The Bontoc Igorot

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The Bontoc Igorot

by Albert Ernest Jenks




Letter of Transmittal

Department of the Interior, The Ethnological Survey,

MANILA, FEBRUARY 3, 1904.

Sir: I have the honor to submit a study of the Bontoc Igorot made
for this Survey during the year 1903. It is transmitted with the
recommendation that it be published as Volume I of a series of
scientific studies to be issued by The Ethnological Survey for the
Philippine Islands.

Respectfully,

Albert Ernst Jenks,

CHIEF OF THE ETHNOLOGICAL SURVEY.

Hon. Dean C. Worcester,
SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, MANILA, P. I.





Preface

After an expedition of two months in September, October, and November,
1902, among the people of northern Luzon it was decided that the Igorot
of Bontoc pueblo, in the Province of Lepanto-Bontoc, are as typical of
the primitive mountain agriculturist of Luzon as any group visited, and
that ethnologic investigations directed from Bontoc pueblo would enable
the investigator to show the culture of the primitive mountaineer of
Luzon as well as or better than investigations centered elsewhere.

Accompanied by Mrs. Jenks, the writer took up residence in Bontoc
pueblo the 1st of January, 1903, and remained five months. The
following data were gathered during that Bontoc residence, the previous
expedition of two months, and a residence of about six weeks among
the Benguet Igorot.

The accompanying illustrations are mainly from photographs. Some of
them were taken in April, 1903, by Hon. Dean C. Worcester, Secretary
of the Interior; others are the work of Mr. Charles Martin, Government
photographer, and were taken in January, 1903; the others were made
by the writer to supplement those taken by Mr. Martin, whose time
was limited in the area. Credit for each photograph is given with
the halftone as it appears.

I wish to express my gratitude for the many favors of the only other
Americans living in Bontoc Province during my stay there, namely,
Lieutenant-Governor Truman K. Hunt, M.D.; Constabulary Lieutenant (now
Captain) Elmer A. Eckman; and Mr. William F. Smith, American teacher.

In the following pages native words have their syllabic divisions
shown by hyphens and their accented syllables and vowels marked in the
various sections wherein the words are considered technically for the
first time, and also in the vocabulary in the last chapter. In all
other places they are unmarked. A later study of the language may
show that errors have been made in writing sentences, since it was
not always possible to get a consistent answer to the question as to
what part of a sentence constitutes a single word, and time was too
limited for any extensive language study. The following alphabet has
been used in writing native words.


A as in FAR; Spanish RAMO
A as in LAW; as O in French OR
AY as AI in AISLE; Spanish HAY
AO as OU in OUT; as AU in Spanish AUTO
B as in BAD; Spanish BAJAR
CH as in CHECK; Spanish CHICO
D as in DOG; Spanish DAR
E as in THEY; Spanish HALLE
E as in THEN; Spanish COMEN
F as in FIGHT; Spanish FIRMAR
G as in GO; Spanish GOZAR
H as in HE; Tagalog BAHAY
I as in PIQUE; Spanish HIJO
I as in PICK
K as in KEEN
L as in LAMB; Spanish LENTE
M as in MAN; Spanish MENOS
N as in NOW; Spanish JABON
NG as in FINGER; Spanish LENGUA
O as in NOTE; Spanish NOSOTROS
OI as in BOIL
P as in POOR; Spanish PERO
Q as CH in German ICH
S as in SAUCE; Spanish SORDO
SH as in SHALL; as CH in French CHARMER
T as in TOUCH; Spanish TOMAR
U as in RULE; Spanish UNO
U as in BUT
U as in German KUHL
V as in VALVE; Spanish VOLVER
W as in WILL; nearly as OU in French OUI
Y as in YOU; Spanish YA


It seems not improper to say a word here regarding some of my commonest
impressions of the Bontoc Igorot.

Physically he is a clean-limbed, well-built, dark-brown man of medium
stature, with no evidence of degeneracy. He belongs to that extensive
stock of primitive people of which the Malay is the most commonly
named. I do not believe he has received any of his characteristics,
as a group, from either the Chinese or Japanese, though this theory
has frequently been presented. The Bontoc man would be a savage if
it were not that his geographic location compelled him to become an
agriculturist; necessity drove him to this art of peace. In everyday
life his actions are deliberate, but he is not lazy. He is remarkably
industrious for a primitive man. In his agricultural labors he has
strength, determination, and endurance. On the trail, as a cargador
or burden bearer for Americans, he is patient and uncomplaining, and
earns his wage in the sweat of his brow. His social life is lowly,
and before marriage is most primitive; but a man has only one wife, to
whom he is usually faithful. The social group is decidedly democratic;
there are no slaves. The people are neither drunkards, gamblers,
nor "sportsmen." There is little "color" in the life of the Igorot;
he is not very inventive and seems to have little imagination. His
chief recreation -- certainly his most-enjoyed and highly prized
recreation -- is head-hunting. But head-hunting is not the passion
with him that it is with many Malay peoples.

