Today is Saturday, July 10th, 2010 and it is now 844 PM here in Sagada, Luzon, Philippines.
Recap: Jackie and I have taken a short trip about half a day by auto to the northn part of Luzon, the cannabis capitol of this part of the world.
This entry: I had spoken just a tiny bit about how even this distant part of the Philippines has had problems with insurgency. I had also spoken about how despite the communist rebels and the permanant curfew the rebellion here has run out of sream. Silly me...About 12 hours ago 7 soldiers were killed in an ambush. I won't bore anybody talking about the nature of the war here, significantly different than that on Mindanao, 1400 km to the south.
The people here are very interesting. Just as on Mindanao there are a large number of Hilltribes. Likewise, Just as on Mindanao there is a catchphrase used to describe them collectively. On Mindanao the tribes themselves adopted the Bisaya word "Lumad," meaning "One born of this soil" to describe themselves collectively.
This self categorisation was adopted at a forum for 18 of these tribes held in Cotabato City, N.Cotabato Province in the late 1980s and is a unique case where the truly indigenous managed to take control of their own destiny, at least in this very small way. That is one tiny glimmer of home in what can certainly be a very depressing narrative.
The Hilltribes here on Luzon are known collectively as "Igorot" (Ee-go-wrote), meaning, "Of the mountains," or so I am told. I do know a bit about the northern tribes but nothing at all like I know the southern ones with which I am intimately involved (hahahah I guess literally since the Jacky episode hahaha).
The orthadox narrative has these islands originally populated by "Negritos," a Spanish term meaning "Little Blacks." Negritos can now only be found on Luzon, Mindanao and 2 islands in the Visayan chain because like all truly indigenous peoples they have always gotten the short end of the stick.
Their greatest number now live on Mindanao, simply because they were until 2 generations ago almost all, close to the stone age in terms of a way of life. When they came into direct contact with non-Negritos they had no resistance to diseases modern humans take for granted. Culturally it is much the same.
Imagine that you live deep in a rain forest in a leaf and branch shelter, hunting with bow and arrow and blow gun. You are aware that there are others, you see their tell tale signs and you meet isolated traders now and again. You have a couple of iron pots that are treasures to your family but that is it as far as modern conveniences go.
One season as you move towards your traditional season grounds you see an incredibly wide trail, wider than you have ever seen, has been plowed straight through the forest. Before you can see who or what has made such an incredible thing the people around you, your family, begin getting strange sicknesses and very quicly half your number dies.
2 months later your world, your way of life has been irrevocably lost.
One thing that I used to think about quite a bit when I first entered the outside world and learned about non-Jewish things (until age 11 I did not know a single non-Jew despite living in New York City), was a man called "Ishi."
Ishi was a so called "Native American" from a small tribe centered north of San Francisco, California. His small band was unrelated linguitically, to any other known tribes, and his way of life was extremely primitive (I hate that word but its all we humans have to convey the idea, sorry). The California Gold Rush wiped out his small tribe very quickly until only poor Ishi was left and one day he decided to live, to adapt.
He ended up actually living in a natural history museum as a living exhibit, in a typical 19th Century development. All alone, noone speaking his language, he was dressed up from time to time in European clothes to be paraded for philantropists and dignitaries but he spent most days in his small exhibit, fashioning arrows and other small primitive implements.
I suppose that was when I first became enamoured with anthropology though I wouldn't even know what that term meant until the army forced me into a secular education programme before they allowed me into Officers College.
The most amazing thing, in my mind? Today as I write this there are other "Ishis" in almost identical predicaments, the operative difference being that noone is paying to see them turn willow branches into arrows.
Not too long ago I was reading about a very small band living in the scrublands of Paraguay in South America. If I recall correctly, there was 1 male adult in his 20s, 2 related females a bit older, and 2 small children, all related. They, like Ishi, have no known connections to any other linguistic or cultural group. They had given up nomadism to try and eek out a very poor existence in a tiny patch of undeveloped scrubland perhaps 20 km square, as soybean producers (huge factory farms of the type one only sees in Brasil and Paraguay) encroach more and more each day. The factory farms in this case are on all sides, and pushing in and before the farm paramilitaries could exterminate this band, which is exactly what they do in such cases, Activists took their cause to heart (1 of the few times I have seen "Activists" actually do a really good thing). They have gained scientific attention, thankfully (since it will ensure that they have the best chance for survival) and it is hoped that they have already managed to gain some resistance to European diseases because of the (until recently) very gradual encroachment.
What is in store for such a group, if they do survive? Well, given the wonderful character count our betters here at BL have implemented, I will have to leave THAT for a subsequent entry though, since curfew kicked in exactly 30 minutes ago, I am sure that the entry will be today (if I don't consume anymore of that hash oil).
