Wherever I am, the world comes after me.
It offers me its busyness. It does not believe that I do not want it.
Now I understand why the old poets of China went so far
and high into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist.
"The Old Poets of China" by Mary Oliver

F. Landa Jocano, PhD (1930–2013)

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Category: News @ UP Asian Center

Felipe Landa Jocano, eminent scholar, renowned Filipino anthropologist, and Professor Emeritus of the Asian Center, passed away on 27 October 2013. He was 83.

Dr. Jocano obtained his PhD in Social Anthropology at the University of Chicago in 1963. As one of the Philippines' foremost anthropologists, he played a significant role in developing and deepening the understanding of Philippine society, culture, and prehistory.

Apart from articles that appeared in academic journals, including the Asian Center's Asian Studies, Dr. Jocano authored numerous books, including:

  • Filipino Prehistory: Rediscovering Precolonial Heritage
  • Filipino Social Organization: Traditional Kinship and Family Organization
  • Filipino Indigenous Ethnic Communities: Patterns, Variations, and Typologies 
  • Filipino Worldview: Ethnography of Local Knowledge
  • Growing up in a Philippine Barrio
  • Sulod Society: A Study in the Kinship System and Social Organization of a Mountain People of Central Panay 
  • Slum as a Way of Life

Dr. Jocano was Dean and Professor of Anthropology of the Institute of Philippine Studies at the Philippine Center for Advanced Studies (PCAS, now the Asian Center) at the University of the Philippines. He also served as senior anthropologist at the National Museum and headed the Asian Center museum, which acquired a large part of its collection under his guidance and leadership. Dr. Jocano was also chairman of the Department of Anthropology at the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of the Philippines.

Professor Jocano received several awards for his achievements, including a National Science Award and Republic Cultural Heritage Award. He was inducted into the Philippine Legion of Honor in 2007 and given a rank of Grand Officer.