There are basically three major demographical groupings in Mindanao:
1) Filipino Muslim
2) Filipino Christian
3) Lumad
Perhaps it is the last one, the "Lumad," that is the most interesting. Basically analogous to the "Igorot" of Central and Northern Luzon, the term "Lumad" is a generic label applied to a multitude of diverse, mostly Animist Hilltribes that inhabit the interior of the island. The term itself is Cebuano, the lingua franca of non-Muslims on Mindanao and literally means, "of the land," or in an idiomatic English sense, "Indigenous." Like mamy groups who end up adopting contrived labels applied by outsiders, the Lumad themselves finally adopted the label in June of 1986 as a way in which to negate tribal and ethnic differences. In this respect it has a good deal in common with the term "Bangsamoro" (Muslim Bloodline, or idiomatically speaking, "Muslim Heritage") which was invented in the late-1960s for the very same reasons. The term "Lumad," shorthand for "Katawhang Lumad," or, "Person born of this Land" (Indigenous Person) was formally adopted at a conference of Animist Tribes held at the Guadalupe Formation Center in North Cotabato Province's municipality of Kidapawan City, where 15 of the 18 ethno-linguistic groupings (often incorrectly classified as "tribes" of which Mindanao has several dozen). I need to point out that it was the Maoist NPA that was instrumental in that 1986 gathering. Formation Centers were bastions of Liberation Theology and co-incidentally employed NPA cadres such as the infamous "Angie Impong" among others.
The technical description of Lumad Peoples has the following 17 groupings, all of which share three points of commonality:
1) Native to Mindanao
2) Traditional Belief Systems remain intact
3) Malayan and/or Indonesian in descent (meaning Negritos are not included)
However, officialy speaking, there are 18 groupings though academics, politicians and the Lumad themselves cannot reach a consensus on which group constitutes the 18th...The 18:
1) Mandaya
2) Mansaka
3) Manuvu, usually referred to by non-Lumad as "Manobo"
4) Higaon-on
5) B'laan
6) Sangil
7) Bagobo
8) Teduray, or Tiruay
9) Tagakaola, or Kaola
10) T'boli
11) Subanon
12) Mangguangan
13) Dibabawon
14) Talaandig
15) Ubo
16) Banwa'on
17) Bukidnon
Number 18 is a bit of a cypher since it depends entirely upon opinion. The whole concept of "Lumad," or "Indigenous People" is counter-intuitive in the Philippines anyway, since classification can be so fluid as I will show further along in this entry. Basically, Mindanowan demography is skewed along the lines of religion, Muslim, Christian, or Animist. However, due to the quasi-fascist cultural terrorism of mostly Western Christian missionaries the majority of Lumad have at least a nominal affiliation with Christianity. Likewise, Islam is always pressing up against traditional Lumad Culture and beliefs. The best example would probably the Kalagan Tribe of Davao del Norte and ComVal (Compostela) Provinces. As Islam expanded into what we now call the Davao Region the highly marginalised Kalagan converted en masse to Islam in one fall swoop after tribal elders saw it as their best survival strategy. Now the Kalagan are counted as one of the 13 Muslim Tribes. What about individuals within the B'laan or Teduray Tribes? They are Lumad but WHAT IF they individually convert to Islam? Indeed, one of the tribes listed, the Sangil IS Muslim.
Then there is the issue of what constitutes a "tribe." Anthropologically speaking it is very easy to define, a traditional kinship grouping in which the group has reached critical mass as it expands (vis a vis the absolutely "bare bones" definition). But with Lumad we see ethno-linguistic groupings labeled as "tribes." My subject matter in this new series of "History" entries for example, the Manuvu, or as they are much more widely known, the Manobo...There is no "Manobo Tribe." Manobo was a term originally applied by other tribes to tribes whom they deemed inferior. In the early Spanish Era it came to represent so called "un-civilised" tribes. Tribes applied it to Negritos AS WELL AS to fellow Malay slash Indonesian Tribes. Today it has come to represent a disparate group of tribes ranging from the Agusan to the Matigsulag and a whole lot of shadings in between.
Another such quandry are the "Bukidnon Tribe." "Bukidnon" was Cebuano term (just as "Lumad" itself is) that merely denotes. "Those who live in the mountains," or Hilltribesmen. Again we see disparate tribes lumped together under an extrenely generic heading. Confusing the issue is the fact that there is today a Bukidnon Province. Saying "Bukidnon Tribe" can merely refer to a "non-Bukidnon" Tribe that merely dwells within that province, for example, the Manuvu and the Higaon-on both have substantial populations within that province's borders. Even more perplexing is the fact that in Bukidnon Province the "Bukidnon Tribe" does NOT dwell in the highlands but on the province's plains and in its largest valleys. This is because the Spanish tended to apply the label to recently "civilised" "Conquistas," or newly converted Christians that had presumably come down from the mountains. Also worth noting, on Panay Island in the Central Philippines' Visayas Region, the term "Bukidnon" is used to apply to Bisaya who resisted Spanish colonisation and assimilation by receding into the mountainous interior.
