The Tinguian: Social, Religious, and Economic Life of a Philippine Tribe

The Tinguian: Social, Religious, and Economic Life of a Philippine Tribe

It seems desirable, at the outset, to set forth certain general conclusions regarding the Tinguian and their neighbors. Probably no pagan tribe of the Philippines has received more frequent notice in literature, or has been the subject of more theories regarding its origin, despite the fact that information concerning it has been exceedingly scanty, and careful observations on the language and physical types have been totally lacking. According to various writers, these people are descended from Chinese, Japanese, or Arabs; are typical Malay; are identical with the Igorot; are pacific, hospitable, and industrious; are inveterate head-hunters, inhospitable, lazy, and dirty. The detailed discussion of these assertions will follow later in the volume, but at this point I wish to state briefly the racial and cultural situation, as I believe it to exist in northwestern Luzon. I am under the impression that at one time this whole region was inhabited by pygmy blacks, known as Aeta or Negrito, small groups of whom still retain their identity. With the coming of an alien people they were pressed back from the coasts to the less hospitable regions of the interior, where they were, for the most part, exterminated, but they intermarried with the invaders to such an extent that to-day there is no tribe or group in northwestern Luzon but shows evidence of intermixture with them. I believe that the newcomers were drawn from the so-called primitive Malay peoples of southeastern Asia; that in their movement eastward and northward they met with and absorbed remnants of an earlier migration made up of a people closely related to the Polynesians, and that the results of this intermixture are still evident, not only in Luzon, but in every part of the Archipelago. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 12849
Author: Cole, Fay-Cooper
Release Date: Jul 8, 2004
Format: eBook
Language: English