GEE 006
PHILIPPINE INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES
WEEK 4
MRS. GINA S. GILI
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.