CAED 103 MODULE 1 For Printing
CAED 103 MODULE 1 For Printing
CAED 103 MODULE 1 For Printing
MODULE 1
MODULE I
CULTURE AND ARTS EDUCATION IN PLURAL SOCIETIES
INTRODUCTION
This module presents the rich culture of the Cordillera Region. Topics such
as history, weaving, clothing, and cultural practices will be discussed in this
module. It also aims to explore the distinct culture that they practice in the
highlands. As a culture and arts student, this will help you to appreciate more
the beautiful culture and community practices in Cordillera.
OBJECTIVES
Lesson 1
HISTORY OF CORDILLERA
The Cordillera during the Spanish Colonial Regime. It was the lure of
Igorot gold, which drew the Spanish conquistadores to the Gran Cordillera
Central as early as 1572. A series of expeditions were launched to locate the
MUST WATCH
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z6lVJJevMM
I hope you enjoy the video! What did you learn from the
video?
THINK!
List down 10 things or symbols that will remind you about the
culture of Cordillera.
Lesson 2
CORDILLERAN WEAVING
In the Cordillera Region, the use of cloth is involved in life from birth to
death, in sickness and health. A baby is cocooned in cloth. The sick are wrapped
and healed in it. Couples are clasped in it and in death, one is buried in it.
Identity is defined when the members of a group make and wear clothing that
distinguishes them from others. Dressing styles indicate different ethnic origins.
As an art form, textiles are embedded in all aspects of life from day-to-day
situations to the performance of rituals.
At the age of ten or earlier, daughters learn the craft from their mothers,
and when they pass on their skills, they transfer technology that involves
expertise about materials and ways of learning. The legacy of weaving is not just
cloth or a product. Weaving, as it passes from mother to daughter, is a social
practice that assures continuity. Acknowledged as having specialized skills,
expert weavers obtain prestige and economic benefits from weaving.
The beaten bark cloth is most likely the earliest cloth application in the
Philippines. Chinese traders introduced cotton during the late Sung dynasty.
When the Spanish colonizers first encountered the coastal Ilocanos, white cotton
textiles were in everyday use. In the Cordilleras, many believe that the Itneg and
Gaddang were among the first to take up weaving although the exact date has
not been established. The Ifugao, Bontoc, Kalinga, and Kankana-ey, according to
some research, may have started weaving only in the 18th century.
Ifugao Ikat weaving is a style of weaving that uses a resist dyeing process
on either the warp or weft before the threads are woven to create a pattern or
design. The result of this process is a motif which is fuzzy in appearance. This
blurry look comes from the slight bleeding of the dyes into the resist areas. Ifugao
Ikat is characterized by diamond stripes of white and red stripes. It is known for
its colors and striking design patterns.
There are several types of Ikat weaving: warp ikat, weft ikat, and double
ikat. Warp Ikat is when only the vertical yarn, the warp, is tie-dyed for weaving.
It’s used when regular patterns are to be woven. It’s difficult to weave because
the weft colors are to be thrown precisely against the warp patterns. Weft Ikat
on the other hand, is when only the horizontal yarn, the weft, is tie-dyed for
weaving. This results in a more irregular and organic fabric design. When both
the warp and the weft are tie-dyed, that’s the double Ikat. This requires utmost
precision skills in counting and mounting the warp yarns and in throwing the weft
shuttle against the warp patterns in actual weaving.
Kalinga hand woven fabrics are characterized by dominant red stripes and
motifs of geometric patterns with nature symbols interlaced with white yellow
and black fibers. Originally woven in Lubuagan, the “ka-in” (wrap around skirt)
is now more known as the Kalinga. The different types of “ka-in” are gilamat,
silugwid, pilakpak, gililing, lilaktob and ilaglis. For men’s g-strings, there are the
pilagpagen, kilayao and sillayuti. These are traditionally on rituals and special
occasions like weddings, festivals, and other important occasions. In Kalinga
weaving symbolism, the sky and ground are represented by the colours indigo
and red respectively. Mountains are represented in yellow and are embroidered
in the fabric. Yellow symbolizes wealth and refer to growth and fertility. Beading
is another distinct characteristic of the Kalinga apparel.
THINK!
Lesson 3
TRADITIONAL CLOTHING IN
CORDILLERA
Just like any other indigenous group, the Cordillerans wore leaves, fiber,
or nothing at all before they learned the art of weaving. It is believed that they
would only wear cured barks of native trees as well as broad leaves. They would
wrap these on their private parts and use banana fiber to knit them together.
But with the introduction of weaving, the people of Cordillera slowly
transitioned to woven textiles. These are now the costumes used during their
cultural events such as the Panagbenga Festival, Lang-ay Festival, Fortan
Festival, and many more.
Lesson 4
CULTURAL PRACTICES IN
CORDILLERA
One of the unique aspects of life in the Cordilleras is that people are
essentially a self-contained society, running all aspects of life from businesses to
People from Sagada, Mountain Province are also known for beehives honey
production. He harvests the mountain honey and sells his product primarily to
visitors staying at his lodging house or passing through his restaurant. All
businesses in Sagada are locally owned and run by Cordilleran people.
With the increase of tourism in the Cordilleras, some local and foreign
tourists are looking to find more adventurous hiking treks in the extremely
beautiful mountains. Sagada in the Mountain Province in particular is often
overwhelmed with people visiting that there are not enough rooms for visitors,
especially during holidays. Most visitors only stay for a couple of days exploring
the caves and other attractions closer to Sagada. Local guides and porters rely
on tourism. It also serves as their source of income for some locales.
In Cordillera, pigs are important in the life of the Cordillerans. These are
used a food source and also used for a number of different rituals as well. In
some communities, there were more pigs walking around than people.
