Ifugao (Philippines)

Enivironment
-Ifugao is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Covering a total land area of 262,820 hectares (3336.030 sq mi), the province of Ifugao is located in a mountainous region characterized by rugged terrain, river valleys, and massive forests. Its capital is Lagawe and borders Benguet to the west, Mountain Province to the north, Isabela to the east, and Nueva Vizcaya to the south.
-Cool temperature predominates throughout the year with the coolest month of December to early part of March. The municipalities of Banaue, Mayoyao, Aguinaldo, Hingyon, Tinoc, Hungduan, Kiangan, and Asipulo are the coolest places in the province while moderately hot is being experienced in the lower elevation like in the muni- cipalities of Lamut and Alfonso Lista. The province has an average of 22.5 - 25 °C. The average rainfall is between 100 to 125 inches a year.
- The Ifugao culture is known for their rice terraces. Rice is the main crop grown by the Ifugao. The Ifugao mostly hunt deer, wild buffalo, and pigs. They also loved to fish for eel, frogs, and fish.
- Some environmental stresses put on the Ifugao is the illegal cutting of logs for fuel and construction. Ifugao is famous for its wood carving and the demand for it is rising. The rainforest is being opened for agricultural lands by using the slash and burn method. Due to these stresses the rsult is erosion, landslides, worrn out rice terraces and farmlands. Wild life, animal and plant species are also fast diminishing and some are either extinct or at the brink of extinction. Another issue due to the alterations of the forest are patterns of diseases such as : dengue, malaria, hepatitis, cholera, and dysentery. These diesease are serious health problem with the people of Ifugao and cause a decrease in productivity.

Climatic Adaptations

-I couldnt find any genetic adaptations of the Ifugao but culturally they have adapted. Due to the increase change in temperature of the rainforest the Ifugao build their houses facing the south away from the sun to keep the temeperature of the houses as low as possible. But with the dry season being extended every year due to global warming the Ifugao have not changed their ways of farming. They still keep the same agricultural traditions but many of them are venturing off and finding industry jobs so that they do not depend on the cultures agricultural ways.

Language
-The Ifugao have a language that changes from village to village. It is of Malayo-Polynesian derivation. Dialect and change of pronunciation can make it a real challenge to sustain a conversation between neighboring villagers. However, an official language dictionary has been produced.                                                                                                  

Gender Roles

-Genger roles between men and woman are interchangeable with the Ifugao. There are just as many women farmers then there is men. Thru this culture me and women compliment eachother. Women weave the clothes and traditionally wear skirts from waist high to knee length. Men wear loinclothes and sometimes have tatoos both sex would file or blacken their teeth to show signs of beauty. Beauty is a plus but not necessary in the Ifugao culture women and judged upon by how hard they work in the rice fields. Incenst is forbidden but through history shows that the Ifuago people were created due to a flood where only a brother and sister survived and had children who then had children and populated the Ifuago province. Due to this there is a strict rule on incest family is off limits unless 2nd cousins.

-Boys and girls are raised similiarly and only difference in appearence is by boys having haircuts, shorts, and shirts. Girls have long hair and wear dresses. Because the homes of the Ifugao are one bedrooms the children would live in empty houses or in a widows home like a dorm by the age of 3-4. The boys stayed with the bacholors while the girls stayed with the unmarried women. Boys could visit the women dormitory and be with other women but the mens dorms are off limits to women. Usually by the age of 5 children are expected to watch younger siblings and to be able to complete small tasks such as fetching water or collecting firewood. As the children of the Ifugao grow older the boys have more freedom to do as they wish then the woemn do such as visiting friends and relatives and exploring the forest. Girls have to stay behind and learn domestic labor  such as cooking, cleaning, and husking rice kerns. Round the age of 7-10 the boys start to spend time with the fathers to learn how to farm, fish, and hunt.
-From reading the story "The Blessed Curse"  I believe that she would be accepted in the Ifugao culture. Just because men and women are excepted by sexual preference and that men can do what women do and women can do what men do. The Ifugao might think of her as the best of both worlds.