His religion is at base the most primitive religion known -- animism,
or spirit belief -- but he has somewhere grasped the idea of one god,
and has made this belief in a crude way a part of his life.

He is a very likable man, and there is little about his primitiveness
that is repulsive. He is of a kindly disposition, is not servile,
and is generally trustworthy. He has a strong sense of humor. He is
decidedly friendly to the American, whose superiority he recognizes
and whose methods he desires to learn. The boys in school are quick
and bright, and their teacher pronounces them superior to Indian and
Mexican children he has taught in Mexico, Texas, and New Mexico.[1]

Briefly, I believe in the future development of the Bontoc Igorot
for the following reasons: He has an exceptionally fine physique for
his stature and has no vices to destroy his body. He has courage
which no one who knows him seems ever to think of questioning; he
is industrious, has a bright mind, and is willing to learn. His
institutions -- governmental, religious, and social -- are not
radically opposed to those of modern civilization -- as, for instance,
are many institutions of the Mohammedanized people of Mindanao and
the Sulu Archipelago -- but are such, it seems to me, as will quite
readily yield to or associate themselves with modern institutions.

I recall with great pleasure the months spent in Bontoc pueblo, and
I have a most sincere interest in and respect for the Bontoc Igorot
as a man.



Introduction

The readers of this monograph are familiar with the geographic location
of the Philippine Archipelago. However, to have the facts clearly in
mind, it will be stated that the group lies entirely within the north
torrid zone, extending from 4[degree] 40' northward to 21[degree]
3' and from 116[degree] 40' to 126[degree] 34' east longitude. It is
thus about 1,000 miles from north to south and 550 miles from east to
west. The Pacific Ocean washes its eastern shores, the Sea of Celebes
its southern, and the China Sea its western and northern shores. It
is about 630 kilometers, or 400 miles, from the China coast, and
lies due east from French Indo-China. The Batanes group of islands,
stretching north of Luzon, has members nearer Formosa than Luzon. On
the southwest Borneo is sighted from Philippine territory.

Briefly, it may be said the Archipelago belongs to Asia --
geologically, zoologically, and botanically -- rather than to Oceania,
and that, apparently, the entire Archipelago has shared a common
origin and existence. There is evidence that it was connected with
the mainland by solid earth in the early or Middle Tertiary. For a
long geologic time the land was low and swampy. At the end of the
Eocene a great upheaval occurred; there were foldings and crumplings,
igneous rock was thrust into the distorted mass, and the islands
were considerably elevated above the sea. During the latter part of
the Tertiary period the lands seem to have subsided and to have been
separated from the mainland.

About the close of the subsidence eruptions began which are continued
to the present by such volcanoes as Taal and Mayon in Luzon and Apo
in Mindanao. No further subsidence appears to have occurred after
the close of the Tertiary, though the gradual elevation beginning
then had many lapses, as is evidenced by the numerous sea beaches
often seen one above the other in horizontal tiers. The elevation
continues to-day in an almost invisible way. The Islands have been
greatly enlarged during the elevation by the constant building of
coral around the submerged shores.

It is believed that man had appeared in the great Malay Archipelago
before this elevation began. It is thought by some that he was in
the Philippines in the later Tertiary, but there are no data as yet
throwing light on this question.

To-day the Archipelago lies like a large net in the natural pathway
of people fleeing themselves from the supposed birthplace of the
primitive Malayan stock, namely, from Java, Sumatra, and the adjacent
Malay Peninsula, or, more likely, the larger mainland. It spreads
over a large area, and is well fitted by its numerous islands --
some 3,100 -- and its innumerable bays and coastal pockets to catch
up and hold a primitive, seafaring people.

