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https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1rE9fqEiatvlEyGJo4Rvvmthrcbnfz6M4jykMWFGrc4o/edi
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Who are the Isneg?

● The Isneg people are an ethnic native group bordering Cagayan, Ilocos Norte, and Abra
in Apayao in the far north of Luzon’s Cordillera Administrative Region.
● Not entirely “primitive’, but a rural people.
● They are a “small-scale society of hunter-gatherers and swidden cultivators”.
● They were renowned headhunters and shamans of the past.
● They have a cultural focus on headhunting, as it was a “kew symbol” for them and the
other warrior societies of Cordillera.
● They have a rich and distinct warrior-culture, and history associated with it.
○ Known for being one of the tribes in the Philippines that resisted and were
independent from Spanish colonial rule.
● Men and women sang songs and recited poetry, but the predominant genres of oral
performances are performed by village leaders.
● In their society, headhunting is exclusive only to men; on the other hand, only women
consecrated from childhood for the role could become a ​dorarakit​ (a trance medium or
shaman). Despite both men and women having their own exclusive roles, these roles are
of equal honor and respect.
○ Headhunters are warriors who slay and behead enemies.
○ A ​dorarakit​ is the main officiant of most important rituals, including those
originating with headhunting.
○ Meanwhile, “trance mediums” serve as channels between humans and
supernaturals (spirits).
● One of the traditions in their culture that involves the verbal arts is the ​say-am​, “their
most important public ritual.”
● As their society becomes more and more open towards the outside world, from their first
interaction and conflict between the Spaniards to their subsequent pacification by
Filipino and American forces, their traditions adapt as well.

The ​say-am
● A ritual to commemorate the headhunt, and is dedicated to the tutelary spirit of
headhunters--​Anglabbang​.
● This ritual is a reflection of their warrior-headhunter, swidden-cultivator, and
hunter-gatherer society; that which they place a heavy emphasis on.
● It is a “dialogue, respectively, between veteran headhunters [​pakkaw​], between
shamans and spirirts [​shamanic invocation​], and between young men and women
[courtship song​].
● It is an exposition of the complementary relations between female shamans and male
warriors by showing “imagery” from the principal economic activities of men as hunters
and warriors and women as gardeners and gatherers.
● During the ​say-am​, three mini-rituals were performed. They were the ​maganito​, a dog’s
head sacrifice; the splitting of mature coconuts by male participants while chanting the
raiding boast or ​pakkaw;​ and the ​tungtung,​ which is the dance of the shaman on a rock
whilst being encircled by warriors.
○ Lastly, the ​tungtung​ is a solemn veneration of spirits. This required the presence
of the entire village. In this mini-ritual, the shaman, mounted on a stone, danced
on it; while men with bamboo sticks encircled and pounded the stone, and
several women, each holding a head and rice bundle, walked in silence and
threw kernels at the men.
● The ​say-am​ has three major genres of Isneg poetry: the raiding boast [​pakkaw​], the
shamanistic invocation, and the courtship song [​dewas​].
● The ​maganito​ is the opening segment of the ​say-am
○ The main officiant is the shaman assisted by other women.
○ In this opening mini-ritual, the shaman would lay the offerings on her ceremonial
mat.
○ “The sacrifice of a dog’s head, in the ​maganito​, is to simulate the actual offering
of a human head.”
○ Shaman's opening words:

Diya-maxan-anito no dinu idde to olo… Diya-magpalpaliiwan no dinu idde awian

Diya-magmotomoton no dinu patayan xoon.

I do not maganito if you do not give a head…

I do not let the spirits pass if you do not give a rooster;
I do not speak if you do not kill a sow

● The next practice would be the splitting of mature coconuts.

○ The splitting of mature coconuts by veteran warriors is reminiscent of the practice
of cutting the victim’s skulltop, which headhunters then broke into pieces and
distributed as trophies during the actual headhunting feast.
○ During this second part of the ​say-am​, the ​pakkaw ​is recited:
○ pakkaw ​(the raiding boast)
■ It is performed during the mini-ritual of splitting coconuts, and offers
explicit evidence of the prevailing cultural ethos of violence among the
Isneg warriors.
■ Only men can recite the poetry of headhunters. However, women, in a
style akin to call and respond, can shout words of approval and
encouragement after each male orator’s recital of his deeds of valor.
■ The ​pakkaw​ follows a narrative formula:
● (a) the headhunting trip.
● (b) the act of killing.
● (c) the reference to the victim.
● (d) the place name and time of day [setting].
 Example 1:

Kane nagdattagga-ko lannan

sinantanpatko to balbalasan
kito danni sisi-dam

When I come to enter Lannang

I cut a young girl
At the approach of evening

*Distinctions between male and female victims are noted, but the references are
stereotyped, and all names, if given, are fictitious titles.

*Specifying the time and place of the headhunter's feat lends credibility to his
account.

