Rethinking Locality in Ifugao: Tribes, Domains and Colonial Histories

McKay

Abstract

In the context of lfugao municipalities applying for ancestral domain, a review of the oral histories collected within a community of precolonial "migrants" allows this article to locate an indigenous group on quite a different terrain, one with no concrete locality or authentic identity to begin with. Instead, this locality is forged through the resources provided by colonial histories, and is spreading out into different nodes, in an attempt to gain land and livelihood security. By tracing the history of this group, the article shows how expectations of definitive precolonial geographic identities- tribes on domains-are part of a colonial imaginary. The story of how one barangay came into being through engagements with colonialisms exemplifies one of the many ways of becoming and being indigenous possible in the Philippines.

Citation

McKay. (2005). Rethinking Locality in Ifugao: Tribes, Domains and Colonial Histories

• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2005
• Journal: Philippine Studies
• Print ISSN: 0031-7837
• Pages: 459 - 490
• Keywords: indigenous peoples, colonial history, Ifugao, migration,; politics of representation