Exploring Nature and Human Phenomena in the Jama Mapun Legend of Adjung-Adjung
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65339/ijsis.V1.I2.82Keywords:
Adjung-Adjung; Ecocriticism; Nature; Human Phenomena; Sense of Place; Cultural Heritage; Cultural Memory; Jama Mapun; Maritime Culture; Oral Tradition; Pallun Mapun, Adjung-Adjung, Ecocriticism, Nature, Human Phenomena, Sense of Place, Cultural Heritage, Cultural Memory, Jama Mapun, Maritime Culture, Oral Tradition, Pallun MapunAbstract
This study examined the Jama Mapun Legend of Adjung-Adjung through an ecocritical and cultural perspective, focusing on how nature and human phenomena shape the sense of place associated with the Jama Mapun community in Mapun, Tawi-Tawi, Philippines. The legend was also examined as a form of living cultural heritage reflecting values, beliefs, language, livelihood practices, spirituality, maritime identity, and collective memory. The study drew on an ecocritical reading of human–environment relationships integrated with oral tradition as cultural transmission, intangible cultural heritage safeguarding, and place-based cultural memory. Using a qualitative descriptive design, the research employed documentary, textual, thematic, and narrative analysis of one documented version of the legend. The narrative served as the purposively selected unit of analysis; no survey respondents or newly recruited research participants were involved. The analysis identified filial responsibility, gratitude, humility, ambition and social mobility, spirituality and moral accountability, maritime livelihood, family relationships, and place-based cultural memory. An ecocritical reading further shows that Juwata Bay and the sea provide the setting and resources for subsistence, navigation, and trade; the storm marks a turning point in the narrative; and the Adjung-Adjung rock formation connects the legend’s moral meaning with a recognizable landscape. These representations link natural features and events to human experience without establishing a scientific explanation of the rock’s origin. The documented variations among tellings also illustrate the dynamic character of oral transmission. The study concludes that the legend connects environmental setting, cultural meanings, and human experience in forming a sense of place and transmitting Jama Mapun cultural identity. Community-informed documentation, preservation of authorized narrative versions and the Pallun Mapun language, and educational use that retains the story’s connection to its landscape are recommended. The study is relevant to SDG 4 through culturally grounded learning and SDG 11 through cultural heritage safeguarding; it does not measure environmental or educational outcomes.
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