Indigenous Science and Technologies in the Philippines PDF

Selected Indigenous Science and Technologies A. Medical Care and Health Practices 1. Traditional Self-Medication  Chinese oils or ointments for relaxing, heating, and comforting the muscles or providing relief for dizziness, colds, headaches and sore throats.  Folk healing tech...

Selected Indigenous Science and Technologies A. Medical Care and Health Practices 1. Traditional Self-Medication  Chinese oils or ointments for relaxing, heating, and comforting the muscles or providing relief for dizziness, colds, headaches and sore throats.  Folk healing techniques consistent with the Chinese hot/cold classification system of diseases and the concept of wind illnesses. For example, a technique called ventosa. 2. Local Healers  A local healer may utilize a variety of treatments including the use of herbs and roots although healers are presumed to possess a God given gift, their relative popularity and prestige in the community depends a great deal on their interpersonal relationships with their patients.  The various types of healers common throughout the Philippines include midwives, masseurs, and specialists for supernaturally caused ailments.  Faith healers do not attempt to identify or diagnose a disease, which is in contrast to the traditional concern for identifying the cause of illness (which could presumably be supernatural). Their orientation is holistic and uniform and incorporates the belief in concurrent physical, emotional, and spiritual healing.  Folk healers may serve as indigenous allies whose work can complement modern health practitioners and who can provide the psychological, emotional, and spiritual well- being necessary to the healing process.  In the Cordilleras, Kankana-ey women are healers. They are mambunongs or traditional healers, who perform prescribed rituals to ensure the health and well-being of members of the community.  The concept of health of the people of Badeo is integrally related to their cosmological belief system. They believe in the existence of unseen beings and spirits who possess the power to grant good fortune or to inflict evil such as diseases. Human beings can appease the spirits by way of rituals and sacrificial offerings of animals like pigs and chickens. These indigenous health knowledge and practices continue to persist despite the inroads made by modern medicine. B. Food Preservation 1. Salt coupled with drying as preservative Salted, smoked and/or dried fish and meat products -- "hibe" (shrimp), "tinapa" (anchovies), "tuyo" (smoke fish), "tapa" (dried meat), etc. -- are staples of Filipino diets and cuisine. 2. Salt coupled with fermentation as preservative Bagoong is prepared by salting either small shrimps or fish then the processed product is allowed to undergo partial fermentation. In a more complex procedure, the processed fish product is allowed to undergo longer fermentation and the resulting juice extracted and processed as "patis". The low pH and high salt concentration of "bagoong" and "patis" ensures their long half-life if processed correctly. 3. Fat as a preservative Many of the original pork dishes, like dinuguan, igado & adobo can be prepared so that they can keep for a week or so without any refrigeration. Usually this would include marinating the respective ingredients with the appropriate seasonings to extract a great portion of the liquid from the meat. The marinated meat is then sauteed, more water is added to cover the entire meat and subsequently cooked slowly. Some of the fatty portions of the pig are included in the aforementioned recipes to ensure that when the water in the meat and in the seasoning brew has evaporated, the cooked dish is literally floating in oil. The slow cooking assures almost complete removal of water in the meat and the saturated fat that covers the dish is not subject to fast rancidification. The fat layer covers the entire dish protecting it from spoilage. As prepared above, each dish can last for more than a week without refrigeration. Sometimes they are reheated after a few days to avoid microorganisms from growing. C. Farming Practices 1. Swidden Farming Swidden farming was described as the oldest form of agroforestry practice in Ifugao. Swidden farms or uma are confined to areas that are not being used for muyong and rice terraces. Swidden farming practice involves clearing a patch of sloping grasslands and secondary forests. They plant sweet potato or corn for about two to five years, followed by a fallow period (tahgwunon) for another five years. The fallow system contributes to forest cover. Several indigenous swidden farming practices that help promote land stability and productivity are the following:  Apuyan (Burning). This practice is carried out in the late afternoon to avoid unwanted burning damages to adjacent areas since relative humidity is high and winds are usually slight. Burning may start from the side or from the top to the bottom of kaingin so that the fire movement will be slow.  Lotang (Fencing). Fences are established along the peripheries of swidden farms. Materials can be branches obtained from vegetation clearing activities to avoid further cutting of trees.  Mungabut (Weeding). Removal of unwanted grasses and shrubs is usually performed by women. During weeding, seedlings of indigenous trees such as udyo (Pterocarpus indicus), amug-awon (Vitex parviflora) and dipterocarps are retained. 