign influences from Filipinos,
Indonesians, Hawaiians, Maoris, Tahitians, indigenous Taiwan groups, Samoans,
etc. you can see some similarities in culture. That, in my opinion, is a common
Austronesian identity.

Of course, I could be totally wrong. And I'm being told so by Hispanists are
trying to convince me that I am a Hispanophobe (despite speaking Spanish well,
and, I don't mean to brag, in some cases, better than they could) and that I am
for promoting disunity among Filipinos because I feel that Kapampangan speakers
should have the right to use their language as the medium of instruction, and
not my native languages of English & Tagalog, in school.

I appended one of the people's most recent letters at the end of this message.

--Chris Sundita
http://salitablog.blogspot.com
http://members.aol.com/linggwistik


Dear fellow Filipinos and Friends,

I am reproducing my opinion from another forum in which I am member.
I think this will be interesting to Filipinos who share my views
about the misuse of native studies by obliquely promoting
regionalism. I am not proficient in writing formal Spanish, even if I
do speak and understand written texts, and why I am writing it in
English. Others can translate to Spanish if they have the time.

THE REACTIONARIES IN OUR MIDST

Reading email messages from other forums that facilitate the free
flow of information about "nativism" or "indigenous" cultures to
solidify the consciousness of one national identity is commendable.
I, in fact, support it. But I have lived long enough to develop the
gut feeling and the instinct to sort out what's authentic and what I
feel is dubious.

For this reason, I am dismayed but not really surprised about the
opinion of others in their journey of self-discovery into the
different tribal studies that make up the "ethnic groups" during the
pre-hispanic period and the tribal minorities in recent times, being
turned into a vehicle for regionalism by sowing the seeds of mass
confusion. Andres Bonifacio, Garcia Lopez Jaena, Emilio Jacinto and
even Jose Rizal would be spinning in their graves by now if they come
across statements like "I am not Filipino, I am Bisaya or I am
Pilipino to foreigners but I am actually Bicolano."

When our people begin to identify more with their regional
geographical location rather than their own Nation, State and
Sovereign Country to which they belong, or do not relate to its
national consciousness, then the enemies of the Filipino have
succeeded in planting the self-loathing symptomatic in a person who
has learned to hate himself because he is Filipino. This self-denial
of what he is works only in favor of others whose agenda is to
perpetuate the amnesia about the origin of the Filipino as a united
people that came out of a National Revolution.The tactic of using
tribal or indigenous studies to invent a myth is quite easy to see.
If one really looks at long enough.

The purpose is the gradual denigration and the ultimate elimination
of the Filipino as a National Identity in the guise
of "Austronesianism", which is merely a definition to classify
similar linguistic origins such as Indo-Aryan languages, and not used
by anyone in the field of academics or modern political realities to
identify Nationality, or the very term "Pilipino" being hijacked in
the excuse of authenticity by twisting its meaning. When statements
like those stated previously are the norm, then the heroes who died
fighting for that Filipino National Identity have died in vain and
the liberation from colonialism is thwarted yet again.

I would like to quote from an article "What is Fascism" by Laura Dawn
Lewis to make my case:

'b) Fascism CREATES CONFUSION through "facts." It relies on junk
science, revisionism (the mythification of a "glorious" past)*, the
elimination of cultural records/treasures (i.e such as the discarding
of the Spanish language in which Filipino Nationalism had its
genesis,thereby, making the original documents inaccessible to the
average Filipino)* and obfuscation to create its case and gain
acceptance. Fascism can also combine Marxist critiques of capitalism
or faith based critics of the same to re-define middle class
perceptions of democracy and to force its issues, confuse logic and
create majority consensus between targeted groups. This is also
referred to as creating a state of Cognitive Dissonance, the mental
state most human beings are easily manipulated within.'

In other words, my fellow Filipinos, whether you are in our homeland
or in the diaspora, study and honor our tribal past but be also aware
of the forces that is undermining our national identity- the Filipino.

Josepepe




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