The Sacred and the Secular: Practical Applications of ......river. The god Maknongan, appearing as...
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The Sacred and the Secular: Practical Applications of Water Rituals in the Ifugao Agricultural System Stephen Acabado and Marlon Martin Abstract Water symbolisms permeate Ifugao religion, rituals, and oral tradition. Water plays a part in death, rebirth, and cleansing in Ifugao cosmology. As such, Ifugaos consider water as sacred. However, water is also central in Ifugao economy and politics. As a culture that highly values intensive wet-rice produc- tion in a mountain environment, managing access to water is necessary to main- tain stability. Ifugao practices follow what Richard O’Connor described as the “agro-cultural complex” in which agricultural practices, social systems, and po- litical, historical, and, cultural changes are understood as interlocking processes (O’Connor 1995). In this paper, we focus on the relationship between Ifugao water and agricultural rituals with the synchronizing and sequencing of agricul- tural activities. Using the concept of self-organization, we argue that water and agricultural rituals in Ifugao are not only meant to reinforce community cohe- sion, they also synchronize the farming activities crucial to a terraced ecology. Utilizing the practice of puntunaan (a ritual plot or parcel in the centre of an ag- ricultural district) and the institution of tomona (the ritual leader of an agricul- tural district) as a case study, we observed that disruptions in the water and rice rituals stimulated great change in Ifugao sociopolitical organization. KEYWORDS: Water, Ifugao, rice terraces, the Philippines, upland people INTRODUCTION W ATER EVOKES A VERY powerful image among the Ifugao. It is a recurring theme in Ifugao oral traditions, particularly on the beginning and end of life (Barton 1946). The story of the Ifugao great flood symbolizes death, rebirth, and cleansing. As a people whose identity and subsistence is tied to their rice production system, this symbolism is translated into both sacred and practical realms of the Ifugao cosmos. Water symbolism is also manifested in the Ifugao pantheon, which is made up of more than two thousand deities (Barton 1946; Lambrecht 1962), half of which are deities associated with rice agriculture rituals. The number of required rituals in each stage of Ifugao wet-rice production indicates the centrality of wet-rice in Ifugao culture. Indeed, wet-rice is the basis of customary Ifugao wealth and prestige. Department of Anthropology, UCLA; [email protected] Save the Ifugao Terraces Movement; [email protected] TRaNS: Trans –Regional and –National Studies of Southeast Asia Vol. 4, No. 2 (July) 2016: 307–327. © Institute for East Asian Studies, Sogang University 2016 doi:10.1017/trn.2016.7 at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/trn.2016.7 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 54.39.106.173, on 27 Feb 2021 at 23:02:05, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available
Transcript of The Sacred and the Secular: Practical Applications of ......river. The god Maknongan, appearing as...
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The Sacred and the Secular: Practical Applications ofWater Rituals in the Ifugao Agricultural System
Stephen Acabado and Marlon Martin
AbstractWater symbolisms permeate Ifugao religion, rituals, and oral tradition. Waterplays a part in death, rebirth, and cleansing in Ifugao cosmology. As such,Ifugaos consider water as sacred. However, water is also central in Ifugaoeconomy and politics. As a culture that highly values intensive wet-rice produc-tion in a mountain environment, managing access to water is necessary to main-tain stability. Ifugao practices follow what Richard O’Connor described as the“agro-cultural complex” in which agricultural practices, social systems, and po-litical, historical, and, cultural changes are understood as interlocking processes(O’Connor 1995). In this paper, we focus on the relationship between Ifugaowater and agricultural rituals with the synchronizing and sequencing of agricul-tural activities. Using the concept of self-organization, we argue that water andagricultural rituals in Ifugao are not only meant to reinforce community cohe-sion, they also synchronize the farming activities crucial to a terraced ecology.Utilizing the practice of puntunaan (a ritual plot or parcel in the centre of an ag-ricultural district) and the institution of tomona (the ritual leader of an agricul-tural district) as a case study, we observed that disruptions in the water and ricerituals stimulated great change in Ifugao sociopolitical organization.
KEYWORDS: Water, Ifugao, rice terraces, the Philippines, upland people
INTRODUCTION
WATER EVOKES A VERY powerful image among the Ifugao. It is a recurringtheme in Ifugao oral traditions, particularly on the beginning and end oflife (Barton 1946). The story of the Ifugao great flood symbolizes death,rebirth, and cleansing. As a people whose identity and subsistence is tied totheir rice production system, this symbolism is translated into both sacred andpractical realms of the Ifugao cosmos.
Water symbolism is also manifested in the Ifugao pantheon, which is madeup of more than two thousand deities (Barton 1946; Lambrecht 1962), half ofwhich are deities associated with rice agriculture rituals. The number of requiredrituals in each stage of Ifugao wet-rice production indicates the centrality ofwet-rice in Ifugao culture. Indeed, wet-rice is the basis of customary Ifugaowealth and prestige.
Department of Anthropology, UCLA; [email protected] the Ifugao Terraces Movement; [email protected]
TRaNS: Trans –Regional and –National Studies of Southeast Asia Vol. 4, No. 2 (July) 2016: 307–327.© Institute for East Asian Studies, Sogang University 2016 doi:10.1017/trn.2016.7
at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/trn.2016.7Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 54.39.106.173, on 27 Feb 2021 at 23:02:05, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available
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