Hu300 Narratives Assignment

Unit 2 Narratives Assignment

[NAME]

Kaplan University

HU300 – Art and Humanities

Unit 2 Narratives Assignment

The terrifying tale of a vampiric baby that feasts on people at night by luring them into a false sense of security by day. This myth is the story of the tiyanak, a Filipino mythological creature known throughout the country. As the husband to a Filiipina woman, one of the first myths I ever learned from her culture was the story of the tiyanak and how popular and well known it is throughout her country.

The story of the tiyanak has many different origins, probably due to the many cultural and social shifts the nation of the Philippines has undergone throughout its history. The basis of the story is that if you are traveling near the jungle, if you hear a baby crying, you should avoid picking it up because it is actually a tiyanak that will kill you when it becomes dark. This at first glance seems like a cautionary tale against traveling alone through the jungle, and depending on who you hear the tale from it might end at that, but it has taken on a different spin over the years.

In another telling, the tiyanak is a result of a failed abortion, or a baby that was killed before its baptism, that has come back to life to ultimately seek revenge on the abortionist. Most retellings describe a shoebox that is found with an aborted fetus in it, foreshadowing the coming of the tiyanak. This version of the tiyanak story shows the cultural and social importance the Catholic church plays in the country and the stigma that is placed on people who perform abortions. By using the fear of the tiyanak, there is a social control put over society to scare people into following a certain viewpoint.

Another telling of the story actually includes the mother of the tiyanak and may be the oldest telling of the story. According to this telling of the story, the tiyanak is born due to its death before birth. If this occurs then the child is...