Introduction to Anthropology

Anthropology Basics

• Anthropology is the study of humanity
• Anthropos means "human being"
• Logia means "study"
• Anthropology is an interdisciplinary field
• It employs the scientific method

Major Fields of Anthropology

• Cultural anthropology studies the diversity of human societies in time and space
• It looks for commodities across societies
• A holistic approach links the global and local
• Links the past and present
• Looks at all aspects of being human

Ethnography

• Ethnography is practiced by cultural archeologists
• Used to record and analyze a culture of society
• Requires fieldwork to collect data
• Often discipline-specific, focusing on a group or community
• Participant observation is hands-on, immersive learning
• The researcher becomes immersed in the culture being studied

Ethnology

• Ethnology attempts to explain why and how a culture functions
• Uses data collected by a series of researchers
• It is usually synthetic
• Comparative and cross-cultural

Other Anthropology Fields

• Biological anthropology deals with the evolution of humans
• Studies variability and adaptation to environmental stress
• Linguistic anthropology studies the nature of human language
• Archeology studies people in the past and present using material remains as evidence
• Eco facts are natural remains related to humans (e.g., plants and animal remains)
• Artifacts are material items that humans made
• Features are material remains that are immovable (e.g., structures and walls)

Cultural Concepts

• Ethnocentrism, by William G. Summer, views one's own group as the center of everything
• Ethno means local/people
• Centrism means center
• Xenocentrism, by Donald P. Kent and Robert G. Burnignt, views another group as the center of attraction
• Xeno means foreign
• Centrism means center
• Deviant behavior involves valuing one's own culture over another
• Cultural appropriation involves taking aspects of another culture without understanding their significance
• Then taking it as one's own
• Power dynamics relate to cultural appropriation because the powerful can take from others without consequences
• Ellen Rock: appropriation removes origins and heritage, repurposing for the benefit of one company

Cultural Relativism and Appreciation

• Cultural relativism means viewing other cultures based on their own values and point of view
• Cultural appreciation is "celebrating" a culture by learning about it
• Requires permission from its people
• The cross-cultural relationship is when people have relationships that acknowledge and respect diverse lives

Culture and Society

• Culture, described by Edward Taylor, is a complex whole of knowledge, belief, arts, morals, law, custom, capabilities, and habits acquired as a member of society
• Society consists of patterns of relationships among people in a specified territory

Characteristics of Culture

• Culture is learned through enculturation
• Enculturation is the process by which a child learns their culture
• Culture is shared
• Culture is symbolic
• Culture is all-encompassing
• Culture is integrated
• Culture is adaptive and mal-adaptive

Indigenous Culture

• Ancestral domain/land involves:
• Language
• Economic activities
• Sociopolitical organization
• Kinship and marriage system
• Belief system
• Land involves communal ownership
• The lands belong to everybody, and every person belongs to it
• Ancestral domains are territories that belong to Indigenous Peoples (IP)

IPRA and UNDRIP

• RA 8371, the Indigenous People's Rights Act of 1997 (IPRA), includes rights of:
• Ownership
• Developing lands and natural resources
• Staying in territories
• Protection in case of displacement
• Regulating the entry of migrants
• Safety and cleanliness
• Claiming parts of reservations
• Conflict resolution
• UNDRIP is the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Subsistence Economy and IPS

• A subsistence economy is primarily for family and communities
• Only the surplus is marketed
• The Indigenous political structure (IPS) refers to traditional governance systems and institutions within indigenous communities
• Right to self-governance recognizes and respects the autonomy of IPs
• Acknowledges them as legitimate and effective mechanisms for decision-making

Customary Laws and Family

• Customary laws are unwritten
• Based on custom and traditions
• Centers on family and economic relations
• Two kinds of family include:
• Nuclear family (parents and children)
• Extended family (three or more generations)
• Includes joint/collateral family with cousins and spouses

Descent and Marriage

• Matrilinear descent is traced through women only
• Patrilinear descent is traced through men only
• Matrilocality is when married couples reside in the wife's community
• Patrilocality is when married couples reside in the husband's community
• Plural marriage (polygamy) unites more than two spouses
• Polygyny is the practice of having more than one wife
• Polyandry is the practice of having more than one husband
• Exogamy is seeking a spouse outside one's own group
• Endogamy is mating or marriage within a group to which one belongs
• Homogamy is marrying someone familiar, like members of the same social class
• Ethnicity is group identification based on perceived cultural distinctiveness
• Makes the group into a "people"

Mixed Marriages and Community

• In mixed IP parentage, children under 13 take the mother's ethnicity
• Those over 13 can choose between mother's and father's
• In mixed IP and non-IP parentage, children follow the ethnicity of the IP parent
• In mixed IP and Muslim parentage, children follow the father's ethnicity
• Muslims are paternalistic
• Community participation depends on ritual activities instead of meditation that binds people

