For a research on Filipino sexuality, he worked as a motel boy. For a study on urban poverty, he dressed as a beggar and stationed himself outside Quiapo Church.
Felipe Landa Jocano, once described by National Artist for Literature F. Sionil Jose as “the country’s foremost cultural anthropologist”, has died from a stroke at his home in Quezon City. He was 83.
Jocano led an inspiring and entertaining life. He ran away from his hometown in Iloilo to get an education in Manila and worked as a janitor at the National Museum while writing about Filipino folklore for The Manila Times. He eventually earned a master’s and doctorate degree in Anthropology from the University of Chiacago.
His most significant work is documenting and translating the Hinilawod, a Central Visayan folk epic that establishes the existence of pre-Hispanic culture in the Panay Islands.
Photo: A staging of the Hinilawod in Dumaguete via hinilawod.wordpress.com
