The mythicizing of the Bikol Tigsik

• Main Author: Matza, Benjamin Xerxes
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 1998
• Subjects: Myth in literature; Mythology; Philippine; Literature and society; Personality and culture; Folk literature; Folklore; Poetry > Social aspects; Comparative Literature
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_honors/113
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study involves an analysis of the Bikol Toast or the tigsik using the framework of Roland Barthes's study of popular culture's concept of myths. The foremost concern of this study is to challenge the naturalness and innocence of meanings presented in the text of the tigsik. The general aim is to expose the silenced and underlying structures of power that have been masked out as natural constructs that have become uninterrogated assumptions in Bikol society. These so-called normal suppositions, which purport to be universal ideas, speak for the mentality of the Bikol folk. Accordingly, since Barthe's theory claims that a socially constructed reality is deeply ideological and political, the myths extracted from the tigsik are placed on the level of the Collective Cultural Constructs of the people to know what is natural for them. In addition, since the study of myth proceeds from semiology to ideology, the study assessed the ideological implication of the myth, while specifically concentrating on the power relation issues delineated by the verses, to investigate the rudimentary element present in the content of the tigsik that evokes distinct Bikolano characteristics and mores. The analyses reveal how the myths uncovered from the content of the tigsik valorize some aspects and elements in Bikol society. Three areas of distinction are considered by the Bikol folk in terms of power dynamics namely: gender, age, and race. The study ends with a recommendation that Barthes's theory of myths is not the sole tool that can be used in deciphering things in the tigsik in terms of content or literary elements. In addition, the study strongly recommends a complete study of the literary translation of the tigsik so that a more precise analyses can be drawn from the ideas and ideologies of the versification.