Regions with significant populations | |
---|---|
Philippines | 119,857 (2020 census) [1] |
Languages | |
Palawano, Tagalog | |
Religion | |
Roman Catholic and traditional religion (majority) Sunni Islam (minority) | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Palawan tribes, other Filipino peoples, other Austronesian peoples |
The Palawan, also known as Palaw'an or Palawano, are an ethnic group native to the Palawan island group in the Philippines. They are the main indigenous population of Palawan. The name of the island they inhabit is named after this ethnic group.
They are divided into four ethno-linguistic subgroupings. [2] These are the Quezon Palawano which is also known as the Central Palawano; the Bugsuk Palawano or South Palawano; Brooke's Point Palawano; and Southwest Palawano. The Quezon Palawano subgroup are found in Southern Palawan, particularly on the western section of the municipality of Quezon including the eastern part of Abo-abo of the municipality of Sofronio Espanola, going southward down to the northern section of the municipality of Rizal. A large group of Palawans can also be found in Sitios Gugnan, Kambing, Tugpa, and Kalatabog of Barangay Panitian. The Taw't Bato of the municipality of Rizal at the foot of Mt. Matalingahan also belongs to this same Palawan tribal group although their language is 15 percent different from the Quezon Palawanos.
The Palawans were originally a tribe in Southern Palawan until agrarian settlers started to occupy their once vast domain. The tribe would exploit the most fertile piece of land and move on to next. Their family units were very small, possibly due to high mortality rates. They built their houses usually on a hillside but close to the river or stream using four skinny trunks of trees. The floor is roughly 15 to 20 feet from the ground. Families used a slanted log to climb or to enter their houses, except for single or bachelor's shanties where a suspended rope is preferred.
They hunt wild animals using spears with a lethal poison at the tip. They catch fish by using a special root sap that is diluted in a shallow stream or river. The tribe hardly domesticate chicken nor hogs although dogs were their favorite pet because they can also be used in hunting. The Palawans do not usually use sea salt on their food. Their usual diet is made up of rice, banana, cassave, vegetables, rimas or breadfruit, fruits, wild pigs from hunting, birds such as wild quails and tikling, wild chicken/labuyo, and freshwater fish. They prepare a delicious festival dish called pinyaram. A kind of cassava or rice cake placed on top of banana leaves that is quite similar to the Tagalog's bibingka.
They were naive in socializing with their outside world, and they would welcome you with extreme precaution as they were always scared of getting sick. At the onset of this fear, they would immediately abandon their area. It is believed that they have the shortest life span of all peoples but no statistical data are however available to support this claim. They do not have a concept of year or years. When asked when were they born, they would reference it to a standing tree, explaining that they were born when a particular tree was just about a certain height.
Their choices of clothing were g-strings for men and patadyong for women or the so-called native wraps similar to the more popular malong.
One of their children's playtoys is a top that is flat, usually about a third of an inch thick that is spun on the ground using a rope of one and a half meters in length.
The influx of agrarian settlers in Southern Palawan had gradually influenced the cultural orientation and some of the traditional practices of the Palawan tribe. The way they build their houses had slowly changed adopting more and more the styles of their agrarian settler neighbors. Construction materials however had remained the same. As they become aware of the concept of property rights, they started to build small villages and stopped being nomadic people resulting to little linguistical differences among villages. Studies in 1990s had identified four ethno-linguistic subgroups as mentioned above. However, more studies are needed in order to categorize each of the villages scattered in Southern Palawan. Sizes of their families remained small and life expectancy remained low. They now provide hired labor during rice planting and harvesting periods to lowland farmers. However, their main source of income is rattan gathering or production of yantok which is used in nipa weaving or in the construction of nipa houses.
