Random Questions Thread

Has he been particularly busy in the first nine? If so, that's probably okay, if not, then yes, I'd say it's a bit late.

Okay. He was pretty busy in the earlier chapters, and this is really the first amount of down time he's had in quite a while. Glad to hear it.

yo, can someone give me a basic idea of how filipino tribal culture works? i'm sort of interested in it.

Wikipedia is a good starting point, and the blog "This is Not Pilipinx" has a LOT of cool links here.

In a nutshell: Pre-colonial Filipino culture has a crapton of pantheons and is very animistic, with a version of The Fair Folk. (Basically, like a lot of other pagan cultures.) We have really strong Polynesian, Austronesian, and Malaysian roots with indigenous tattoos and outrigger canoes, but culturally we're considered Southeast Asian because we're A LITTLE closer to the Asian continent than we are to Polynesia. The Philippines is basically the Asian melting-pot.

Also, there's at least twenty languages in the archipelago and a CRAPTON of different tribal beliefs. Try not to mix up, say, Visayan gods with Tagalog or Ilocano gods. It's like mixing North American Hopi beliefs with the Great Plains cultures and dressing them in Chickasaw clothing.

edited 25th Sep '16 3:00:30 PM by Sharysa

the reason i'm asking this is because i wanna use some aspects for some things like outfits, good ideas, etc. also, are you filipino or from there? and another thing, what are their fair folk? i know a few of them but still don't get it.

edited 25th Sep '16 3:16:51 PM by ewolf2015

Yes, I'm Filipino-American. Are you... not Filipino? What are you going to do with your Filipino counterpart culture?

I have no doubt that your intentions are good, but if you just want pre-Hispanic Filipino culture for an exotic flavor, you're probably best with using it as a springboard for making up your own stuff.

i'm not filipino. i just wanna be inspired by it simply. i'm not going to out right copy everything about it but i'll atleast try to pay homage to it i guess.

Normally I would tell people to research their stuff a lot, but with a minority culture that was heavily colonized and ESPECIALLY one that happens to be my own? Don't research too much. Just find the big points (pagan society, tropical islands, seafaring culture) and go from there.

Do you mind me asking why?

I suspect that you run the temptation of copying that specific culture wholesale without necessarily understanding why certain things are the way they are (especially in the context of that culture's historical and geographical context), which wouldn't work if you're aiming for a strict fantasy counterpart, which would necessarily have to have its own history.

Better just to grab a few points and develop from there.

Long story short: The Philippines has a shitty history with colonialism since Spain forced us to assimilate into Catholicism, which leaves most of the Philippines feeling a pretty huge Cultural Cringe against the tribes. (Hell, just look up our entry on the wiki page.) Most of the pre-colonial interest is from the DIASPORA, like the Filipino-Americans, and it's really complicated because Filipinos of the islands view the tribes as primitive hicks and can't imagine why anyone would be interested in them.

Since Ewolf isn't Filipino and isn't trying to make a specific parallel to Filipino history, it's better to just take the big points of the culture and then make up a fictional one than to risk cultural appropriation.

edited 25th Sep '16 10:54:26 PM by Sharysa

I don't follow your reasoning. Isn't it great for the "primitive" tribes to be represented in a more positive light in fiction?

As far as I gather their reasoning it's that trying to do "representation" while doing only surface research into a very complex situation is on a straight ride to fucked-up town.

should I just be inspired by it or just scrap it all together? I've experienced this before with the whole "how can I develop my tribal societies without offending anybody?" It seems to me that simply being inspired by a culture while still being different from it is a bad thing.

And that's overreacting. You're not trying to make them represented, you're just taking some themes for inspiration. That's fine. And you've already gotten a short summary as well as a link pointing to further research materials.

sorry about that. i'm a bit scared i might end up being bashed on if i so even screw up on it.

hate to double post, but why is it quiet?

People aren't active all the time. It is normal.

A question on using Malay: If the patronymic "bin" is for men (Example: [Name] bin [Father's name]), then what about for the women? Is it supposed to be "binti" or "binte?"

A simple rule is not to represent any group of people you dont belong to. You include different types of people in your story because the plot requires it, yes, and when that happens you do your research. Or if you want a tribal setting then you borrow some of the major themes (usually from more than one group) and then creatively elaborate from there. Either of those approaches is fine. But only someone from that community can represent that community in fiction, and even that's tricky.

are you refering to me or him?

I merely wished to contribute to the conversation. But if you think my advice seems helpful, then by all means follow it.

I think that's dumb, personally. Just because you aren't from a particular culture doesn't mean you have no right to it whatsoever. Taking part in other cultures is how we share and grow in our own. I'm not Italian, but that doesn't mean I can't borrow Roman culture in my works.

I say go for it, just do your research well.

edited 26th Sep '16 10:47:19 AM by randomdude4

Hallow: "Bin" is technically Arabic (since Malaysia has a huge Muslim population). Yes, "binte" is the feminine version of it. "Binti" might be a pronunciation/spelling difference, but I'm not sure.

While it's a good thing to share cultures and represent indigenous cultures, it's best to leave most of it to the indigenous people who actually get affected by that representation. If you're not part of the group, you'll need to do a SHITTON of research to portray us accurately. With the Philippines, it's especially hard because we have such a complicated relationship with it ourselves AND the research is going to be 80% "sifting through racist secondhand accounts from the Spaniards."

edited 26th Sep '16 10:54:52 AM by Sharysa

I have to concur with randomdude4: that means you do the research, not necessarily that you shy away from it. If a writer can't portray a character from another culture, then, taken to its logical extent, that writer can only write characters exactly like him or herself. The caveat, as always, is that it's in the execution. That a character might be from a culture doesn't necessarily mean they represent that culture; you should be sophisticated enough to draw the distinction between "a character, with a background from X" and "a character representing X".

The whole concept of "cultural appropriation" has always struck me as deeply flawed. There isn't a culture on Earth that hasn't borrowed from its neighbors, and changed just by interacting with them; no culture has remained "pure" and unchanging for any length of time. Stay curious about others, draw insights from them, and use them. It's not like culture is a scarce or finite resource.