The Aswang Phenomenon
The film ‘The Aswang Phenomenon’ is a documentary that enlightens us about the origins of the word ‘aswang’. It explained a great deal of things. Its objective is to prove that the ‘aswang’ has a great influence to our society and that it is associated with a lot more than what the great horror stories tell us.
Prof. Mark Ramos’ book about the Philippine Lower Mythology classified the different types of aswang in 12 categories. This included witches, warewolves, and vampires. Meanwhile, there are a lot of stories and myths that was told about the origin of the word ‘aswang’. One is that it came from the word ‘asin’ (salt) and ‘bawang’ (garlic) which are the things that aswangs are fearful of. But there are a lot of ther versions too.
The data gathering approaches and methods were used in attaining the objective of the documentary were qualitative data (interviews) and quantitative data (surveys). And the research instruments used were observation, interviews, and surveys. Some of the questions that were asked was why there are many types of aswang, the unanimous description of the Filipinos, the reason why they are predominantly women, and why Capiz has been the place where the aswang lives. The children from Luzon were also asked where they think the aswang came from, and if they were afraid of them.
The Bicolanos’ version was that 2 gods who were siblings, Gugurang (representation of the good) and Aswang (representation of the evil) lived oppositely in harmony for balance. Then they had a misunderstanding and Aswang disappeared. Then there is the version from Panay where Agurang and Aswang, who had powers depending on the time of the day fought for the ownership of the land. Because of Agurang’s cleverness, who had powers by the day, attacked aswang at daytime and won ownership of Panay.
A lot of examples and arguments of the documentary can be associated with the five Social Theories. The first theory is Structural Functionalism which “understands
Prof. Mark Ramos’ book about the Philippine Lower Mythology classified the different types of aswang in 12 categories. This included witches, warewolves, and vampires. Meanwhile, there are a lot of stories and myths that was told about the origin of the word ‘aswang’. One is that it came from the word ‘asin’ (salt) and ‘bawang’ (garlic) which are the things that aswangs are fearful of. But there are a lot of ther versions too.
The data gathering approaches and methods were used in attaining the objective of the documentary were qualitative data (interviews) and quantitative data (surveys). And the research instruments used were observation, interviews, and surveys. Some of the questions that were asked was why there are many types of aswang, the unanimous description of the Filipinos, the reason why they are predominantly women, and why Capiz has been the place where the aswang lives. The children from Luzon were also asked where they think the aswang came from, and if they were afraid of them.
The Bicolanos’ version was that 2 gods who were siblings, Gugurang (representation of the good) and Aswang (representation of the evil) lived oppositely in harmony for balance. Then they had a misunderstanding and Aswang disappeared. Then there is the version from Panay where Agurang and Aswang, who had powers depending on the time of the day fought for the ownership of the land. Because of Agurang’s cleverness, who had powers by the day, attacked aswang at daytime and won ownership of Panay.
A lot of examples and arguments of the documentary can be associated with the five Social Theories. The first theory is Structural Functionalism which “understands