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Friday, March 16, 2007

HUNATAHAN HABANG NAGKUKUTUHAN


HUNATAHAN HABANG NAGKUKUTUHAN
(Filipina Women catching "squirrels" circa 1889)

Huntahan is the Filipino word for a group of two or more people holding a conversation or informal discussion. You can find people doing huntahan along the road, in the house neighborhood, in the variety or sari-sari store, in the market, in the farm and everywhere.

Among the adults, huntahan is also called tsismisan (gossiping) or kwentuhan (conversing) . The young people, on the other hand, call it tsika, tsika-tsikahan, and kwentuhan .

Huntahan adds color to the Filipino farmers' everyday life in the village. Huntahan in the neighborhood is a common scene where you often see people justsitting outside the house in a bamboo bench or under a tree talking, laughing, and sometimes playing cards, or drinking.

Conversation in the house neighborhood is generally wider in scope and the more common topicsdiscussed are family affairs, politics, "hot" events in the village, and gossips.

In any case, when farming is discussed in these situations (i.e. playing cards and drinking), the new technologies introduced will more likely not get enough attention.

Farmers interact and converse among themselves in many occasions in the farm. Neighboring farmers gather themselves into small groups chatting while in the field. This usually happens when they drain or let the watercome into their fields.

They also engage in discussions while resting in a hut (kubo) or pump house (kubo ng bomba) near the field, especially when there is a drizzle and farmers seek shelter from the rain. Other occasions when they walk through the fields going to their respective farms, when taking lunch, and when they go home together.

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