SOCSCI 102

• In 1916 Dr. H. Otley Beyer estimated the "pagan" population of the country at around 584,500 or about 5% of the total population
• In 1948 the Bureau of Census estimated the indigenous groups (which included the Muslim population) at 702,869 or approximately 3.7 percent of the total population
• In 1979, the now defunct PANAMIN placed the total national population of the indigenous ethnic communities at 4,500,000
• In 1975 the estimates of the indigenous ethnic communities population was 1,553,100
• As of 1991, no accurate census is available on ethnic population even if authorities claimed the number of people to be over 6.3 million
• The selection of ethnic communities included in this study is based on availability and quality of ethnographic data
• Luzon area


  • Most of the ethnic groups are concentrated in the northern mountain ranges of the Cordillera area
  • They occupy the interior hills, strips of flat land along deep valleys, and narrow plateaus
• Tinggian, Isneg-Apayao, and the Northern Kalinga


  • They occupy the area close to the watersheds of tributaries of the Chico, Tineg, and Abulug rivers
  • They share many basic cultural traits: settlements consist of scattered hamlets; community organization is dominantly kin-based; marriage is generally endogamous; social stratification is clearly defined; leadership is based on bravery and personal charisma of leaders, reinforced by their social status as signified by accumulated material wealth; warrior groups and institutionalized warfare are present
• Bontoc, Sagada (Lepanto), Ifugao, and the southern Kalinga


  • They are wet-crop agriculturists, practicing rice-terrace and irrigated farming
  • They live in compact villages (the Ili) close to their rice terraces known as payaw
  • They possess specialized institutions like the ato(r), ulog, and agamang which serve as the center of social, religious, and political activities
  • Social stratification is clear-cut and is based on descent and material wealth
  • They share institutionalized practices like head-taking and warfare, grand canyao, and peace pacts
• Ibaloi and Kankanaey


  • They show closer affinity with their northern neighbors, particularly the Bontoc, than with the southern ones
  • Wet-rice agriculture appears to be a late development among these ethnic communities
• Southern Gaddang and the Ilongot


  • The southern Gaddang have undergone massive changes and are now oriented to the Ilocano culture
  • The Ilongot have remained conservative and their ways of life appear archaic, the code of ethics situational; settlement is dispersed and fluid, as households move, divide, and merge to follow the swidden or flee from the law
• Agta, the Dumagat, the Yogad, the Ikalahan, the Kalanguya, and the Itawis

  • They inhabit the foothills and narrow valleys of the Sierra Madre mountain ranges in eastern Luzon
• Pinatubo (sometimes called Hambal, Ayta, and Sambal)


  • They are small groups of highly mobile people inhabiting the foothills of Zambales range in western Luzon
• Baluga


  • They inhabit the northwestern part of Pampanga and southwestern section of Tarlac
• Agta, also known as Ayta, Ati, and Dumagat


  • They are found scattered along the interior hillsides of Quezon Province, Pollilo Island, and Bicol peninsula (Camarines Norte and Sur)
• Mindoro


  • It is inhabited by numerous indigenous ethnic communities collectively known as the Mangyan
  • The Mangyan groups are divided into two major divisions: the northern groups and the southern groups
  • The Batangan-Alangan groups are described to be the most conservative
  • They engage in slash-and-burn agriculture, supplemented with extensive hunting, trapping, inland fishing, and gathering
  • The Hanunoo and the Buhid are more culturally sophisticated and highly literate, writing in ancient scripts similar to those of the Tagbanua of Palawan
• Palawan island


  • The principal ethnic communities are the Tagbanua, the Batak, and the Tau't Bato
  • The Tagbanua are culturally advanced and well-organized into relatively autonomous villages, with high literacy and writing in ancient scripts
  • The Batak are found in scattered groups in the area north of Puerto Princesa and in the northeastern Palawan, principally in the interior foothills
• Panay and Negros islands

  • Four ethnic communities have been identified and described: the Sulod, the Magahat, the Ata, and the Ati
  • The Sulod and the Magahats are slash-and-burn agriculturists living in scattered and semipermanent settlements close to their swidden farms
• Mindanao area


  • There are about fifteen major ethnic groups and a number of subgroups living in the interior rainforest, hills, plateaus, narrow valleys, and marginal plains
  • Most ethnic communities in Mindanao speak languages belonging to the Manobo family of languages, except B'laan, T'boli, and Tiruray which belong to the southern Philippine group of languages
• Subanun


  • They are principally slash-and-burn agriculturists, supplementing their production with inland fishing, hunting, and gathering
  • Rice is the main staple, although corn and sweet potatoes are also planted
  • Little trade is carried out with neighboring groups and this consists mainly of forest products like rattan and locally manufactured handicrafts
• Higaonon


  • They speak a language related to the Manobo family of languages, with several dialects spoken in different places
  • In recent years, they have been rapidly absorbed into the dominant lowland Bisayan culture due to contacts with Christian Filipino immigrants and the construction of roads following the intrusion of loggers and other concessionaires of forest products
• Tiruray, Cotabato Manobo, and the T'boli


