UNITAS Special Issue on Culture and Environment in the Philippines

Unitas Special Issue on Culture and Environment in the Philippines

While for sure culture and environment in the Philippines, taken separately and as well as a relation, have been the subject of countless studies, a huge area still lies open for inquiries based on perspectives from within, that is to say, from the experience of culture and environment of those who actually live various and specific cultures within the Philippines, which in themselves involve an understanding of the environment and the way indigenous peoples, for example, stand in relation to it.

The fact alone that the Philippines has at least 170 different languages, and that in each language is contained a culture with its own uniqueness, will give us an idea how much remains untapped in this area of research. For the Tagakolu or Tagakaulo of Eastern Mindanao, for instance, God bears the name of “Tyumanem,” which literally means “the one who planted.” One could surmise how such an understanding of the divine that is intimately related to their experience of their natural environment gives rise to, or flows from, a culture whose wealth and uniqueness have much to offer the world at large in terms of understanding our shared cultures and environment.

This special issue of Unitas is devoted to such a study of culture and the environment in the Philippines. Topics may include though in no way are limited to the following:

• The meaning of “kalikasan” (or equivalent or analogous terms in other Philippine languages)
• The meaning of “kapaligiran” (or equivalent or analogous terms in other Philippine languages)
• Other key words in either culture or environment in various Philippine languages
• Rural environment
• Urban environment
• Culture and environmental justice
• Cultural recognition
• The politics of culture, the culture of politics
• The politics of environment, political environment

Submissions are due on 31 July 2019 following the format and guidelines of the MLA, 8th edition. Submit to rbarbaza@ateneo.edu or fdayrit@ateneo.edu, cc jmledesma@ust.edu.ph