There are and long have been daring Malayan pirates, and there is
to-day among the southern islands a numerous class -- the Samal --
living most of the time on the sea, yet they all keep close to land,
except in time of calm, and when a storm is brewing they strike out
straight for the nearest shore like scared children. The ocean currents
and the monsoons have been greatly instrumental in driving different
people through the seas into the Philippine net.[2] The Tagakola
on the west coast of the Gulf of Davao, Mindanao, have a tradition
that they are descendants of men cast on their present shores from
a distant land and of the Manobo women of the territory. The Bagobo,
also in the Gulf of Davao, claim they came to their present home in
a few boats generations ago. They purposely left their former land
to flee from head-hunting, a practice in their earlier home, but one
they do not follow in Mindanao. What per cent of the people coming
originally to the Archipelago was castaway, nomadic, or immigrant
it is impossible to judge, but there have doubtless also been many
systematic and prolonged migrations from nearby lands, as from Borneo,
Celebes, Sangir, etc.

Primitive man is represented in the Philippines to-day not alone by
one of the lowest natural types of savage man the historic world has
looked upon -- the small, dark-brown, bearded, "crisp-woolly"-haired
Negritos -- but by some thirty distinct primitive Malayan tribes or
dialect groups, among which are believed to be some of the lowest of
the stock in existence.

In northern Luzon is the Igorot, a typical primitive Malayan. He is
a muscular, smooth-faced, brown man of a type between the delicate
and the coarse. In Mindoro the Mangiyan is found, an especially lowly
Malayan, who may prove to be a true savage in culture. In Mindanao is
the slender, delicate, smooth-faced brown man of which the Subano, in
the western part, is typical. There are the Bagobo and the extensive
Manobo of eastern Mindanao in the neighborhood of the Gulf of Davao,
the latter people following the Agusan River practically to the
north coast of Mindanao. In southeastern Mindanao, in the vicinity
of Mount Apo and also north of the Gulf of Davao, are the Ata. They
are a scattered people and evidently a Negrito and primitive Malayan
mixture. In Nueva Vizcaya, Nueva Ecija, Isabela, and perhaps Principe,
of Luzon, are the Ibilao. They are a slender, delicate, bearded people,
with an artistic nature quite different from any other now known
in the island, but somewhat like that of the Ata of Mindanao. Their
artistic wood productions suggest the incised work of distant dwellers
of the Pacific, as that of the people of New Guinea, Fiji Islands,
or Hervey Islands. The seven so-called Christian tribes,[3] occupying
considerable areas in the coastwise lands and low plains of most of
the larger islands of the Archipelago, represent migrations to the
Archipelago subsequent to those of the Igorot and comparable tribes.

The last migrations of brown men into the Archipelago are historic. The
Spaniard discovered the inward flow of the large Samal Moro group --
after his arrival in the sixteenth century. The movement of this
nomadic "Sea Gipsy" Samal has not ceased to-day, but continues to
flow in and out among the small southern islands.

Besides the peoples here cited there are a score of others scattered
about the Archipelago, representing many grades of primitive culture,
but those mentioned are sufficient to suggest that the Islands have
been very effective in gathering up and holding divers groups of
primitive men.[4]








PART 1

The Igorot Culture Group


Igorot land

Northern Luzon, or Igorot land, is by far the largest area in the
Philippine Archipelago having any semblance of regularity. It is
roughly rectangular in form, extending two and one-half degrees north
and south and two degrees east and west.

There are two prominent geographic features in northern Luzon. One is
the beautifully picturesque mountain system, the Caraballos, the most
important range of which is the Caraballos Occidentales, extending
north and south throughout the western part of the territory. This
range is the famous "Cordillera Central" for about three-quarters
of its extent northward, beyond which it is known as "Cordillera del
Norte." The other prominent feature is the extensive drainage system of
the eastern part, the Rio Grande de Cagayan draining northward into the
China Sea about two-thirds of the territory of northern Luzon. It is
the largest drainage system and the largest river in the Archipelago.

The surface of northern Luzon is made up of four distinct types. First
is the coastal plain -- a consistently narrow strip of land, generally
not over 3 or 4 miles wide. The soil is sandy silt with a considerable
admixture of vegetable matter. In some places it is loose, and shifts
readily before the winds; here and there are stretches of alluvial
clay loam. The sandy areas are often covered with coconut trees, and
the alluvial deposits along the rivers frequently become beds of nipa
palm as far back as tide water. The plain areas are generally poorly
watered except during the rainy season, having only the streams of
the steep mountains passing through them. These river beds are broad,
"quicky," impassable torrents in the rainy season, and are shallow
or practically dry during half the year, with only a narrow, lazy
thread flowing among the bowlders.

