Republic of the Philippines

PANGASINAN STATE UNIVERSITY

Urdaneta City Campus

ACTIVITY

4.4.2. Wedding Dance

Name: ZEAN ADAM O. MONTEMAYOR Course, Year, and Section: BSME-2A

1. After reading “Wedding Dance” of Amador Daguio, write a reaction paper answering these questions:

a. How does the society works in the story;

b. How are men and women both treated in their tribe;

c. Does the norm present in the story still exist at the present time? Give example and explain.

Cite support for your argument.

The story “Wedding Dance” portrays the traditions, customs, beliefs and general culture of how a Ifugao society is
in a gender-based manner. In their society, stereotypes are imposed whereas there are specific roles that are
needed to be portrayed and these dictates what both male and female should look like; should act; and should
behave. In their tribe, females should be strong in planting beans, fast in cleaning water jars, and good keeping a
house clean. Males should be strong, muscular who can carry his heavy loads of fuel logs down the mountains to
his home, can plow fields in the mountains and do heavy duty works. This reveals how men and women are
treated based on the unwritten law of the tribe. A woman can be a successful wife if she can bear a child, and a
man can only be a man if he has a child.

The beliefs and values of their culture basing what is right on the “unwritten rules” discourage people from going
outside what society deems correct; they are limited by expectations of the society. Lumnay though deemed as
the most suitable woman/wife for Awiyao did not meet the needs of the society, in relation Awiyao needed to re-
marry for him to be considered as a “man” in their tribe, as men should be able to have a child . For seven years,
she prayed and sacrificed many chickens to Kabunyan just to please the deity. Lumnay represented the basis of
how women should be in their tribe. She was a good wife and did household work remarkably; but because of
her inability to bear a child, all her good qualities as a woman were set aside. Their love for each other were
defeated by the culture of stereotyping which restrains freedom from people in their tribe.

The norms from the past where the world is dominated by men are still prevalent in today’s time. Guterres told
the UN’s International Women’s Day observance Friday that “gender inequality is the overwhelming injustice of
our day.” Deep-rooted patriarchy and misogyny have created a gender power gap, our political systems, our
corporations, our societies and our culture,” he continued. The stereotypes where the society dictates what
genders should portray based on their appearances and behavior are still one of the problems the world faces as
it is still carried through toxic traits that the past generations got accustomed to. Though many organizations are
formed to advocate for gender equality people from the society still cannot accept the gender orientation of
others. Due to beliefs culture or tradition people are bounded by, they are deterred from accepting the other
genders as equals.