E. Arsenio Manuel

{{short description|Philippine academic, historian, and anthropologist}}

{{Use Philippine English|date=April 2023}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2023}}

Esperidión Arsenio Manuel (1909 - 2003), known as E. Arsenio Manuel, was a Philippine academic, historian, and anthropologist best known for his contributions to Philippine anthropology, history, literature, and linguistics.{{Cite web | url= http://newsletter.up.edu.ph/previous/2004jan07.htm#obituary | title=E. Arsenio Manuel, professor emeritus, 94 | website=University of the Philippines Newsletter | publisher= University of the Philippines | location= Diliman, Quezon City |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040405041638/http://newsletter.up.edu.ph/previous/2004jan07.htm#obituary |archive-date=April 5, 2004 |url-status=dead|access-date=April 5, 2004}} During a three-decade academic career at the University of the Philippines, he wrote a seminal survey of Philippine folk epics, and was responsible for discovering and publishing folk epics from the Manuvu, Matigsalug, and Ilianon peoples.

He is sometimes referred to as the "Dean of Filipino Anthropology" and "Father of Philippine Folklore."{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jGssp-oJrT8C&q=e%2520arsenio%2520manuel&pg=PA148 |title=A Handbook of Philippine Folklore |last=Lopez |first=Mellie Leandicho |date=2006 |publisher=UP Press |isbn=9789715425148 |language=en}}{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VPj2HIYXjYgC&q=e%2520arsenio%2520manuel&pg=PA113 |title=Philippine Folk Literature: An Anthology |last=Eugenio |first=Damiana L. |date=2007 |publisher=UP Press |isbn=9789715425360 |language=en}}{{Cite news |url=http://www.sunstar.com.ph/davao/opinion/2017/03/05/estremera-whos-shoes-e-arsenio-manuel-now-529200 |title=Estremera: Who's in the shoes of E. Arsenio Manuel now? |last=Estremera |first=Stella A. |date=March 5, 2017 |work=SunStar |access-date=October 11, 2017 |language=en |archive-date=April 4, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180404141740/http://www.sunstar.com.ph/davao/opinion/2017/03/05/estremera-whos-shoes-e-arsenio-manuel-now-529200 |url-status=dead }}{{Cite journal |last=Joseph |first=Reilly, Brandon |date=January 1, 2013 |title=Collecting the People: Textualizing Epics in Philippine History from the Sixteenth Century to the Twenty-First |url=http://escholarship.org/uc/item/61q8p086#page-3 |journal=EScholarship |language=en}}{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bwh1WOPienYC&q=e%2520arsenio%2520manuel%2520obituary&pg=PA317 |title=Changing Identities in Modern Southeast Asia |last=Banks |first=David J. |date=January 1, 1976 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=9783110809930 |language=en}}{{Cite news |url=http://opinion.inquirer.net/83038/old-fashioned-books |title=Old-fashioned books |last=Ocampo |first=Ambeth R. |access-date=October 11, 2017 |language=en}}