  • They are swidden agriculturists, with little trade but have developed elaborate and beautiful handicrafts like baskets, trinkets, bracelets and earrings made of brass
  • T'boli fabrics are among the most artistically designed
  • They speak a language belonging to the southern Philippine family of languages
• Bagobo, Manuvu, Matigsalug, Ata

  • They occupy the central highlands of Mindanao, especially on the slopes of the mountain ranges between Davao, Bukidnon, and Cotabato
  • The Bagobo term is derived from the word bago, meaning "new" and obo meaning "man"
  • They share numerous similar culture traits and social institutions with the Mandaya, Coastal Bagobo, Agusan Manobo, Tagkaolo, and Ata who are found in the coastal and interior hills of Davao Gulf
• Pisan type


  • It is composed of highly mobile bands of hunting, gathering, and foraging people
  • It includes the Aeta, Agta, Ata, Ati, Baluga, Batak, Dumagat, Mamanua, Pinatubo, and the Tasaday
  • Sociocultural integration is at the family level of interactions
  • Social differentiations are absent among these groups
  • Characterized by: absence of agriculture beyond inefficient gardening and shifting cultivation; no full-time occupational or craft-specialists; little trade, mostly barter with other ethnic groups; no social stratification other than simple ranking; no central political authority
• Pisan type organizational characteristics

  • Absence of agriculture beyond inefficient gardening and shifting cultivation
  • No full-time occupational or craft-specialists
  • Little trade, mostly barter with other ethnic groups
  • No social stratification other than simple ranking
  • No central political authority nor elaborate legal system
  • Absence of community-wide annual magico-religious festivities and full-time religious functionaries
  • Absence of institutionalized warfare
• Puro type organizational characteristics

  • Practice of swidden agriculture as the major source of subsistence
  • Presence of part-time craft specialists
  • Presence of trade with other ethnic groups
  • Emerging stratification based on accumulated material culture
  • Absence of a truly central political authority
  • Presence of community-wide annual magico-religious festivities
  • Presence of religious functionaries
  • Strong emphasis on custom laws as the basis of settling disputes
  • Absence of warfare, except in family feuds which often involve several communities
• Ili type organizational characteristics

  • Presence of productive agriculture which combines slash-and-burn and irrigated wetrice cultivation in terraces
  • Presence of full-time craft-specialists
  • Presence of extensive trade characterized by trading-pacts
  • Presence of a clearly defined social stratification system
  • Presence of central authority, represented by the council of elders
  • Presence of an elaborate legal system
  • Presence of community-wide annual magico-religious festivities
  • Presence of full-time religious specialists
  • Presence of institutionalized warfare
• Magani type organizational characteristics

  • Presence of efficient and productive agriculture
  • Presence of full-time craft-specialists
  • Presence of elaborate custom laws
  • Presence of a central political authority assumed by warrior groups
  • Presence of community-wide magico-religious ceremonies
  • Presence of extensive trade with other ethnic groups
  • Presence of full-time religious functionaries
  • Presence of institutionalized warfare
• Banwa type organizational characteristics

  • Presence of an economic base which is anchored on the combination of productive land use and extensive trade
  • Social stratification is marked; division of labor is clear-cut and specialists in different areas of activities (industrial metal art crafts) are accorded with appropriate statuses
  • The family is not center to all activities; it functions only as one of the important institutions in society
  • Group identification to common alliances and loyalties emanates from the office of the datu, which is assisted by a council of elders
  • Group norms are based on an elaborate legal system that provides the different units with basic interpersonal, interfamilial, and interdistrict rules of conduct with respect to economic, political, and religious activities
  • Authority and governance is supported by a magicolegal set of rules that functions as the framework for leadership
  • Presence of elaborate community-wide rituals and ceremonies are participated in by majority of the people and are differentiated from other types of socio-religious activities; occupational specialists are present
  • Warfare is highly institutionalized
• With the coming of the Spanish colonizers to Philippine soil, the marginalization and minoritization of Philippine indigenous peoples began
• The native population that came under the subjugation of Spanish colonial rule, undergoing the most change from their original lifeways caused by their acceptance of and adaptation to the ways of the foreign ruler, would come to be recognized as today's Filipinos, the Christianized and colonized majority
• Those who resisted change and colonial rule were denied this designation and came to constitute a cultural minority where none had previously existed
• The root of conflict for indigenous peoples is and has always been the land question
• Colonization introduced a system of land laws adversarial to the concept and practice of ancestral domain, opening the way to massive and systematic land grabbing of ancestral lands
• The new regime on land ownership and use installed by the Spanish government was institutionalized under American rule and established the parameters of so-called modernization and development in present-day Philippine neocolonial era
• This has caused the rapid shrinking of the boundaries of ancestral lands which continues unabated to this day
• When the Spanish colonizers came to rule the Islands, they claimed the entire Philippine archipelago as belonging to the crown of Spain, unless otherwise registered or titled in the name of private parties
• This act of legal fiction automatically converted the indigenous inhabitants of the Islands into squatters in their own land
• Native rights to land were required to be registered and documented with the Spanish colonial authority in order to acquire legal sanction
• The Regalian doctrine, claiming all untitled lands for the State was also adopted by the Americans and later became the basis of all government policies and laws on land