Shamans and Language

• Shamans are priests/priestesses who communicate with spirits/gods
• Diviners in Africa foretell the future by reading signs/changes in the surrounding
• Language is shaped by the environment
• Attempts to describe the surroundings form the bases of their unique tongue

Dumagat/Domaget

• The ancestral domain is located within the Sierra Madre range
• Central Luzon (Aurora, Nueva Ecija, and Bulacan)
• Calabarzon (Rizal and Quezon)
• Subkal'n-Is'suwi ICCA is the sacred ground of their ancestral domain
• Economic activities include:
• Dumagat rely on fishing
• Dumagat remontado focus on farming, gathering, and hunting
• Clothing consists of:
• Men wearing baag or ginat
• Women wearing tapis
• Salong is the traditional family shelter by the sea
• Key leadership roles are called:
• Manganup
• Monledup
• The highest leader is referred to as Kaksaan or mangomden
• Pamon esabiyan is an event exclusive to community leaders and elders
• The Dumaget Tagebulos call it "surot-sorotan"
• The Dumaget Edimala refer to it as "munpolung tam"
• Languages include:
• Kabolowen (dominant language of the Dumaget in plains and mountainous areas)
• Edimala (used by Dumaget in rocky areas or caves)
• Tagebulos (used by Dumaget near the shoreline or coastal area)
• Traditions and Rituals include
  • Panogpoy: Thanksgiving ritual for Makadepat
  • Adow ne dumaget: Festival honoring native culture and traditions
  • Subkal: Sacred prayer
  • Sambit: Traditional healing with balete bark and a twig to identify the cause
  • Pagbu: Traditional wrestling game for men
  • Dupdupit: Elders' ritual to protect children from evil and ensure good health
  • Agpas: Pre-healing ritual by a healer involving incantation and offering
• Dumaget remontado rituals:
• Ngayangay: Elders' ritual requesting blessings
• Pagbubuga: Healing using medicinal plants
• Mali: Teams compete in physical games during the full moon

Subanon/Subanen/Subanon or Subanu

• From Visayas and Mindanao, the term comes from "Suba" (river)
• The suffix "-nen" means moving upstream
• Ancestral domains include the Zamboanga peninsula
• Economic activities are:
• Highlands: Planting rice (gobod process)
• Lowlands: Planting rice and vegetables
• Ghiklot phurang is a small fish significant to the Subanen
• Thinumpin is shredded cassava with a twist, wrapped and grilled

Marriage

• Gembay: Mutual consent is used with the man asking for the woman's hand
• Gumbay: The man asks for the woman's hand desiring marriage
• Dlusud: A man will not leave without marrying the woman
• Guli': A woman forces the man in marriage
• Thangag: A man and woman elope
• Pegbya-an: Parents arrange marriage against the couple's will
• Sociopolitical organization features:
• Timuay or Datus (local leader)
• Balian or Babaylan (traditional spiritual leader)
• Customary laws are called gontangan/bhetad or botad
• Core values include:
• Makatawo (pro-people)
• Maka-diyos (pro-god)
• Makakinabuhi (pro-life)
• Maka-kakinaiyahan (pro-nature)
• Clothing:
• Male: senumpa (long sleeve) and lambong (long slacks)
• Female: tapis (skirt) and sinumpo (blouse)
• Belief system elements:
  • Solonsang
  • Babat: Expressing feelings through storytelling and courtship
  • Panampot
  • Buklog ceremony (thanksgiving)
• Yakan derived their name from a misunderstanding with the Spanish and a local tree
• Ancestral domains are Basilan Island and the Zamboanga peninsula
• Became a refuge for displaced Yakan communities
• Lumah are traditional Yakan houses
  • Consists of a kitchen, main house, and pantan/porch
  • Houses can be scattered or built around the langgal (house of prayer)
• Economic activities are:
• Major economic resources (coconut and rubber)
• Weaving
• Tennun: Traditional Yakan woven cloth creation
• Sword making (pira)

