IN SPITE of the agricultural base, which has reduced ethnic economy to a primarily domestic one, cultures of the various people
flourished in surprising ways. Among peoples that did not develop writing, oral literary traditions that combine poetry and song grew with amazing proportions with various kinds of epic poetry like the Hudhud and Alim of the Ifugao, Labaw Dunggon of the Sulod, Darangen of the Islamic groups to name a few that compare with the Iliad and the Odyssey. Those that developed writing like the Hanunoo Mangyan have created poetic forms like the highly sophisticated ambahan. Jesus T. Peralta, 2000

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