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people

Igorot, (Tagalog: “Mountaineer”) any of various ethnic groups in the

mountains of northern Luzon, Philippines, all of whom keep, or
have kept until recently, their traditional religion and way of life.
Some live in the tropical forests of the foothills, but most live in
rugged grassland and pine forest zones higher up. The Igorot
numbered about 1.5 million in the early 21st century. Their
languages belong to the northern Luzon subgroup of the Philippine
languages, which belong to the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian)
family.

The Igorot peoples are Austronesians. They were known in earlier

days for their wars and practice of headhunting. The Spaniards
forcibly partially subdued them during the colonial occupation of the
Philippines, that process being completed during the period of U.S.
hegemony. Ethnologists distinguish about 10 main ethnic groups,
each with its own dialect and culture. There are also variations
within these groups.

Two broader groupings may be made of the Igorot as a whole: one,

by far the larger, comprises the peoples of the higher country who
cultivate wet rice, mostly in steplike terraces on the mountainsides;
the other comprises peoples of the lower rainforest areas, who
grow dry rice in seasonally shifting gardens. Within the first group
the Nabaloi or Ibaloi, Kankanay (Kankanai), Lepanto or northern
Kankanay, Bontoc (Bontok), southern Kalinga, and Tinggian nearly
all live in populous villages, but one ethnic unit, the Ifugao, has
small farmsteads of kinsmen dotted throughout the rice terraces.
The second group—the Gaddang, northern Kalinga, and Isneg or
Apayao—are sparsely settled in hamlets or farmsteads around
which new gardens are cleared as the soil is worked out; some
Gaddang live in tree houses.

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Cultural elements common to the Igorot peoples as a whole include

metalworking in iron and brass, weaving, and animal sacrifice. They
believe in spirits, including those of ancestors, and have complex
rituals to propitiate them. There are no clans or tribes, and political
organization is generally limited to the village level. Kinship is
traced on both the paternal and the maternal sides, extending as
far as third cousins.

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This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen

Kuiper, Senior Editor.

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headhunting

Headhunting
, practice of removing and preserving human heads. Headhunting
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in the head,…

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