Eating and socializing is an important time each day for people to talk and
build relationships. After eating, the men will generally have a few drinks
together. Most of their meals were cooked over an open fire and pitch pine (an
oily part of the pine tree) is used for light at night instead of kerosene lamps.
When going into the mountains, you can see a lot of food for survival such as of
wild mushroom, fresh green ferns, avocados, green mangoes, and mongo beans.
Much of the culture and life in the Cordilleras revolves around rice. From
planting to harvest each period represents a time that is honoured and sacred in
its own way. My trip happened to be during a growing period and I was not able
to see a lot of people planting or harvesting rice. There is always some activity
though as weeding, keeping birds away, drying harvested rice and other tasks
are ongoing. Rice is the staple crop for the Igorots and they have built some of
the biggest and most advance rice terraces in the world. Traveling through the
Cordilleras you will see some amazing terraces that have been around for
millennium. To this day, many of the tribes still practice thanksgiving rituals
before planting and at harvest time. The Begnas ritual for the Kankanaey and
the Bumayah for the Ifugao people are two examples of this. These rituals are
usually put together very fast and are never scheduled, so witnessing one takes
some patience and timing. Perhaps on my next visit I will be able to witness one.
Stoned rice terraces are very common in the Cordilleras and represent an
ancient and sustainable system for communal rice production. Drying rice in the
sun is the most traditional method for reducing moisture content and the only
method available in most remote locations. During their break time, coffee with
their families during a mid-day break from working in the rice field is one of their
practices.
resource for the Cordilleran people. Hunting and fishing are also an important
culture in the Cordilleras and is often learned at the early age.
The forest still provides an abundant source of wild meat for many
families. Wild pigs, deer and birds are still commonly caught by hunters. Hunting
dogs are an important part of getting wild pig, deer and birds. Without a trained
dog it would be very difficult to find anything. Children start to learn how to fish
and hunt at an early age. They use a small spear style gun to catch the river fish
which are fairly small.
Wedding season really means there are a lot of weddings to attend. Most
of the traditional wedding celebrations in the Cordilleras now integrate a
Christian church ceremony as well as the tribal ceremony and rituals done at
home or in the reception. Most traditional weddings last for two to three days
and everyone in the community is invited to attend and eat. Bunch of pigs are
slaughtered all at one time in preparation for an event. Women are usually
responsible in cutting and preparing vegetables for a traditional wedding. The
whole community is invited to the three day celebration which means a lot of
food must be prepared.
Men distribute the meat to all of the people who helped cook and prepare
the wedding food. As a token for their help, different size chunks of meat are
given out depending on what the persons’ role was during the preparation (in
addition to being fed). More than 20 pigs and some carabaos (water buffalo) are
used for the wedding.
Many couples in the region now also have a church ceremony. The
ceremony at the Episcopal Church was like any other church wedding with all of
the traditional tribal aspects happening before or after the event. Each
community has different traditional ways of making two people united which are
still practiced. Much of this has to do with uniting two families or clans together
over time and involves a variety of different food exchanges, animal sacrifices
and rituals. Others believed that in some communities, when a woman sleeps
over at her mans’ family’s house and does the dishes in the morning it means the
couple is officially married.
People used to wait in a long line to visit the home of the bride during the
event. Everyone from the community is invited to come and get food at the
brides home for three days straight. Wedding gatherings are some of the bigger
social events held for the Cordilleran people. All of the food is cooked in large
woks over an open fire. This wedding had four woks which were always full of
different recipes being cooked. Part of the practice for the Kankanaey is that all
the guests who come and partake in the celebration and eat should give a small
amount of money to the couple. Once you give something your name is written
down in a notebook, your money placed in a large basket and you are given a
token of appreciation.
Playing of gongs (Gansa) and dancing is a fun and typical part of the
wedding celebration. Any group of people can pick up the gongs and get a dance
going and it is all very spontaneous. The elders all the way to the youth enjoy
playing the gongs and dancing.
In the village of Buscalan, Kalinga there are still remnants of the one
thousand year old ancient art of tattooing (batek) once commonly practiced in
Kalinga. Men traditionally got tattooed as a rite of being a warrior or taking a
head which was fairly common place up until the time of about WWII. Thus, it is
difficult to find men nowadays who still have tattoos and younger men don’t
especially feel right about getting one to show their identity (because of the
meaning it carries). Women on the other hand would get tattoos to beautify
themselves, but more so to signify acceptance and the different stages of their
life. There are a number of research articles online describing in-depth the
meaning of these tattoos and the purposes for getting them if you are interested
in learning more. Today, there are still numerous older women in Buscalan and
in other provinces of Cordillera that can be found with the tattoos.
The art is slowly fading away, but Fang-od (Whang Od), the last remaining
traditional Kalinga tattoo artist has helped bring a lot of attention back to the
craft. At 93 years old Fang-od is a lively and very entertaining person who has
the energy level of about a 50 year old. In 2010 she was featured on the Discovery
Channel television show “Tattoo Hunter” which helped set the stage for other
shows and documentaries all bringing a lot of recognition to the art. This sparked
a huge amount of interest and today people from all over the Philippines and the
world come to visit her and get a tattoo. Fang-od does not have any children,
but one of her nieces is now starting to learn the craft. It’s hard to know what
will happen after Fang-od passes on, but hopefully the traditional tattooing will
somehow continue.
THINK!
What are the common practices of the Cordilleran and the people
from the lowlands?
References:
Maches, D. (2020). Igorot costume (for males and females): things you need to
know. Retrieved from https://danielsecotravels.com/igorot-costume/