Kinship and Marriage

• The ammah (father) is the head of the family in the patriarchal structure
• The inah (mother) and anak (children) pay him pagtaat or pagaddat (respect)
• The apoh (elders) bring blessings
• Help is sought from usba-waris (kin) and pamikitan (distant kin) connections
• Usba: Paternal relatives
• Wari: Maternal relatives
• Yakan adat recognizes various types of marriage:
• Muli: Arranged marriage with parental consent
• Magtambul bay: "Shotgun" marriage (Fil. pikot)
• Magpasumbali: Suicide
• Magpalah'i: Elopement
• Ngalahi: Abduction
• Magkasa or Jina (adultery) was once punishable by death
• Magbutas (divorce) is permitted for various reasons
• Sociopolitical organization features a parish system
• A Yakan community is organized into parishes
• Each parish is headed by an imam
• Imams serve as the spiritual leader
• The council supports the imam in governance
• sama language
• Belief system elements:
• PAGKAWIN: Traditional wedding ceremony
• TUMAHIK: War dance
• SINAGAN: Healing ritual
• PAGSUMBALIH: Prevents disturbance
• "Baloy" for Ibaloi/Ibaloy comes from "bilay" meaning "living"
• Ancestral domains: Pangasinan and resettled in Itogon, Benguet
• Economic activities include farming, herding cattle, and gold panning
• Marriage:
• Kaising (arrange marriage)
• Kalon

Social Hierarchy

• Ngilin or arol: Wedding ceremony
• Social stratification distinctions:
• Poor (abitug)
• Rich (baknang); two types of wealth called peshit and akon
• Each village has a Tongtong (council)
• Composed of baknang and wise men (impanama or pangamaen)
• nabaloy language of the Ibaloi
• Religious system: Animism and polytheism
• Spiritual beings: Honoring spirits of their ancestors (amed)
• Kavuniyan or Kabunyan is a supreme being known
• The Christian God (Shivus) is seen higher
• Belief system elements:
  • Kabayan fire mummies
  • Bedian dance: Victory dance honoring a successful defense
  • Ibaloy day: Judicial recognition of ancestral lands held every February 23
  • Kiling festival: The kiling bird appears in November
  • Owik: Ritual for butchering a pig
  • Tayaw ni mabiday: Dance of the living by surviving children after burial
  • Dawit: Inviting a person's presence with a butchered pig
• Clothing:
  • Men wear Kubal or binoslan
  • Women wear the kambal or samra
• Kayabang is a traditional basket
• Hanunuo (Mangyan) means "true" or "real" Mangyan
• the indigenous Filipino people primarily living in Mindoro
• Ancestral domain: Mindoro Island
• Economic activities:
  • Farming: Magtamnan farmland
  • Handicrafts include a bay-ong traditional bag
  • Fishing has two forms
  • Solo or group fishing using lambat (net) and pangawil (fishing rod)
• The pakudos cross keeps one away from harm
• Men wear the ba-ag and balukas
  • Women wear the ramit and lambung
• Their clothing is called rutay
  • Wear belts called hagkos
• Mama is the practice of chewing and exchanging betel nuts as an acceptance form
• Pamaguhan is similar to a family reunion
• Hanunuo burial rites
• Elaborate with "bara ceremony" and weighing of the corpse.
• The body is wrapped in a mat or linga-linga bamboo coffin
• Taruk is performed after the pangutkutan ceremony
• Sociopolitical organization is egalitarian and leaderless

Religious Beliefs

• The Manu’ngaw (rice chief) is one of the leading priests
• Panudlakan involves magico-religious rites like the beginning of planting
• Hununuo Mangyan script or surat mangyan is written bottom to top traditionally using bamboo
• Ambahan is one of Hanunuo's traditional poetry, which can be written or sung
• Ginaw Bilog preserved the Mangyan poetry
• Pangutkutan honors a departed member by shaping clothing for remains (sinakot)
  • The process is known as known within the tribe as sinakot
• Pamagpagan and gasta is removing illness by ambuyan and andayan healers
• Daniw ritual is praying to remove evil
• The Mahal na makaako supreme being is of Hanunuo Mangyan
• The kul-Kulo bird means you should not leave the house for two hours
• Sama Bajau/Sama Dilaut - Zamboanga, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi Tawi
• Activities are fishing
• Making and Selling baluy and Seaweed and Boats
• Pagkawin for Sama Dilaut
• Traditional Pangalay dance
• Nipandi pangantin danda for bride bathing
• Ceremonial Bainting and Borak powder

Sama Bajau and Kalinga Beliefs

• Fluvial parade where groom get Bride
• Pagsantik for marriage
• Santikan dada ritual signifies groom.
• Protection
• Tuhan vows with ancestors
• Pagkanduli for celebration
• Wali Djin as spirit
• Hinang for curing.
• recognize that they can be a force

Ancestral Domain and Societal Structure

• Kalinga resides in the cordillera administrative region (CAR)
• They govern through a bodong (peace pact system)
• the bantayog ng mga bayani honored dulag or Macli-Iing
• Economic Activities:
  • Farming
  • Fishing
  • wood and pottery
• Whang od Tattooing
• Rituals:
• • Mutual agree Tugtukaw
• -Two Marriage Types
• --arranged and non
• -kalinga has system and political figures and is one of peace through people

• The Bansa recognizes a Supreme Being Tuan Laut and Dayang Mangilai. -Hinang, -Pagkalinga mean fighter