2. Seed Preservation and Storage and Crop Protection Among the ecofriendly practices on seed preservation and storage include placing unthreshed seeds above wood- burning stoves or hanging them in smoky areas of the kitchen until the next planting season. Rice are preserved by air- drying and mixing them with leaves like kilala, alagao (Premna odorata), lagundi (Vitex negundo), or charcoal. Spraying with achuete (Biya orellana) leaf extract or powdered fruits of siling labuyo (Capsicum frutescens) is also practiced. To protect crops from insect infestation, farmers collect, grind and spread rice bugs in the field to make the soil fertile. D. Energy Production Charcoal Burning Charcoal is used as a domestic fuel for cooking and heating. In Cebu, charcoal makers generally use local techniques. In the ham-ak method, wood is piled on a slope above ground and then covered with grass, weeds, banana leaves and a layer of soil before fire is put to it. In the tinabonan approach, a charcoal pit is dug on a slope, filled with wood and covered with a metal sheet after lighting. The ham-ak approach generates more and better-quality charcoal, but requires close monitoring, 24 hours a day over two to three days. Tinabonan has the advantage of requiring less attention. Charcoal is the most popular barbecue fuel throughout the world. Its advantages when used as a domestic fuel are that it: produces less smoke while burning, requires little or no preparation before actual use, has a higher energy content per unit mass, can be easily transported and stored, and reused when left over after cooking. E. Arts and Crafts 1. Weaving One of the most precious living traditions that are still kept until today is weaving. Originating in the precolonial times, the art of weaving of the Cordillera tribal groups in the North is still existing despite the threat of the more practical mass production of cloth. The natives use backstrap loom to produce blankets and articles of clothing. Piña cloth is also produced in looms throughout the province of Antique. It is a delicate and exquisite handwoven cloth that is made from the fibers which you can get in the leaves of pineapple plants. It is popularly used in Barong Tagalog, our traditional clothes. Abaca fiber come from the abaca plant that is endemic and grown in the country. It is woven chiefly to make sinamay fabric. Abaca is popular in making a rope, specialty papers like vacuum bags, currency, and tea bags. There are also handcrafts like bags, furniture, carpets and clothing made of abaca.  Baskets are mainly used by the Cordilleras for their occupation. They use them as a storage for their food when they need to go to mountain terraces to cultivate their lands. A basket is needed for carrying grains, hunting animals, and fishing in the streams. Baskets made of bamboo become their fish traps; the shape and size of baskets are according to the kind of fish they want to catch. 2. Jewelry Making There are the two major product categories that the fine jewelry industry in the Philippines are engaged for production: The first one is the precious metal jewelry, which are made of gold and silver. It can be in the form of rings, earrings, bracelets, brooches, pendants, necklaces, tie pins, and cuff links (with or without gemstones). Decorative items like spoons and forks, and office items such as pen and pen holders are also included in this category. Another production in the jewelry industry are the pearls, precious stones, and semi-precious stones. These are unworked or worked pearls. Colored gemstones like emerald, rubies, and sapphires are also in this group. 3. Pottery Pots in the Philippines have different sizes, shapes, and designs. Their designs are usually geometric with stylized nature motifs. Pottery became more functional as the time pass by. An example of this is palayok, which is used for cooking. Banga and tapayan are used for storing liquids. There is also the clay-made stove or "kalan". The making of burnay pottery in Ilocos Sur is still a lively tradition that continues up to the present. 4. Woodcarving Philippine sculpture is the most familiar art form among Filipinos. The most popular woodcarving in the Philippines are carvings of the anitos (nature gods), santos (saints), and statues of Christ and the Blessed Mother. 5. Tattoo Tattooing was prevalent during the pre-Hispanic and early colonial period in the Philippines. The practice was common among the Bontok, Ifugao and Kalinga people, the major warrior groups in the Cordillera, in the 16th century. “Batok” is the general term for tattoos. But tattooing is so widespread in the region that there are local equivalents in other Cordilleran languages: whatok (Butbut Kalinga), batók (Kalinga), fatek (Bontoc), bátok (Ifugao), bátek (Ilocano, Ibaloy, Lepanto and Sagada Igorots), and bátak (Kankanaey). Batok is an inscription of culture on the body that can focus on religion, politics, warfare and rituals. They are also seen as a repository of stored memories, experiences and information. Tattoos record the biography of a person as well as the complex tradition of the community. It is a signifier of collective ethnic identity. Early documentation of indigenous tattoos in northern Luzon shows that the human body was fully tattooed with distinct and abstract patterns, as seen in the tattoos found on mummies in Kabayan, Benguet. Most tattoo practitioners (mambabatok) in the past were men. Female tattoo practitioners were rare, as was the case of Whang-ud from Buscalan in Tinglayan, Kalinga. The traditional tattoo was considered a painful rite of passage, a body decoration, a talisman against malevolent forces, a mark of bravery, a visible mark of religious and political affiliations in the community, and a symbol of status or affluence. F. Burial The Ibaloi, the dominant ethno-linguistic group, of Kabayan have a long traditional practice of mummifying their dead. Mummification began prior to the Spanish colonization. Individuals from the higher societal stratum of the Ibaloi of Kabayan used to be mummified through a long ritual process over a long period of time. The process of mummification using salt and herbs and set under fire may take up to two years. When the body is finally rid of body fluids, the mummy is placed inside a pinewood coffin and laid to rest in a man-made cave or in niche dug-out from solid rock. Strategically located in the mountain slopes of the municipality of Kabayan, more than 200 man-made burial caves have been identified and 15 of which contain preserved human mummies. The Ibaloy used various coffin styles to entomb their dead. These coffins are wooden and often carved from hollowed pine trees (Pinus benguetensis). Not all of the coffins were carved as some were constructed from planks made from similar wood. There are three basic coffin shapes or designs associated with the Ibaloy mummies: ellipsoidal, parallelepiped, or in the shape of a carabao (Bubalus bubalis). Some of the coffins were carved with geometric, anthropomorphic and/or zoomorphic patterns. One zoomorphic pattern observed during the 2012 expedition was that of the snake symbolizing the circle of life and the afterlife. This snake motif symbolism is common to many cultures. Ma’am Castillo.