This plain area on the west coast is the undisputed dwelling place
of the Christian Ilokano, occupying pueblos in Union, Ilokos Sur,
and Ilokos Norte Provinces. Almost nothing is known of the eastern
coastal plain area. It is believed to be extremely narrow, and has
at least one pueblo, of Christianized Tagalog -- the famous Palanan,
the scene of Aguinaldo's capture.

The second type of surface is the coastal hill area. It extends from
the coastal plain irregularly back to the mountains, and is thought
to be much narrower on the eastern coast than on the western -- in
fact, it may be quite absent on the eastern. It is the remains of a
tilted plain sloping seaward from an altitude of about 1,000 feet to
one of, say, 100 feet, and its hilly nature is due to erosion. These
hills are generally covered only with grasses; the sheltered moister
places often produce rank growths of tall, coarse cogon grass.[5]
The soil varies from dark clay loam through the sandy loams to quite
extensive deposits of coarse gravel. The level stretches in the hills
on the west coast are generally in the possession of the Christian
peoples, though here and there are small pueblos of the large Igorot
group. The Igorot in these pueblos are undergoing transformation,
and quite generally wear clothing similar to that of the Ilokano.

The third type of surface is the mountain country -- the "temperate
zone of the Tropics"; it is the habitat of the Igorot. From the western
coastal hill area the mountains rise abruptly in parallel ranges lying
in a general north and south direction, and they subside only in the
foothills west of the great level bottom land bordering the Rio Grande
de Cagayan. The Cordillera Central is as fair and about as varied
a mountain country as the tropic sun shines on. It has mountains up
which one may climb from tropic forest jungles into open, pine-forested
parks, and up again into the dense tropic forest, with its drapery
of vines, its varied hanging orchids, and its graceful, lilting fern
trees. It has mountains forested to the upper rim on one side with
tropic jungle and on the other with sturdy pine trees; at the crest
line the children of the Tropics meet and intermingle with those of
the temperate zone. There are gigantic, rolling, bare backs whose only
covering is the carpet of grass periodically green and brown. There
are long, rambling, skeleton ranges with here and there pine forests
gradually creeping up the sides to the crests. There are solitary
volcanoes, now extinct, standing like things purposely let alone when
nature humbled the surrounding earth. There are sculptured lime rocks,
cities of them, with gray hovels and mansions and cathedrals.

The mountains present one interesting geologic feature. The
"hiker" is repeatedly delighted to find his trail passing quite
easily from one peak or ascent to another over a natural connecting
embankment. On either side of this connecting ridge is the head of a
deep, steep-walled canyon; the ridge is only a few hundred feet broad
at base, and only half a dozen to twenty feet wide at the top. These
ridges invariably have the appearance of being composed of soft earth,
and not of rock. They are appreciated by the primitive man, who takes
advantage of them as of bridges.

The mountains are well watered; the summits of most of the mountains
have perpetual springs of pure, cool waters. On the very tops of some
there are occasional perpetual water holes ranging from 10 to 100 feet
across. These holes have neither surface outlet nor inlet; there are
two such within two hours of Bontoc pueblo. They are the favorite
wallowing places of the carabao, the so-called "water buffalo,"[6]
both the wild and the half-domesticated animals.

The mountain streams are generally in deep gorges winding in and out
between the sharp folds of the mountains. Their beds are strewn with
bowlders, often of immense size, which have withstood the wearing of
waters and storms. During the rainy season the streams racing between
the bases of two mountain ridges are maddened torrents. Some streams,
born and fed on the very peaks, tumble 100, 500, even 1,500 feet
over precipices, landing white as snow in the merciless torrent at
the mountain base. During the dry season the rivers are fordable at
frequent intervals, but during the rainy season, beginning in the
Cordillera Central in June and lasting well through October, even
the natives hesitate often for a week at a time to cross them.

The absence of lakes is noteworthy in the mountain country of
northern Luzon -- in fact, in all of northern Luzon. The two large
lakes frequently shown on maps of Cagayan Province, one east and one
west of the Rio Grande de Cagayan near the eighteenth parallel, are
not known to exist, though it is probable there is some foundation for
the Spaniards' belief in the existence of at least the eastern one. In
the bottom land of the Rio Grande de Cagayan, about six hours west
of Cabagan Nuevo, near the provincial border of Cagayan and Isabela,
there were a hundred acres of land covered with shallow water the last
of October, 1902, just at the end of the dry season of the Cagayan
Valley. The surface was well covered with rank, coarse grasses and
filled with aquatic plants, especially with lilies. Apparently the
waters were slowly receding, since the earth about the margins was
supporting the short, coarse grasses that tell of the gradual drying
out of soils once covered with water. In the mountains near Sagada,
Bontoc Province, there is a very small lake, and one or two others
have been reported at Bontoc; but the mountains must be said to be
practically lakeless.

