The newly re-opened Ayala Museum hosted its first event on April 24, 2022 with the well-attended launch of the book SONG OF NEGROS: MYTHS AND CULTURE IN THE PHILIPPINES. The book contains fifteen beautifully illustrated myths, legends, and folktales from the island of Negros and explains the significance of these tales to the culture of the provinces in particular, and of the Philippines in general. Ms. Narz Lim introduced the main speaker, Dr Rene Samaniego. “Mythology”, said Dr Samaniego, “is a projection of our unconscious, representing the totality of the human experience. Depicted in myths are our life events: our birth, death, illness, loss, and everything else that happens in between.”
Dr. Samaniego is an eminent psychiatrist and psychotherapist who practices at Makati Medical Center and teaches at the Ateneo School of Medicine.
Dr. Victoria Hoffarth, the book’s author, adds, “The fantastical tales of our culture’s mythology can shape our world in ways that we don’t even realise.”
In the book, she embarks on a journey to seek such tales from Negros, explaining the symbolic values as well as the underpinnings of these fifteen stories, given the collectivistic culture of the country.
Through these well-written accounts, Dr. Hoffarth shows how myths are intimately related to history and religion—from Christianity to Islam, from ancient Greece to Hollywood, from pre-Enlightenment Spain to modern, secular Europe.
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