Subsistence
- The Ifugao strictly use the agriculture as their main subsistence pattern but they do sometimes tend to hunt and fish.
-The main food items consumed by the Ifugao are: rice, sweet potatoe, fish, eel, frogs, clams, pig, deer, wild buffalo, and livestock.
- Traditionally, the men did the hunting, fishing, and farming. While the women picked the rice plants, cooked and cleaned. But now men and women can do any of the tasks at hand.
-With all the plants and animals named for the Ifugao, I believe they have a pretty well balanced diet and if they are lacking anything or needed a crop or animal they are always willing to trade or pay for it

Economic System

-The Ifugao economy comes from mainly their agriculture about 84% and the rest comes from cultivation of aquatic fauna in the rice fields as well as fishing.
- With the surplus of crops that the Ifugao have they trade, sale, and even some of the crop for courtship.
-Traditionally, the Ifugao used the barter system but now they just use either rice or money.
- Ifugao use trade through rice and currency. Being able to trade has been very beneficial for the culture because they now have cotton for clothes, livestock to eat and raise, steel, and brass to build better houses.

Marriage

-Monogamy is the normal and traditional marriage pattern but there are some wealthy individuals that due practice polygamy. Incest is forbidden through first cousins but distant cousins may be married but only with a penalty payment of livestock.
-Marriage partners in wealthy families are arranged through intermediaries, and they make decisions concerning their children's use and inheritance of property.
-In marriage there are some economic exchanges where once married the wife inherits livestock, family airlooms, etc from her parents and the husband gets the same from his and the newly married couple shares it all. But if a man or woman is remarrying due to death or divorce they have to pay the family of the divorced man or woman back what ever they received and a penalty fee.
-Ifugao courtship takes place in the womans home. But once married they then live on their own to start a family.
- Homosexuality is accepted in the Ifugao culture. It doesnt matter man or woman they accept that way of life and just sees it as a woman being a tomboy and taking on manly desires or a man being a transvestite take on womanly desires.

Kinship
-Several types of relationship are described by the same term. All kin of Ego's generation are known by the same term. A second term applies to one's child, nephew, or niece, and a third to one's mother and one's parents' sisters. Bilateral kinship relationships are the most important social ties. Every individual is a member of an exogamous bilateral kindred that extends to one's great-great-grandparents and third cousins. It is responsible for the welfare of its members, and formerly the Ifugao activated it in times of feud. One's kindred becomes allied with one's spouse's kindred at marriage.
-Inheritence is given once one is married, both families gives the newlyweds their inheritence to help start their new beggining. If a family with children gets divorced instead of splitting everything the kids inherit all belongings to the divorced couple.

Social Organization

-The Ifugao culture is a stratified culture. Your power and wealth is depended on how many rice fields, water buffalo, and slaves you own. The only way to gain status is to own as many as the items listed as possible. Who ever owns the most is in charge.

Political Structure
- The Ifugao do not have a formal political system.
- There are 150 districts in the Ifugao culture and each one has several hamlets. In the center of each district is a ritual rice field. The owner of the rice field is the one who makes all the agricultural decisions for the district.
-The laws of the Ifugao are held by a monbaga, a legal authority whose power rests on his wealth, knowledge of customary legal rules, and especially a large supporting group of kin who stand behind his decisions. The monbaga's main sanctions are death and fines. The wealthier you are or the closer in kin to the monbaga the less of a punishment you will receive, but if not wealthy or close in kin you are likely to be put to death.

The Role of Violence

- Past the local areas of the Ifugao province are villages that are contolled by kinship behaviors and the further you go from the Ifugao villages the more unfriendlier it gets. If you keep goin you will eventually end up in the war zone where the Ifugao once fought head hunting battles.
-Two ways violence is presented is through kinship feuds or warfare with outsiders. Feuds were of long duration, they were most often caused by intermarriage between the feuding groups. Warfare often took the form of raiding, with up to 100 men in a war party. Raiders not only collected heads for display on the skull shelves of expedition leaders, but also took slaves for sale to lowlanders.
-Warfare and feuding is now frowned upon and has been put to a stop by the U.S. occupation of the Philippines.