The Palawans are a protected tribal people under the Strategic Environmental Plan (SEP) Law or Republic Act 7611. Section 7 of the law states:
The term cultural preservation is a vague language since culture is an evolving part of human existence. Many non-government organizations also advocate the preservation of the tribal culture of Palawans. An abstract term since people always have desires for change, advancement and modernization. This puts a question on what kind of cultural preservation is under the SEP Law. It is certain that the touristic appeal of the tribal people is positively correlated with the preservation of their culture. The more they remain the way they are, the better is the Province's appeal as a tourist destination. Some may view this to be unfair as it benefits the government to deny advancement or influence the tribal people not to aspire to modernize. It lowers their status as a people to merely just a tourist attraction or just a recreational resource. It contradicts the basic human tenet of equality of all peoples regardless of ethnicity or race. PCSD Resolution No. 93-38a, Resolution Adopting the Guidelines for the Identification and Delineation of Ancestral Domain and Land Claims in Palawan could grant land rights to Palawans - an incentive so they would remain indigenous. [4]
The Palawans are a socio-economically vulnerable tribe because they still lack basic education. At present this indigenous tribe is working with anti-mining activists and environmental groups to prevent nickel mining concessions from being established in Southern Palawan. [5]
It is apparent however that the most important things to the lives of Palawans are not being given attention especially by the government such as the need to increase their life expectancy, to provide them with proper education, and to improve their social and economic status. They needed proper clothing to protect them from the elements, medical services, potable water supply, educational services, infrastructure, and livelihood opportunities.
There are many linguistic variations among Palawan family groups with words changing from one valley to the next (i.e. tabon for mountain verses bukid). Tagalog is frequently used to supply words lacking in the local dialect for modern objects and actions which can cause confusion, especially among the younger generation, between Tagalog and Palawan. The more familiar a family or village is with the Tagalog lowland culture, the more common the language overlap.
The Tau't Bato (Tao't Bato, Taaw't Bato) are a subgroup of the Palawan people numbering about 500 persons still practicing a simple lifestyle who live in the area of Singnapan Valley and take shelter in the large nearby caves during the rainy season. They grow various plants with cassava as the major product. They also supplement their diet by hunting, mostly for wild pigs. [7] [8]
Tagalog is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by the ethnic Tagalog people, who make up a quarter of the population of the Philippines, and as a second language by the majority, mostly as or through Filipino. Its standardized, codified, national or nationalized, intellectualized, more linguistically inclusive, more linguistically dynamic, and expanded or broadened form, officially named Filipino, is the national language of the Philippines, and is one of the latter's two official languages, alongside English. Tagalog, like the other and as one of the regional languages of the Philippines, which majority are Austronesian, is one of the auxiliary official languages of the Philippines in the regions and also one of the auxiliary media of instruction therein.
Filipino is a language under the Austronesian language family. It is the national language of the Philippines, lingua franca, and one of the two official languages of the country, with English. It is a standardized variety of the native language Tagalog, spoken and written in Metro Manila, the National Capital Region, and in other urban centers of the archipelago. The 1987 Constitution mandates that Filipino be further enriched and developed by the other languages of the Philippines.
Palawan, officially the Province of Palawan, is an archipelagic province of the Philippines that is located in the region of Mimaropa. It is the largest province in the country in terms of total area of 14,649.73 km2 (5,656.29 sq mi). The capital and largest city is Puerto Princesa which is geographically grouped with but administered independently from the province. Palawan is known as the Philippines' Last Frontier and as the Philippines' Best Island.
Southern Tagalog, designated as Region IV, was an administrative region in the Philippines that comprised the current regions of Calabarzon and Mimaropa, the province of Aurora in Central Luzon, and most of the National Capital Region. It was the largest region in the Philippines in terms of both land area and population. After its partition on May 17, 2002, Southern Tagalog continues to exist as a cultural-geographical region.
There are some 130 to 195 languages spoken in the Philippines, depending on the method of classification. Almost all are Malayo-Polynesian languages native to the archipelago. A number of Spanish-influenced creole varieties generally called Chavacano along with some local varieties of Chinese are also spoken in certain communities. The 1987 constitution designates Filipino, a standardized version of Tagalog, as the national language and an official language along with English. Filipino is regulated by Commission on the Filipino Language and serves as a lingua franca used by Filipinos of various ethnolinguistic backgrounds.
