KALINGA CHARACTERISTICS

The Kalinga people have a reputation for being “the strong people of the Cordilleras.” The Kalingas are
proud and well-known for their intricate hand-woven textiles and beautiful and colorful beaded jewelry.
In every celebration, they incorporate dance and traditional music as a form of thanksgiving and cultural
preservation. At the same time, Kalingas greatly value family and kinship; thus, the household, extended
household of the kinship circle, and territorial region are significant units of Kalinga society. In the past,
they gained leadership and respect through headhunting and other skills at which an individual excelled.
Their neighbors and even invaders feared them due to them being headhunters. In fact, the name
Kalinga, which originated from the Gaddang and Ibanag languages, means “headhunter.” The Kalingas
must have acquired their name because of their tradition of headhunting during tribal wars.

LEGAL SYSTEM

Tribal wars occur when a bodong peace pact system was broken or violated. The bodong is the most
admirable and efficient Kalinga institution. It is a peace pact or treaty between two tribes, wherein the
Pagta or laws on inter-tribal relations are made which has minimized traditional warfare and
headhunting and serves as a mechanism for the initiation, maintenance, renewal, and reinforcement of
kinship and social ties. The bodong is also the Magna Carta of the Kalingas.

Like the modern concept of the State, the bodong system has four basic elements: bugis (tribal
territory), pagta (law), binodngan (people covered by the bodong), and sovereignty or recognition. The
fourth element is seen by the intertribal pacts entered into by the Kalinga. It is also expressed in the
principle of kulligong (to encircle). It means that the authority of the bodong extends to the binodngan
and his or her property located outside the ili (village). Under this principle, certain places where the
Kalinga reside, such as the cities of Tabuk and Baguio, are considered as matagoan (peace zones).

The pagta di bodong are the laws governing the bodong that have been deliberated upon by the leaders
of two conflicting tribes. They become operational once they are announced. Bodong holders used to
commit the pagta to memory and pass these on orally. Today, all peace pacts are recorded in writing.

The 1998 Bodong Congress in Tabuk adopted a new one or proto-pagta. This became the primary
reference for specific peace pacts entered into by each Kalinga culture group. Generally, the pagta
includes a preamble and about 15 articles. These articles include matters involving the bugis, the
principles and policies of the bodong, nangdon si bodong (bodong holders), the binodngan and their
rights, specific crimes and penalties, crimes against womanhood, and crimes against property.

Peace pacts in Kalinga are renewed through the dolnat or dornat, the terms used to refer to the
gathering of representative of two ethnic groups with an existing peace pact. The ceremony is led by the
mangdon si bodong (treaty holders). The mangdon si bodong may be a male or a female tasked to
preserve the treaty by enforcing the bodong terms. The treaty holder must be able to settle disputes
amicably once bodong terms are violated or when an intergroup war arises.

Traditionally, the Kalinga acquired leadership based on formidable headhunting record, oratorical
ability, and power to influence opinions. Courageous warriors were known as maalmot (brave warrior)
or mingol (one who has killed many). Politically, the mingol and the papangat have the highest status.
The papangats are those former mingols who assumed leadership after the disappearance of
headhunting. The warriors believed that failure to avenge the killing of a tribe member by an enemy
tribe was a disgrace. At present, the war record is no longer a requisite, but leadership remains in the
hands of men with wide kinship connections, economic influence, oratorical ability, the capacity for the
wise interpretation of custom law, and a record of having settled disputes.

The papangat or pangat act as peacemakers during periods of strife. As chief creators and interpreters of
Kalinga custom law, they function as counselors and as chief negotiators in dealing with other culture
groups. In the past, a pangat must first be a mingol, but this is no longer a prerequisite. The pangat are
not elected into their position but merely “grow” into their social and political role as the people “just
know” who has finally become one.

A village may have several papangat, but no central authority is designated. In meetings called the
among de papangat, they convene to discuss intertribal problems and peace treaties. To resolve
conflicts or disputes within a village, several pangat may act as negotiators or intermediaries. They try to
resolve contradictions amicably, and no action or penalties are imposed that have not been agreed on.
Absolute consensus, once reached, is expected to be carried out by everyone. Such is Kalinga tribal
democracy.

The Kalinga legal system is based on Kalinga custom law, a body of regulations verbally transmitted from
generation to generation. The pangat have extensive knowledge of these laws and pass judgments
according to precedents. The complexity of Kalinga custom law illustrates their legal mindedness.

LANGUAGE

The Kalinga speak mutually intelligible dialects of the same Austronesian language; Kalinga is more
closely related to Tinggian, Isneg, Gaddang, Ibanag, and Ilocano than to Bontok, Kankanai, and Ifugao.
The dialects may currently be converging under the influence of a phonetically simplified, heavily
Ilocano-influenced form of Kalinga. In fact, Ilocano is so widely understood that it is used to record the
terms of peace-pacts between Kalinga groups (instead of or along with English, a language in which a
few people in the larger communities are literate).

KINSHIP

Like other ethnic groups, families and kinship systems are also important in the social organizations of
Kalingas. The household, the extended household, the kinship circle, and the territorial region are the
significant units of Kalinga society. The boboloy or boboroy (Kalinga region) is the largest geographical
unit, synonymous with “tribe” or “barrio.” The classes in traditional Kalinga society are the kapus (lowest
class), baknang (propertied middle class), and kadangyan (upper class or aristocrats), to which the
leaders of kinship groups and the pangat belong.

The Kalinga kinship circle or kindred consists of a person’s siblings, cousins up to the third degree, and
ascendants up to the great grandparents and descendants down to the great grandchildren, including
marriage partners. The kinship circle takes responsibility for the actions of its members.

The traditional Kalinga household consists of a nuclear family, which may include an old parent, or a
grandparent of one of the spouses. Rich families may also have a poyong (servant). The extended family
consists of two nuclear families living in separate households sharing the same economic tasks, such as
planting rice. Children are given the name of a dead or living grandparent, in order to receive qualities of
that person.
AGRICULTURE

Traditional agricultural practices involved the cultivation wet rice (papayaw) as well as swidden (uwa)
farming. Due to the availability of water, two planting seasons are possible in the kalingas rice terraces.
They plant three varieties of rice namely onoy, oyak and dikit/diket. Men also hunt for wild pigs, deer
and wild fowl in the forests. Fish, shells and other marine life are caught from rivers, streams and lakes
surrounding their area. Fruit trees such as the coconut, coffee and banana are grown in the orchard or
kakkaju. Wine (basi) is also made from sugarcane.

Robusta coffee became a popular cash-crop among the Kalinga in the 1970s, although a trader
monopoly in the 1980s led to low farmgate prices despite high world market prices, causing a decline in
production. In the 2010s, various government agencies encouraged farmers to return to the planting
and harvesting of Cordillera Robusta coffee among the Kalinga.