Module 1-"Nailed" & "Bontoc Eulogy"-D. Valencia

"Culture" is a term used generally to refer to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and importance. Manifested in music, literature, painting, sculpture, theater and film, culture can be defined as all the behaviors, ways of life, arts, beliefs, and institutions of a population that are passed down from generation to generation. One's culture often includes codes of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals, and laws of behavior
such as law and morality.

When cultures from numerous parts of the globe are studied, their differences in diet, dress, social norms, and ethics become readily apparent. Should there be no transcendent ethical standard, the culture then often becomes the ethical norm for determining whether an action is right or wrong. This ethical system known as cultural relativism--the view that all ethical truthis relative to a specific culture. In cultural relativism, whatever a cultural group approves is considered right within that particular culture. Conversely, whatever a cultural group condemns, is wrong. The key to cultural relativism is that right and wrong can only be judged relative to a specified society. Therefore, there is no ultimate standard of right and wrong by which to judge culture in general.

According to John Dewey, moral standards are like language in that they are the result of custom. Although language evolved over time and eventually became organized by a set of principles known as grammar, language has also changed in order to adapt to the changing circumstances of differing cultures. Likewise, ethics has come as a result of cultures attempting to organize a set of moral principles. These principles, like language, are given the opportunity to change over time in order to adapt to the changing circumstances of the culture. Although it may be difficult for people living in the United States to perceive, primitive cultures may value genocide, treachery, deception or even torture. Americans look down on these rituals or values, but no one can say that such acts are right or wrong, as their acceptance by different peoples comes merely as a result of cultural adaptation.

To this day, present in the Philippines is the annual Lenten tradition of the reenactment of Christ's crucifixion. The ritual includes the crucifixion of Roman Catholic devotees whose palms and feet are attached to wooden crosses with four-inch nails soaked in alcohol to prevent infection. Documented in the video entitled "Nailed" was a woman named Lucy, who has--for 13 years--been nailed to the cross in representation of the crucifixion of Jesus. According to Lucy, she had had a premonition when she was 18 years old and from then on, she knew that reenacting the crucifixion on an annual basis was her calling.

Ethical relativism is the position that there are no moral absolutes and that instead, right and wrong are based on social norms. One could say that Lucy's decision to reenact the crucifixion of Christ in "Nailed" is ludicrous and unethical, but people in the Philippines see it as something "normal" because the ritual of crucifixion is embedded in their culture. Filipino's and other visitors gather every year to witness the event because they truly believe that it is God's will that Lucy be crucified and that they be there to see it happen.

While watching this particular documentary, I was shocked and repulsed at the fact that someone would actually nail themselves to the cross and reenact such a momentous event. I for one could never bare to stand under the heat of the burning sun and watch someone be crucified right in front of me, as I feel that reenacting the crucifixion is immoral and unethical. I couldn't understand why Lucy would agree to crucify herself in front of hundreds and hundreds of people. However, I guess that that's just one aspect of Lucy's culture that one really has to thoroughly study in order to be able to comprehend.

To many people, the United States is known as the land of the free, the land of free enterprise, and the land of opportunity. Millions and millions of people long to be able to step into the United States each year and create new lives for themselves for themselves and their families. They long to be able to establish themselves in a nation wherein job opportunities are in excess so that they can provide their families with bigger and better things than they previously had in their homelands. This is the reason why people are able to capitalize in on minorities and bring them to America in order to use them for low-class and low-pay labor.

In the "Bontoc Eulogy," the filmmaker, Marlon Fuentes, revealed the story of 1,100 Filipino tribal natives who were brought to the United States to be a "living exhibit" at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. The Fair was the site of the world's largest ever "ethnological display rack," in which hundreds of so-called primitive and savage men and women from all over the globe were exhibited in contrast to the achievements of Western civilization. In this film was Markod, a Bontoc Igorot warrior brought to St. Louis in 1904 and who was never given the chance to return to his homeland. At the time that the "white men" were recruiting savages for their exhibit, Markod's wife was pregnant, which is why he was so hesitant to leave her. However, the “white men” promised him that he would return home in time for the birth of their child, so, Markod packed his things and went to America. In the “Bontoc Eulogy,” Fuentes illustrates the history of Filipino’s in America by centering in on how they were treated and how they were treated and how their culture was exploited and made a mockery of by their white counterparts.

This particular film gave me a greater insight into the history of Filipinos in America. I had no idea that Filipino’s were ever brought to the states in order to be part of an exhibit where “white people” could see their ways of life and laugh at them for not being civilized. It disturbed me greatly to see how the men, women, and children were treated because they were portrayed as if they weren’t human. Instead one could say that the men, women, and children were treated like animals at the zoo.