Kabunian, the supreme sky deity, and the anito, ancestral and nature spirits, of the Igorot peoples of the Cordillera mountains of northern Luzon in the Philippines, among them the Ifugao, Bontoc, Kankanaey and Ibaloi. Practice centres on the mumbaki, ritual priests who mediate offerings and chants at planting, harvest and funerary rites tied to the region's terraced rice agriculture. Christianity, and in some communities Islam, have spread widely, but indigenous ritual continues alongside them in many highland villages.
Facts
Structure
Structure of the PantheonA supreme creator above a working order of intermediary powers 1 Divine HeadshipA supreme creator who withdrew from active rule and receives little direct cult 1 Succession Between Divine GenerationsOne divine generation; no succession between generations is recorded 1 The Creator and the Ruling GodsThe creator withdrew after making the world and is seldom addressed in cult 1 Attestation
Era of AttestationHeld from the beginning in the traditions' own terms; documented in the outside record from the Spanish colonial period 1 Veneration TodayActively venerated in a living tradition 1 Cult
Principal Cult CentreNo single centre. Observance is held at the household and the village, at the canao feasts 1 Organisation
Membership of the PantheonEvery place, clan and lineage adds its own 1 How Mortals Enter the PantheonAncestors and founders become objects of cult 1 Sources
Primary SourceOral tradition recited by mambunong and other ritual specialists, with published ethnography 1 Connections
Associated With
Luzon, Regions Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
This source names Philippines directly: "mountains of northern Luzon in the Philippines, among them the Ifugao, Bontoc, Kankanaey and Ibaloi."
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Originated In
Sources
1. Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005View the Source Igorot (Wikipedia)
Originated In: Luzon, LeadQuote, Originated In: Luzon, Lead
The indigenous peoples of the Cordillera in northern Luzon, Philippines, often referred to by the exonym Igorot people, or more recently, as the Cordilleran peoples, are an ethnic group composed of 11 main ethnolinguistic groups whose domains are in the Cordillera Mountain Range, altogether numbering about 1.8 million people in the early 21st century.
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