Mangyan is the generic name for the eight indigenous groups found in Mindoro each with its own tribal name, language, and customs. The total population may be around 280,001, but official statistics are difficult to determine under the conditions of remote areas, reclusive tribal groups and some having little if any outside world contact.
Brooke's Point, officially the Municipality of Brooke's Point, is a 1st class municipality in the province of Palawan, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 73,994 people.
Narra, officially the Municipality of Narra, is a 1st class municipality in the province of Palawan, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 77,948 people.
Rizal, officially the Municipality of Jose P. Rizal,, is a 1st class municipality in the province of Palawan, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 56,162 people.
Indigenous Philippine folk religions are the distinct native religions of various ethnic groups in the Philippines, where most follow belief systems in line with animism. Generally, these Indigenous folk religions are referred to as Anito or Anitism or the more modern and less ethnocentric Dayawism, where a set of local worship traditions are devoted to the anito or diwata, terms which translate to Gods, spirits, and ancestors. Many of the narratives within the indigenous folk religions are orally transmitted to the next generation, but many have traditionally been written down as well. The Spanish have claimed that the natives did not have religious writings.
The Philippines is inhabited by more than 182 ethnolinguistic groups, many of which are classified as "Indigenous Peoples" under the country's Indigenous Peoples' Rights Act of 1997. Traditionally-Muslim peoples from the southernmost island group of Mindanao are usually categorized together as Moro peoples, whether they are classified as Indigenous peoples or not. About 142 are classified as non-Muslim Indigenous people groups, and about 19 ethnolinguistic groups are classified as neither Indigenous nor Moro. Various migrant groups have also had a significant presence throughout the country's history.
The Tagalog people are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the Philippines, particularly the Metro Manila and Calabarzon regions and Marinduque province of southern Luzon, and comprise the majority in the provinces of Bulacan, Bataan, Nueva Ecija, Aurora, and Zambales in Central Luzon and the island of Mindoro.
The Sambal people are a Filipino ethnolinguistic group living primarily in the province of Zambales and the Pangasinense municipalities of Bolinao, Anda, and Infanta. The term may also refer to the general inhabitants of Zambales. They were also referred to as the Zambales during the Spanish colonial era.
Palawan, the largest province in the Philippines, is home to several indigenous ethnolinguistic groups namely, the Kagayanen, Tagbanwa, Palawano, Taaw't Bato, Molbog, and Batak tribes. They live in remote villages in the mountains and coastal areas.
The báhay kúbo, kubo, or payág, is a type of stilt house indigenous to the Philippines. Often serving as an icon of Philippine culture, its design heavily influenced the Spanish colonial-era bahay na bato architecture.
The Tagbanwa people are an indigenous people and one of the oldest ethnic groups in the Philippines, mainly found in central and northern Palawan. Research has shown that the Tagbanwa are possible descendants of the Tabon Man, thus making them one of the original inhabitants of the Philippines. They are a brown-skinned, slim, and straight-haired ethnic group.
The Palawano languages are spoken in the province of Palawan in the Philippines, by the Palawano people.
The indigenous peoples of the Philippines are ethnolinguistic groups or subgroups that maintain partial isolation or independence throughout the colonial era, and have retained much of their traditional pre-colonial culture and practices.
The Kalagan are a subgroup of the Mandaya-Mansaka people who speak the Kalagan language. The Kalagan comprise three subgroups which are usually treated as different tribes: the Tagakaulo, the Kagan, and the Kal’lao people of Samal. They are native to areas within Davao del Sur, Compostela Valley, Davao del Norte, Davao Oriental, and North Cotabato; between the territories of the Blaan people and the coastline. They were historically composed of small warring groups. They are renowned as agriculturalists, cultivating rice, corn, abaca, and coconut for cash crops, whereas their counterparts living along the coast practice fishing.
Taawʼt Bato is one of several closely related languages spoken on Palawan Island in the Philippines. It is spoken by the indigenous peoples of Taawʼt Bato on the municipal boundary of Rizal, Quezon, and Brooke's Point in Palawan province also known as the Singnapan Valley.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)