GEE 006

PHILIPPINE INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES

WEEK 4

BONTOC (IGOROTS) – are found in the Mountain Province of the Cordillera

ranges. Their life, cultures, and personalities are profoundly motivated by the
religious practices and rituals which have a historical depth of religious legends
and supernatural traditions. Kinship among them serves both as a unifying and
satisfying factor as illustrated in the performance of rituals.

The costume of the people is simple. The men wear a long strips of handwoven
loin cloth called wanes. The women wear a kind of wrap-around skirt called lufid.

Men have more authority in matters of the beliefs and practices of the
community than women.

For the Bontoc family, children are the important link. Barren marriages are
generally dissolved. A marriage is considered barren if no child results from the
union after five years of marriage.

Among the Bontocs, the cycle of their existence revolves around the Ato. It is the
place where the Council of Elders hold various ceremonies, meeting and events.
The Ato is also a public structure used as dormitory by the bachelors, young boys,
widowers, and the visitors to the village. It serves as a gathering place where all
the men of the village spend the rest day call Tengao. It is here where their
unwritten code of ethics was formulated. The code urges Bontoc:

 To respect the properties of others for people must lead good honest lives.
 To be brothers to all men.

In the past generations, the Bontocs were known as fierce head-hunters. This
common practice was both duty and honor. Although they no longer practice
head-hunting, they still do today to avenge the death of a fellow tribesmen.
BUGKALOT/ILONGOT – The Bugkalots are found in the provinces of Nueva Ecija,
Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino and Aurora.

The Bugkalots subsist on the kaingin system of agriculture with root crops as their
main product. The main occupation is hunting wild game in the forest and
Conwap rivers.

The Bugkalots are known for their colorful attire, musical instruments, and
artifacts which are shown in their blow-up pictures in museums patronized by
foreign tourists in eastern and western Europe. Their popular festive dances is
called baleleng. Their more hideous ritual which rallies all Bugkalots, male and
female, is seen in the buayat, but this is not shown to the Christians.

DUMAGAT – The term Dumagat may have been derived from the word gubat
(forest) and hubad. The origin of its name is taga-dagat which referred to “sea
gypsies”.

They typify the outstanding negrito physical traits of dark brown to black color
and curly hair. The few cases of straight hair and light complexion may be chiefly
the result of mixture with lowland Christians. They have beautifully proportioned
bodies, arms, legs, and breasts especially among women. Their stature compares
to an average Filipino. The women stand at 4 feet 10 inches to 5 feet 4 inches and
the men tower from 5 feet to 5 feet 9 inches.

The Dumagats are found in the provinces of Nueva Ecija, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya,
Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte, Rizal and Bulacan. They live in single-pole make-
shift nipa huts along river banks during summertime and move to sturdier
dwellings on higher grounds during the monsoon rains.

They live the life of hunters and rattan traders. Hunting is their basic occupation.
Their weapons consist of bow and arrow. Hunting with dogs is a favorite
technique. A scraped and are ready to split into smaller pieces rattan are
delivered to their tabong (market) in the lowlands and exchange them for rice,
sugar, salt, and other commodities. They also use the kaingin system of farming.
They also live by fishing with hooks, traps and spears.
For the Dumagat, there is no wedding ceremony but a simple celebration to
which the couple’s relatives and guests are invited and at which the union is
announced. As simply as the union is made, so too is its dissolution. A Dumagat
separates simply by mutual consent.

The Dumagats have no structured religion of their own although they claim to
believe in nameless, faceless gods whom they invoke to protect them from
danger. They are peace-loving people. When they die, usually of sickness or old
age, their remains are placed in simple coffins of buho or bamboo and buried in
silence. No prayers are offered over the graves, no sad songs chanted. Relatives
and friends of the dead put aromatic herbs around their arms to serve as their
perfume.

GADDANG – The Term Gaddang means carabao hide or pelt. It is said that the
Gaddangs have already been using carabao hide for making rope long before
abaca was discovered for this purpose. The term Gaddang has been used in
referring to this indigenous group located in Nueva Ecija, Isabela, Quirino, and
Cagayan.

The Gaddangs have long been acculturated unlike their other brother who still
practice some of their traditional ways. Most of them sport body tattoos.

The traditional pattern of economic activity s swidden agriculture in well-forested

areas, supplemented by the raising of crash crops such as maize and tobacco.