Review Related Literature

The Philippines has a total land area of 30 Million Hectares. Half of the country is hilly and
mostly categorized as a Forest Zone and part of the Public Domain. As of the year 2005,
the country has a population of 85 Million. There are 112 ethnolinguistic groups in the
country who comprise nearly 15% of the total population of the country ( D De Vera,
2007). Moreover, The Philippines is a culturally diverse country with an estimated 17
million Indigenous Peoples (IPs) belonging to 110 ethno-linguistic groups in 2010. They
are mainly concentrated in Luzon (33%), especially in the Cordillera Administrative
Region; and Mindanao (61%) with some groups in the Visayas area (IWGIA, 2011). The
Philippine Constitution, cognizant of this diversity within the framework of national unity
and development mandate state recognition, protection, promotion, and fulfillment of
the rights of indigenous peoples. Further, Republic Act 8371, also known as the
“Indigenous Peoples Rights Act”(1997, IPRA), recognizes the right of IPs to manage their
ancestral domains which is the cornerstone of the national policy on IPs (UNDP, 2010)
(Hanayo Hirai, 2015).

The Philippines is slowly losing its forest cover and has to cope with an influx of mining
activities in the uplands. 1 Furthermore, demand for land and natural resources continue
to rise with the unabated migration of lowland families into the mountains. Thus there
exists a very volatile mix of stakeholders who are in a very strict competition for the
limited resources of the uplands.There has been developed a type of “Bureaucratic
Orientalism” that constructs and reaffirms “the Other” through the minute details of
administrative systems and modern representational processes. These procedures serve
the dual aim of establishing an indigenous group’s legal capacity to act and defining the
responsibilities of the state and perhaps other governing bodies. The entire argument is
a statement of a problem for which there is no answer, yet it also represents modernity.
A national (internationally recognized) legal system, the current NGOs, and the
institutions of local government are the three foundations upon which indigeneity is
affirmed. These groups so enter the modern world just by virtue of being acknowledged
as “indigenous.” (Frank Hirtz, 2003). According to Michae R. Dove (2006) Indigeneity is
being threatened by modernity while also becoming more widely accepted.
Anthropologists are reluctant to deny the idea of indigeneity to local people, whose usage
of it has become the topic of research, even when they question its validity and the
prudence of using it as a political instrument. The idea of indigenous environmental
knowledge and conservation is fiercely challenged, and the concept of indigenous
knowledge is similarly criticised in favor of the hybrid products of modernity. In integrated
conservation and development projects and extractive reserves, possibilities for
alternative environmentalisms and the blending of conservation and development aims
are being discussed and teste. New methods for studying cooperation, indigenous rights
movements, and violence are being developed, and the way that anthropologists
interpret both state and community agency is being reexamined. These and other current
issues of interest affecting indigenous peoples call into question ethical and
anthropological theory, and they highlight the need to examine the tensions that arise
from the coevolution of science, society, and environment.

In a study conducted by Colin Samson, Carlos Gigoux… et al (2016) Indigenous peoples

are becoming more well-known on a global scale in their struggle against nation-states’
long-standing colonial occupation. Indigenous peoples are still impacted by the same
patterns of colonial violence and eviction while living in different places around the world
and leading quite diverse lifestyles. Their inventiveness and resistance provide a pause
for critical reflection on the significance of preserving indigenous diversity against the
homogenizing pressures of states and corporations as they preserve their collective
rights to self-determination, culture, territories, and resources. This important study
examines significant colonial tendencies of dominance, their results, and colonialism’s
responses and opponents. It elevates the concerns and perspectives of indigenous
peoples in social discourses of modernity. The book specifically looks at identity,
dispossession, the environment, rights, and revitalization in relation to historical and
contemporary colonialism, demonstrating how indigenous peoples’ experiences in
developed and developing nations are frequently similar and connected. The book is a
necessary first read for students interested in race and ethnicity, human rights,
development, and indigenous peoples’ challenges in our linked globe because of its
strong comparative scope and multidisciplinary perspective. Furthermore, The
interaction between indigenous peoples, international organizations, and the literature
about them is investigated, focusing on literary representational techniques. Both
positive and negative links to modernity influence the representation of indigenous
peoples. The institutional settings in which indigenous peoples’ issues have been
discussed and addressed are examined, along with their resistance to reflexive
institutional action and representational notions. The approaches of international
organizations to indigenous peoples’ participation are explored. The body of knowledge
regarding the rights of indigenous people experienced significant growth after 1971. The
institutional literature spanning from 1945 to the present is notable for its pragmatism.
Particularly, the concept of self-determination has been a vital domain for employing
modern pragmatic engagement strategies (Chris Tennant, 2017).

In a study conducted by Dyson, Stephen… et al, (2015) This collection analyzes how mobile
technologies are being adopted by Indigenous people all throughout the world,
continuing the long tradition of mobile communication studies and new media.
Indigenous people are adopting mobile technology to modernize their communities,
much to how mobile phones have transformed society in both rich and developing
nations. In Indigenous communities, the proliferation of mobile devices and applications
tackles issues of isolation and creates a space for knowledge-sharing and learning,
supports the revitalization of cultures and languages, and provides the means for social
and economic rebirth. In order to enable benefits to reach Indigenous people directly and
bring about significant changes in their lives, this book examines how mobile
technologies are overcoming disadvantage and the tyrannies of distance. It starts off by
discussing broad issues and theoretical viewpoints, then moves on to empirical case
studies that cover the development of Indigenous mobile networks and practices, the use
of mobile technologies for social change, and finally the ways in which mobile technology
is being used to preserve Indigenous culture and language. Furthermore,
Anthropologists, looking at the traditional practices of the indigenous peoples of the
Arctic from a western perspective, have often presented them as rigid and unchanging.
Presenting a decade of ethnographic research on the Eastern Aleut of the western Alaska
Peninsula and Eastern Aleutian Islands, Katherine Reedy-Maschner shows that”
traditional” can denote many things and can expand to include full participation in a
modern, commercial fishing economy as well as participation in the global politics of the
volatile fishing industry. The first Aleut ethnography in over three decades, Aleut
Identityprovides a contemporary view of indigenous Alaskans and is the first major work
to emphasise the importance of commercial labour and economies to maintain
traditional means of survival. Examining the ways in which social relations And The status
formation are affected by environmental concerns, government policies, and market
forces, The author highlights how communities have responded to worldwide pressures.
An informative work that challenges conventional notions of the” traditional,” Aleut
Identitydemonstrates possible methods by which Indigenous communities can maintain
and adapt their identity in the face of unrelenting change (Katherine L Reedy-Maschner,
2010).

In addition, Indigenous Development in the Andes is a nuanced examination of the

complexities involved in designing and executing culturally appropriate development
agendas. Focusing on Bolivia and Ecuador, the authors argue that this reconfiguration of
development policy allows Ecuadorian and Bolivian indigenous groups to renegotiate
their relationship to development as subjects who contribute and participate. However,
it also recasts indigenous peoples and their cultures as objects of intervention and fails
to address fundamental concerns of indigenous movements, such as racism, national
inequalities, and international dependencies. The book offers a comprehensive analysis
of the diverse consequences of neoliberal development, highlighting questions about
globalization, governance, cultural identity, and social movements (Robert Andolina, Nina
Laurie… et al, 2009).