Religion

- The Ifugao religion is based on their cosmology. They divide the universe in 5 different sections: pugao (the kown earth), kabunian (the sky world), dalum ( the underworld), lagod ( the downstream area), and daiya (the upstream area). These regions all have large numbers of spirits and each spirit has its own name and belongs to one of thirty catogories. A few catogories are celestial bodies, natural phenomenom, disease, and hero ancestors.
- The Ifugao religion is polytheistic and it contains deities that are immortal, invisible, mobile, and have the ability to change form.
- Ifugao priest are men who have volunterred to take on the position after they have completed an apprenticship. The priest serve the village by invoking the spirits of deceased ancestors or deities. They also conduct  rituals for successfull hunts, omenology, agricultural abundunce, and prestige feast.
- One unique ritual of the Ifugao religion is that they do no bury their dead. They hang them in trees wrapped up and let their bodies decompose until it is nothing left but the skeleton. After this process they place the skeleton under their house with leaves on top of the body.
- Religion is very important to the Ifugao culture. They use their priest to cast off bad spirits from village members of bad fortune or sickness. They also need religion to put their lives in perspective and keep them on the right track so that they can continue to have good kharma.

Art

-The Ifugao would carve into wood as their artwork. They would create statues that would resemble spirits in which they would belief had the ability to warn off bad spirits or demons and would also bring them good luck, health, prosperity, and a good harvest. They also would carve out mask and create bead work to wear either on their head around their neck and even on their clothing.

-Ifugao songs can be classified as ritual songs and non-ritual songs. Ritual songs are sung during religious occasions. While non-ritual songs are song for one or two reasons "The liwliwa, used to express love, protest and other personal emotions, is sung in debate form by groups of men and women and their leaders. The salidumnay, which can express ideas or emotions, is usually sung antiphonally by groups of men and women. "- Dance has always been apart of the Ifuago life especially during religious activities, rituals, and special occasions.  "Dances are also performed as part of rituals. The Ifugao dance batad is performed during village feasts and religious rituals involving sacrificial animals (Obusan 1989). During the wedding feasts, the iteneg is performed to announce to the whole village the union of the man and woman. There are incantations, prayers and animal sacrifices. As soon as the pig’s bile shows signs favorable to the couple being married, the native rice wine tapoy is passed around and the imbajah dance begins. More incantations and bile examination are conducted before the couple is asked to dance. The groom sports a hornbill headdress while the wife wears a headdress with a brass female figure. The couple then performs the tadek, depicting a rooster and hen courting. They carry a half-dead chicken with their left hands and offer these to the gods."
Conclusion/Cultural Change

a. The Ifugao have been affected by other cultures in todays world. They now have clothing that is more suitable for any weather and it helps them in the long run to stay healthy and avoid the issues of just wearing a loin cloth and not having any foot gear. But also with other cultures coming into the Ifugao province they are destroying the rainforest and taking away resources from the Ifugao culture. Other cultures are cutting down the trees for lumber and killing animals indegenous to the area in which the Ifugao hunt and use for themselves.
b. The Ifugao is healthy in a way. They try to stick with their heritage and continue to use agriculture as their main source of living. But with the newer generations children are growing up and getting reagular industry jobs and shying away from the provinceand their historical way of life.
c. The Ifugao have a weak influenceon the modern world in my opinion. I believe that they are still living in older times and are trying to catch up. They are slowly getting more and more resources from other places. But they are also trying their best to keep what they can of their culture.

Bibliography
- http://www.ncca.gov.ph/about-culture-and-arts/articles-on-c-n-a/article.php?igm=4&i=225

- http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/enhancing-indigenous-knowledge-in-rice-terraces/

- http://www.scribd.com/doc/76969810/50/Ifugao

- http://www.essortment.com/ifugao---native-people-30360.html

- Barton, Roy Franklin (1946). "The Religion of the Ifugaos." American Anthropological Association Memoir 65:1-219.

- http://litera1no4.tripod.com/ifugao_frame.html