Yakan people

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Yakan people

Students from the Datu Bantilan Dance Troupe in traditional Yakan

costume with US Ambassador Kristie Kenney.

Total population

202,314 (2010):[1] 152,912 in Basilan,[2] 5,563 in Zamboanga City[3]

Regions with significant populations

Basilan, Zamboanga Peninsula

Languages

Yakan, Tausug, Zamboangueño Chavacano, Cebuano, Filipino, English

Religion

Predominantly Islam

Related ethnic groups

 Sama-Bajau, other Moros, Lumad, Visayans,

other Filipinos,

other Austronesian peoples

The Yakan people are among the major indigenous Filipino ethnolinguistic groups in

the Sulu Archipelago. Also known as dream weaver having a significant number of
followers of Islam, it is considered as one of the 13 Moro groups in the Philippines. The
Yakans mainly reside in Basilan but are also in Zamboanga City. They speak a
language known as Bissa Yakan, which has characteristics of both Sama-
Bajau Sinama and Tausug (Jundam 1983: 7-8). It is written in the Malayan Arabic script,
with adaptations to sounds not present in Arabic (Sherfan 1976).
The Yakan have a traditional horse culture. They are renowned for their weaving
traditions.[4] Culturally, they are Sama people who eventually led a life on land, mostly in
Basilan and Zamboanga city. They are included as part of the Sama ethnic group,
which includes the Bajau, Dilaut, Kalibugan, and other Sama groups. [5]

Contents

 1History
 2Examples of Yakan art
 3See also
 4References
 5External links

History[edit]
The Yakans reside in the Sulu Archipelago, situated to the west of Zamboanga
in Mindanao. Traditionally they wear colorful, handwoven clothes. The women wear
tight fitting short blouses and both sexes wear narrowcut pants resembling breeches.
The women covers it partly with a wrap-around material while the man wraps a sash-
like cloth around the waist where he places his weapon – usually a long knife.
Nowadays most Yakans wear western clothes and use their traditional clothes only for
cultural festivals.
The Spaniards called the Yakan, "Sameacas" and considered them an aloof and
sometimes hostile hill people (Wulff 1978:149; Haylaya 1980:13).
In the early 1970s, some of the Yakan settled in Zamboanga City due to political unrest
that led to armed conflict between militant Moro groups and government soldiers. The
Yakan Village in Upper Calarian is famous among local and foreign tourists because of
their art of weaving. Traditionally, they have used plants such as pineapple
and abaca converted into fibers as basic material for weaving. Using herbal extracts
from leaves, roots and barks, the Yakans dyed the fibers and produced colorful
combinations and intricate designs.
A Yakan couple in a traditional wedding dance.

The Seputangan is the most intricate design worn by the women around their waist or
as a head cloth. The Palipattang is patterned after the color of the rainbow while
the bunga-sama, after the python. Almost every Yakan fabric can be described as
unique since the finished materials are not exactly identical. Differences may be seen in
the pattern or in the design or in the distribution of colors.
Contacts with settlers from Luzon, Visayas, and the American Peace Corps brought
about changes in the art and style of weaving. Many resorted to using chemical dyes,
which are more convenient, and started weaving table runners, placemats, wall decor,
purses, and other items that are not present in a traditional Yakan house. In other
words, Yakan communities, for economic reason, catered to the needs of their
customers, demonstrating their trading acumen. New designs were introduced, such
as kenna-kenna, patterned after a fish; dawen-dawen, after the leaf of a vine; pene
mata-mata, after the shape of an eye or the kabang buddi, a diamond-shaped design.

Examples of Yakan art[edit]



Yards of Yakan cloth on display

 
 A saddle panel made of wood with shell inlay

 
 Another saddle panel made of wood with shell inlay
  

A weapon sword native to the Yakans called pira

See also[edit]
 T'nalak
 Abaca

References[edit]
1. ^ "2010 Census of Population and Housing, Report No. 2A: Demographic and Housing
Characteristics (Non-Sample Variables) - Philippines"  (PDF). Philippine Statistics Authority.
Retrieved 19 May 2020.
2. ^ "2010 CENSUS OF POPULATION AND HOUSING PHILIPPINES: Basilan"  (PDF). 2010.
3. ^ "2010 CENSUS OF POPULATION AND HOUSING ZAMBOANGA CITY"  (PDF). 2010.
4. ^ de Jong, Ronald. "The last Tribes of Mindanao, the Yakan; Mountain
Dwellers". ThingsAsian. Global Directions, Inc. Retrieved  16 November  2018.
5. ^ Charles O. Frake (2006). Chapter 14. The Cultural Construction of Rank, Identity and Ethnic
Origins in the Sulu Archipelago: compiled by James J. Fox and Clifford Sather (2006) in Origins,
Ancestry and Alliance: Explorations in Austronesian Ethnography. ANU Press.