THE PHILIPPINES

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 64, Issue 4558, 10 April 1942, Page 6

THE PHILIPPINES

VALIANT IGOROTS FIRST TEST IN MODERN WAR

(By

H.W.L.S.)

The heroic action of the Igorots of the Philippines in the now historic tank charge, as related by General McArthur, is the real first test of behaviour of a native race acting under the aegis of American colonisation. The result of the impact of United States culture and methods on this racial group with whom they have taken the utmost care during the past four decades should be very gratifying to their protectors.

It is accepted among anthropologists- that all indigenous cultures have something of survival value, and it is universally recognised that no native race or group has ever been entirely blotted out, or its influences erased, without the world being the loser. General MacArthur’s report revealed an inspiring story of the gallantry of the Igorots, who sacrificed their own lives unreservedly. Riding on top of United States tanks, they guided the drivers thitough the jungle, thus helping an action Which resulted in complete annihilation of 1000 men. “No guns and no thicket, only death itself, could stop that mad rush. Batan has seen many wild mornings, but nothing to equal this. Always above the din of battle rose the fierce shouts of the Igorots as they rode the tanks and fired their pistols.” The Filipino people are in four distinct groups, all of mainly Malayan origin—the Christian Filipinos, numbering some 10,000.000, who live mostly in Luzon, Mindoro, and the Visayas; the Mahometan Moros, of Mindanai and Sulu; the Negritos or Mountain people, who are spread on the high uplands all over the Archipelago, and present a distinct anthropological problem, for they are pygmies of a negroid type, whose origin is the subject of wide discussion; and the Igo,rot types, which live in the high mountains of Luzon, and who were, until about thirty years ago, head-hunters and the followers of many strange cults and fetishes. To the present day they eat dogs, and in the' mountain capital of Luzon, Baguio, visitors may see the native dog market and its repulsive stock-in-trade. GOLD OF LUZON It is in these high mountains that the gold mines of Luzon were being operated at the time of the Japanese invasion. The miners are Igorots, whose forefathers knew these fields of old, and exploited them by primitive means. The men who work in the pits (and must be searched when leaving, as in gold mines all over the world) are as modern as the plant) with their helmets, lamps, and bootseven American pipes. But those who guard the gold bricks in and out of the vaults prefer their traditional arms and garments—-with, however, the addition of a shirt on which to wear a badge of authority. Igorot miners are considered to be among the best-built physically of all Fili* pinos. Gold valued at £10,000,000 was comin gout of the hills of Luzon each year, and was being shipped to the United States. The mines are great modern plants, with elevators, overhead conveyors, and huge vats in which the ore is crushed and cleansed with chemicals. EAGER FOR LEARNING During the period immediately after the American occupation the Igorots had some reason to resent Americans. Government buildings were being built in Bontoc, soon to be the provincial capital; mission buildings were going up, roads were being re-sur-veyed to an even grade and widened, bridges were being built. Materials for these constructions, as well as consumers’ goods, books, and furniture for a goodly number of American officials and Filipino clerks and soldiers all had to be carried in by Igorots. They were paid, they were not allowed to decline the pay, and they were often fearfully overworked. But this was so6n remedied, and, after a somewhat chequered beginning, America settled down to a fine job of colonisation. In contrast to the Igorots, the Christian Filipinos are placid and docile for the most part, and very amenable to education. Little children may be seen crying because they cannot go to the schools which, although sadly over-crowded, are unable to accommodate all the would-be students. When the Japanese invasion took place education was progressing apace. Hundreds of school teachers, both male and female, imbued with the spirit of service and missionary work in education, had come voluntarily to instruct the Filipinos in the American way of thought and learning, and successfully met and conquered the many hardships and prejudices which beset their early path. As a result instruction was put on an efficient basis, and the percentage of literacy is higher than that in many other countries.

The Government school teacher, a relaively new figure in the village scene in nearly all areas, is becoming an especially powerful influence for change. There is a more sophisticated attitude among those most in touch

with things alien, usually the aristocracy on the one hand and the young people on the other, and this presages a weakening of the rather naive combinations of western and indigenous ideas and beliefs that hold sway. The young people, and those counted of lower status.- are questioning the right of the traditional elite to survive indefinitely. Individualism creeps in to modify the older co-operative arrangements. Another period of cultural flux and reorganisation seems under way. ARTS OF CIVILISATION Dr R. F. Barton, a well-known American anthropologist, has made a special study of the tribes of the Philippines, and published the results of many visits made in pursuance of his research works in that region. “Probably the best single gauge of a culture,” he says, “is the extent to which it uses iron. Thirty years ago the Igorots were so eager for iroh that they persistently stole the spikes of bridges. The small amount of iron that was carried in was too precious for any use except for spear-heads and knives. Government ‘ exchanges ’ were opened, and sold iron in unlimited quantities. Then the Igorot began to shoe his wooden field-sticks with iron, and to make special instruments for digging his stony soil. A few years ago the spading fork was discovered, and in many localities its use has become general. Kerosene, poured into a can through whose lid a home-made wick had been thrust, replaced the smoky fireplace fire that had hitherto been the sole source of light. This device is now giving way to table lamps brought back from the mines. Iron pots have largely replaced the ill-glazed clay ones that absorbed a little of the taste, smell, and substance of everything that had ever been cooked in them (pretty awful messes, sometimes !), and were thus enabled to impart their own distinctive flavour to foods cooked ih them thereafter. Fuel, next after food, is the Igorot’s most serious problem. The mountains that surround Sagada are bare except for a very few zealously cared for forests from which only dead branches may be taken, and a few new plantings. The Igorot never planted trees until quite recently. The Episcopal mission set him the example in this matter; it began planting its reserve of about a hundred barren acres in 1905, and now has an excellent forest, from which it allows him to gather the dead limbs. Such jargons as pidgin and the beche de mer of the Melanesians grew up as necessities for communicating with the white man. The teaching of English has removed any such necessity in the case of the Igorot; his borrowings have had a different moti-vation—-the enriching of his own language; and the spontaneity and completeness of his acceptance is shown by the fact that he indicates tenses, model colouration, and grammatical relations by combining English words or phrases with his own affixes. Igorots of the younger generation are passionately fond of acting in farces, comedies, and burlesques, and fall easily into the spirit of these despite the fact that the types and settings are drawn from a foreign culture.