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.

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.

Igorot Artform:

Architecture BONTOC  The typical Bontoc dwelling has walls about three and a half feet high, with the
front wall open in the middle.  The walls on the front and the sides are built of wood slabs but the rear
is constructed with stones chinked with clay.  The floor is the earth itself often covered with hardened
mud.

Igorot Textile:

Ifugao Ikat weaving is a style of weaving that uses a resist dyeing process on either the warp or weft
before the threads are woven to create a pattern or design. The result of this process is a motif which is
fuzzy in appearance.