Suprisingly in the last couple of years people have mistakenly begun to label Mindanao's Negritos as "Lumad" as well. On the face of it is seems perfectly sensible since Negritos are also Animist Hilltribesmen but they don't meet the stock definition of "Malay and/or Indonesian." Ironically there is a similarly mysterious dynamic with regard to the island's Negritos. According to most academics, all Mindanowan Negritos today belong to the Mamanoa, or as they are more widely known, the "Mamanwa Tribe." However, the term "Mamanwa" is simply a generic label that literally means, "The First to Dwell in the Jungle/Forest." Just as one can find "Bukidnon Tribes" on Mindanao AND on Panay, so one can find "Mamanoa Tribes" on Leyte and Negros Islands AS WELL AS Mindanao. It isn't unheard of for tribes to inhabit different islands but in the case of the Mamanoa on Leyte and Negros, also islands in the Visayas Region, they ARE Negrito but posses a different language, culture and Belief System than the various Mamanoa groups on Mindanao (as do the Bukidnon of Panay when compared to the Bukidnon of Mindanao).
Another perplexing issue with regard to the 18th Lumad Tribe is that increasingly one finds the "Tasaday Tribe" placed on the list. For those who may be unaware, at the beginning of the 1970s, a stone age tribe of Malay descent was found naked and living in a cave in South Cotabato Province. Uncontacted Tribes are not unheard of even today in some parts of the world and Mindanao, until recently, certainly could have harboured such a tribe. The Tasaday were roughly two dozen individuals who knew very little about the outside world. What precious little they did know had been gleaned from a B'laan hunter who claims to have stumbled upon the Tasaday as he stalked a deer deeper into the jungle near his hometown. In turn this hunter told villagers about the Tasaday, or so the story goes, and before too long a Marcos crony, Rene Elizade, came south for a look see. Elizade arrived to meet the tribe in a helicopter which, if the tribe was truly contacted, could have catastrophically changed the tribe's worldview. Deciding that the Tasaday needed protecting Elizade cordoned off a huge swath of jungle and controlled all outside contact including the academic world which understandably was chomping at the bit to examine them.
In the end allegations of chicanery and deception swirled around the tribe after anthropologists and journalists later tracked down the Tasaday, or so they say, only to find that in fact they were T'boli Tribespeople who had been paid to act in a psychodrama meant to deflect Marcos' Martial Law which was declared within that same timeframe (and possibly to fufill some need for attention by Elizade). Later others would argue that the tribe was in fact authentic so that today noone but the Tasaday can say for sure since the hunter and Elizade died long ago. Personally? Well I will save my take on them for a lengthly entry on the issue.
In any event, the book I will be excerpting from in this section is not a book per se but rather an academic treatise presented at the 1929 annual gathering of the National Academy of the Sciences in the United States. Entitled, "The Manobos of Mindanao" by John M.Galvan. Galvan does a magnificent job and to his credit seems to be unblemished with the typical "White Man's Burden" mindset. He approaches his work by considering views other than his own with sincerity and respect. Garvan was a fascinating man. Emigrating to the United States from his native Irelans in 1895, at age 20. Saving gis wages he was able to put himself through university and afterwards spent 5 years teaching in one or another school.
In 1903 Garvan enlisted for service as a teacher in the nascent Americanisation programme being foisted upon the re-conquered people of the Philippines. In 1907 Garvan decided not to re-enlist and instead he opted for a life in the Mindanowan bush, homesteading in what is today Agusan del Sur Province. There Garvan opened up a trading post slash general store and became very well acquainted with the Manobo living in the hills around him. With no formal training as an anthropologist, ethnologist, OR sociologist. He merely had an inquisitive mind with a keen interest in the world around him.
Returning to America in 1925. In 1929, having edited his voluminous notes and journals he produced what became the seminal volume on the Manobo. That November he presented his volume at the annual conference for the National Academy of Science in Washington D.C.
I need to add that while many know of the aforementioned work on the Manobo, Garvan also studied the Negritos and became the first to study all four Negrito groupings in the Philippines:
1) Mindanao in what is today Surigao del Norte Province
2) Negros Island in the Central Philippines' Visayas Region
3) Northern Luzon
4) In what is today Zambales Province
The work was unfortunately published in its entierty after Garvan's death: "The Negritos of the Philippines" edited by Hermann Hochegger (Vienna:Horn) (1969). Portions had appeared a bit earlier but the only one I personally know of is a German language, "J.M.Garvans Materialien uber die Negritos der Philippinen" Fritz Borneman (Anthropos #50, pp899-930)(1955).
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