There are several indigenous groups such as the Visayans, Ilocanos, Bicolanos, Kapampangan, Pangasinan and Moro in The Philippines.
However, in Manila, the four main visible indigenous groups are Tagalog, Ilocano, Negritos and the Dumagats.
Dumagats
In the hinterlands of Infanta, Gen. Nakar and the other forested parts of Northern Quezon is where the Dumagats live nomadically in. The Dumagats, disfigure their teeth during late puberty and dye it black after a few years.
They are a peace-loving and happy people who, for centuries, lived in the bosom of Mother Nature and the watchful eye of Father Spirit. Their home is virtually Adam and Eve's paradise where fish, animals, fruits, and plants are theirs for the picking. But unabated logging and mining have displaced them, devastating their environment and ancestral land. In addition, the continuous influx of lowlanders in search of grounds to till has pushed them further and higher to the inner recesses of the forest.
The majority have succumbed to the pressures and surrendered their land in the name of development. Worse, many have learned to embrace the environmentally destructive practice of "kaingin" or slash-and-burn method of farming of their lowland colonizers.
Today, many Dumagats live in abject poverty in the fringes of their so-called host "barangays" or villages in the northern portion of Luzon. They can be seen in these places foraging for food or begging for money. Some have fallen into drunkenness. The Dumagat nowadays is synonymous with oppression, exploitation, and discrimination.
Negritos
They are the aborigines of the Philippines who were called negritos by the Spaniards at the time of their reign in the Philippines because of their darker skin colour. It is the tribe inhabiting the eastern parts of Luzon and called in different names: Agta, Ita, Ati, or Aeta. About 20,000 of them are spread throughout the country. Their majority can be seen in Pampanga and Zambales while others inhabit the coastal fringes of Northern Luzon, and the mountains of Negros, Samar, Panay and Leyte. As a result of their nomadic life, they live in houses built out of grass and tree branches to easily vacate upon scarcity of surrounding food. They don’t have social rules and live according to their ancient customs, which is most evidently shown in the way they dress.
Their distinguishing features are shorter stature, darker skin and curly hair. And because of their strong adaptation to tropical jungles, they are compared with the pygmies in the equatorial jungles of Africa.
Several groups of Aetas believe in supreme beings who rule over minor spirits. Aside from Animism, Aetas also believe in environmental spirits such as what they call “anito or Kamana”. They believe that these spirits are the inhabitants of the rivers, sky, mountains, valleys and other places. The Ati of Negros island call their God of nature as “Taglugar or Tagapuyo” that plainly means “the inhabitant of the place”. They also consider spirits of disease and comfort.
They do not have special occasion for praying and ritual activities. But they have dances after a pig hunt, some of their dances are performed to apologize for their catch and to inspire their future hunt.
The Aetas are naturally skilled in weaving and plaiting. They produce excellent winnowing baskets, rattan hammocks, and other household containers like those works of Mamanuas. They also produce raincoats made of palm leaves with its bases surrounding the neck of the wearer, and whose topmost part spreads like a fan all around the body. However, only women exclusively weave winnows and mats and only men make armlets.
Aetas traditional clothing adapts to their simple life. Young women wear wrap around skirts, elder women wear bark cloth while elder men covers themselves with loincloths. The old women of the Agta group wear their bark cloth strip which passes between legs, and is attached to a string around the waist.
Decorative disfigurement is a traditional art most Aeta groups practice to decorate their bodies. Scarification or intentionally wounding the skin to form a scar is a common visual art. They wound their skins on their backs, arms, legs, hands, calves, abdomen, and then irritating the wounds with fire, lime or other ways tocreate a visible scar.
Like other tribes, Aetas also decorate themselves with ornaments such as girdles, necklaces and neckbands of braided rattan fitted with pig bristles. Although in a quite different way, they use flowers and leaves as earplugs on some occasions.
Tagalog
Tagalog are predominantly Roman Catholic. Ceremonies celebrated by theminclude Christmas and Easter and their phases. Among others, the day of Saint John the Baptist is widely celebrated, especially in relation to waterways. Good Friday each year produces activity from penitents of various sorts, including whipping and actual crucifixion at spots considered especially sanctified. Baptism, confirmation, marriage, and funerals are regular parts of all lives.
Tagalogs have also long been noted for excellence in all the arts. There is a flourishing Tagalog movie and television industry and all the media use Tagalog extensively. A traditional art form that survives is the kundiman or love song.
Traditional knowledge of herbs is still important and used by the Tagalog. Dietary regimes and bodily care reflect long-held concepts of the relationship between good health and adaptation to the environment.
Since Tagalogs are mostly Christians, the usual Christian beliefs regarding death and afterlife are being followed. They believe that body returns to the four elements: earth, water, fire and air. They spirit of the deceased are believed to spend a certain amount of time in the immediate neighbourhood before departing to an afterworld. Secondary burial has frequently been practised and All Souls’ Day is the occasion for visiting the cemetery.
An example of a Tagalog script:
Ilocano
They are characterized as being hardworking and frugal, and they engage primarily in farming and fishing. The Ilocano culture represents very simple, sometimes spartan day-to-day living, focusing mostly on work and productivity, spending only on necessities and not on so much on ostentatious material possessions. Ilocanos also exemplify a great degree of respect and humility in their everyday dealings
Crafts Handed down from generation to generation, the art of inabel weaving is a golden thread entwined in the Ilocano culture. Manually woven through a wooden loom, an abel fabric is made up of pure creativity, imagination, positivity, respect, discipline and keenness. The various abel weave designs are inspired by natural elements. It maybe lands formation patterns, the colours of flowers and vegetation, the ripples of a calm blue ocean, or the sky on a bright night.
The Ilocanas of the olden times were taught this textile craft which once bolstered the economy of the Ilocos region during the colonial times, when abel products were largely exported to foreign lands. Spanish galleons sailed the seas with pieces of inabel sailcloth. The abel is certainly a representation of the elegant past of Ilocos.
There is always an untold story behind each and every piece of inabel, but clearly, the very essence of inabel is the beautiful qualities of an Ilocana.
Food Ilocanos boast of a somewhat healthy diet heavy in boiled or steamed vegetables and freshwater fish. Local specialties include the "abuos," soft white larvae of ants, and "jumping salad" or tiny, live shrimp with Kalamansi juice.
Thursday, December 9, 2010, 10:43 PM