Another mountain range of northern Luzon, of which practically no
details are known, is the Sierra Madre, extending nearly the full
length of the country close to the eastern coast. It seems to be an
unbroken, continuous range, and, as such, is the longest mountain
range in the Archipelago.

The fourth type of surface is the level areas. These areas lie mainly
along the river courses, and vary from a few rods in width to the
valley of the Rio Grande de Cagayan, which is often 50 miles in width,
and probably more. There are, besides these river valleys, varying
tracts of level plains which may most correctly be termed mountain
table-lands. The limited mountain valleys and table-lands are the
immediate home of the Igorot. The valleys are worn by the streams,
and, in turn, are built up, leveled, and enriched by the sand and
alluvium deposited annually by the floods. They are generally open,
grass-covered areas, though some have become densely forested since
being left above the high water of the streams.

The broad valley of the Rio Grande de Cagayan is not occupied
by the Igorot. It is too poorly watered and forested to meet his
requirements. It is mainly a vast pasture, supporting countless deer;
along the foothills and the forest-grown creek and river bottoms
there are many wild hogs; and in some areas herds of wild carabaos
and horses are found. Near the main river is a numerous population
of Christians. Many are Ilokano imported originally by the tobacco
companies to carry on the large tobacco plantations of the valley,
and the others are the native Cagayan.

The table-lands were once generally forested, but to-day many are
deforested, undulating, beautiful pastures. Some were cleared by
the Igorot for agriculture, and doubtless others by forest fires,
such as one constantly sees during the dry season destroying the
mountain forests of northern Luzon.

General observations have not been made on the temperature and humidity
of much of the mountain country of northern Luzon. However, scientific
observations have been made and recorded for a series of about ten
years at Baguio, Benguet Province, at an altitude of 4,777 feet,
and it is from the published data there gathered that the following
facts are gained.[7] The temperature and rainfall are the average
means deduced from many years' observations:



Month
Mean temperature
Number of rainy days
Rainfall


[DEGREE]F

INCHES

January
63.5
1
0.06

February
62.1
2
0.57

March
66.9
3
1.46

April
70.5
1
0.32

May
68.3
16
4.02

June
67.2
26
12.55

July
66.5
26
14.43

August
64.6
31
37.03

September
67.0
23
11.90

October
67.0
13
4.95

November
68.2
13
2.52

December
66.0
16
5.47


It is seen that April is the hottest month of the year and February is
the coldest. The absolute lowest temperature recorded is 42.10[degree]
Fahrenheit, noted February 18, 1902. Of course the temperature
varies considerably -- a fact due largely to altitude and prevailing
winds. The height of the rainy season is in August, during which it
rains every day, with an average precipitation of 37.03 inches. Baguio
is known as much rainier than many other places in the Cordillera
Central, yet it must be taken as more or less typical of the entire
mountain area of northern Luzon, throughout which the rainy season
is very uniform. Usually the days of the rainy season are beautiful
and clear during the forenoon, but all-day rains are not rare, and
each season has two or three storms of pelting, driving rain which
continues without a break for four or five days.


Igorot peoples

In several languages of northern Luzon the word "Ig-o-rot'" means
"mountain people." Dr. Pardo de Tavera says the word "Igorrote"
is composed of the root word "golot," meaning, in Tagalog, "mountain
chain," and the prefix "i," meaning "dweller in" or "people of." Morga
in 1609 used the word as "Igolot;" early Spaniards also used the word
frequently as "Ygolotes" -- and to-day some groups of the Igorot,
as the Bontoc group, do not pronounce the "r" sound, which common
usage now puts in the word. The Spaniards applied the term to the wild
peoples of present Benguet and Lepanto Provinces, now a short-haired,
peaceful people. In after years its common application spread eastward
to the natives of the comandancia of Quiangan, in the present Province
of Nueva Vizcaya, and northward to those of Bontoc.

The word "Ig-o-rot'" is now adopted tentatively as the name of the
extensive primitive Malayan people of northern Luzon, because it is
applied to a very large number of the mountain people by themselves and
also has a recognized usage in ethnologic and other writings. Its form
as "Ig-o-rot'" is adopted for both singular and plural, because it is
both natural and phonetic, and, because, so far as it is possible to
do so, it is thought wise to retain the simple native forms of such
words as it seems necessary or best to incorporate in our language,
especially in scientific language.