Recap: Jackie and I have taken a short trip about half a day by auto to the northn part of Luzon, the cannabis capitol of this part of the world.
This entry: I had spoken just a tiny bit about how even this distant part of the Philippines has had problems with insurgency. I had also spoken about how despite the communist rebels and the permanant curfew the rebellion here has run out of sream. Silly me...About 12 hours ago 7 soldiers were killed in an ambush. I won't bore anybody talking about the nature of the war here, significantly different than that on Mindanao, 1400 km to the south.
The people here are very interesting. Just as on Mindanao there are a large number of Hilltribes. Likewise, Just as on Mindanao there is a catchphrase used to describe them collectively. On Mindanao the tribes themselves adopted the Bisaya word "Lumad," meaning "One born of this soil" to describe themselves collectively.
This self categorisation was adopted at a forum for 18 of these tribes held in Cotabato City, N.Cotabato Province in the late 1980s and is a unique case where the truly indigenous managed to take control of their own destiny, at least in this very small way. That is one tiny glimmer of home in what can certainly be a very depressing narrative.
The Hilltribes here on Luzon are known collectively as "Igorot" (Ee-go-wrote), meaning, "Of the mountains," or so I am told. I do know a bit about the northern tribes but nothing at all like I know the southern ones with which I am intimately involved (hahahah I guess literally since the Jacky episode hahaha).
The orthadox narrative has these islands originally populated by "Negritos," a Spanish term meaning "Little Blacks." Negritos can now only be found on Luzon, Mindanao and 2 islands in the Visayan chain because like all truly indigenous peoples they have always gotten the short end of the stick.
Their greatest number now live on Mindanao, simply because they were until 2 generations ago almost all, close to the stone age in terms of a way of life. When they came into direct contact with non-Negritos they had no resistance to diseases modern humans take for granted. Culturally it is much the same.
Imagine that you live deep in a rain forest in a leaf and branch shelter, hunting with bow and arrow and blow gun. You are aware that there are others, you see their tell tale signs and you meet isolated traders now and again. You have a couple of iron pots that are treasures to your family but that is it as far as modern conveniences go.
One season as you move towards your traditional season grounds you see an incredibly wide trail, wider than you have ever seen, has been plowed straight through the forest. Before you can see who or what has made such an incredible thing the people around you, your family, begin getting strange sicknesses and very quicly half your number dies.
2 months later your world, your way of life has been irrevocably lost.
One thing that I used to think about quite a bit when I first entered the outside world and learned about non-Jewish things (until age 11 I did not know a single non-Jew despite living in New York City), was a man called "Ishi."
Ishi was a so called "Native American" from a small tribe centered north of San Francisco, California. His small band was unrelated linguitically, to any other known tribes, and his way of life was extremely primitive (I hate that word but its all we humans have to convey the idea, sorry). The California Gold Rush wiped out his small tribe very quickly until only poor Ishi was left and one day he decided to live, to adapt.
He ended up actually living in a natural history museum as a living exhibit, in a typical 19th Century development. All alone, noone speaking his language, he was dressed up from time to time in European clothes to be paraded for philantropists and dignitaries but he spent most days in his small exhibit, fashioning arrows and other small primitive implements.
I suppose that was when I first became enamoured with anthropology though I wouldn't even know what that term meant until the army forced me into a secular education programme before they allowed me into Officers College.
The most amazing thing, in my mind? Today as I write this there are other "Ishis" in almost identical predicaments, the operative difference being that noone is paying to see them turn willow branches into arrows.
Not too long ago I was reading about a very small band living in the scrublands of Paraguay in South America. If I recall correctly, there was 1 male adult in his 20s, 2 related females a bit older, and 2 small children, all related. They, like Ishi, have no known connections to any other linguistic or cultural group. They had given up nomadism to try and eek out a very poor existence in a tiny patch of undeveloped scrubland perhaps 20 km square, as soybean producers (huge factory farms of the type one only sees in Brasil and Paraguay) encroach more and more each day. The factory farms in this case are on all sides, and pushing in and before the farm paramilitaries could exterminate this band, which is exactly what they do in such cases, Activists took their cause to heart (1 of the few times I have seen "Activists" actually do a really good thing). They have gained scientific attention, thankfully (since it will ensure that they have the best chance for survival) and it is hoped that they have already managed to gain some resistance to European diseases because of the (until recently) very gradual encroachment.
What is in store for such a group, if they do survive? Well, given the wonderful character count our betters here at BL have implemented, I will have to leave THAT for a subsequent entry though, since curfew kicked in exactly 30 minutes ago, I am sure that the entry will be today (if I don't consume anymore of that hash oil).