Example 2:

Dam-anko pe yid wanag sidaxa

newalanko to olo dato buwaya
nam diya-nagduggadugga

I enter(ed) also the river Sidaga

I threw down the chiefs of the crocodiles
but I was not troubled

Songs of courtship, creativity, sexuality, and economic life

● There are interludes in between each ritual of the say-am

● Erotic songs of courtship exually explicit dances, as well as erotic poetry are usually
done during these intermissions
● The poems usually take the form of a repartee

Poems are usually very explicit and utlilize erotic figures of speech for example:

I wish I were a bat

So that i come creeping stealthily
To the side of the women
In the middle of the dark….
As I exhausted all my semen
Ah large the vulva of Idit….
 Sleep now woman
I lie down at your side
I press your breasts

● Courtship songs (dewas) usually contain recurring metaphors which often use animals
and plants, fish and hyacinth beans and wild dogs and fragrant white-flowering vines
because their poetry and dewas are usually interlaced with their economic life.
● From this we can infer that a big part of their culture is agriculture and fishing.
● We can also deduce that it is not shameful and it is natural for them to be very explicit,
sexual, and straight-forward. This is because they sing these dewas which are usually
filled to the brim with sexual innuendos and sexual actions
● During the courting songs the singers are separated into two groups, sorted by each
gender, who stand opposite and face the other.
● Their Verbal art and performance is mostly expressed through the plant world though
references are also made to hunting.

● The poetry of courtship is ​amuletic

● Lines like “I am coconut oil that melts,” are used in dewas repeatedly in relation to
amulets, though they also refer to massage or romanticity
● Specific words such as ​opon dariponapon a ​ nd ​daripon/dumaripon ​are examples of the
verbal flourishes wherein reduplication are used. These words are like “amuletic herbs,
heral perfumes, and perfumed oils worn by courting youth (Vanoverbergh 1936, 1938,
195).
● The fragrance of spirits such as Iwaxan, the perfume-exuding spirit, are where the
magical power of words are derived from.
● The conversation and communication of “courtship” use specific words to imply amuletic
herbs and poetic speech. An example of which is the word anginamay, which means “a
curative and love amulet which is used in courting songs”. This provides evidence of the
link between the verbal art with healing as well as sexuality.

Shamanistic Invocation

[Shaman]
1. You, Imlang, come to perform the pidut (disease extraction) with your head ax, whose
handle is covered with silver
2. If you, Anglabbang, could come to guard the person of the faithful
[Spirit]
3. I come to think (about curing it) at the still of the door
4. I think as much as if I were the moon flowering (I try to keep back the child’s life with a
strength as great as the sharpness of the moon)
5. I think (about curing it) as much as if I were an outspread ditan shrub (I resemble such a
shrub while thinking)

[Shaman]
6. You, please, dalaxetan bird (of the spirit), be so kind as to take pity on it

[Spirit]
7. I think (about curing it) as much as I were a flower of the tablang, coral, tree;

[Shaman]
8. the child is not there anymore, because you carry it to the sea

[Spirit]
9. why, it is a pity, because you reached now the evening (of life)
10. small butterfly spirit, he comes to bring you to the sky
11. it is of no use anymore as you are buried at the end (of your journey)

● Utilizes a variety of speech genres: address, appeal, and narration

● Formal features such as parallelism, assonance, repetition, etc. reveals the hidden
meanings behind the complex metaphors that are used to amplify the mystery created
by linguistic and vocal distortions
● The invocation is framed in parallel structural equivalents
○ repetition reinforces the meaning of each member of the dyad
■ Anglabbang / Imlang
■ waxing moon / out spreading shrub/flowering tree
■ bird spirit / butterfly spirit
■ sea / sky
■ evening (of life) / end (of journey)
● Two important deities named Anglabbang and Imlang, in relation to this curing chant
alludes to the headhunt
● Juxtaposed with that allusion to violence and death are vegetal images of an out
spreading shrub and of a flowering fire tree
● Rawidan (flower) when used in ritual speech, rhymes with words such as ditan (out
spreading shrub or rattan inflorescence), tablan (flower of the flame tree), and i’blan
(moon)
● These images of new life signifies the healing process
● Despite the shaman’s appeal, spirits cannot prevent the child’s death
○ They try to pull back the child’s life” in a creative and expansive manner
 ■ “the flowering of the moon,” but the child, “having reached now the
evening” is carried away to the sea and sky by the butterfly spirit
● The shaman addresses Anglabbang, the tutelary spirit of headhunters
○ speaker pairs him with Imlang
■ both Anglabbang and Imlang killed disease spirits in the same manner
that Isneg headhunters disposed of their victims
● In some Isneg villages, the shaman required as ritual offering, not a hen but a rooster,
which is a common metaphor for warriors
○ The shaman who recited the invocation while conducting the chicken sacrifice
also acted like a headhunter
● Healing here is associated with the growth and flowering of plants
● To heal is to think creatively, underscored by the repeated phrase “i come to think”
● The violent act of clearing the land coupled with the gentle emergence of new buds and
sprouts is a metaphor for poetic creativity in the songs of courtship