＜Date and Time＞
16 November (Tuesday), 16:00-18:00
＜Venue＞
Small Meeting Room I (Room no.330), 3rd Floor, Inamori Foundation
Memorial Building
＜Speaker＞
Dr. Shu Yuan Yang (Assistant Research Fellow, Institute of
Ethnology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan)
＜Title＞
"Christianity, Headhunting, and History among the Bungkalot / Ilongot of Northern Luzon, Philippines"
*After the seminar, we will go for some food and drink to welcome Dr. Yang.
<ABSTRACT>
The invasion of the New Peoples’ Army (NPA) in the mid 1980s is a
significant and marked event for the people of Gingin, a settlement
located at the center of the Bugkalot area. It has stirred up feelings
of fear, terror, panic, and anger among the local residents, who were
predominantly Christians by this time. The killing of seven Bugkalot men
at the hands of the NPA in July, 1988, has aroused Bugkalot Christians
and some of them “backslid” and went headhunting again to revenge the
deaths of their relatives. How do we comprehend the resurgence of
headhunting among the Bugkalot when Christianity has already taken a
strong hold? Is it just an old cultural habit that dies hard? Is it a
slap at the face of missionaries who consider the eradication of
headhunting their most important achievement? Does it demonstrate the
insincerity of the Bugkalot’s conversion to Christianity? How do the
Bugkalot themselves interpret the invasion of the NPA and the resurgence
of headhunting? This article seeks to address these questions. I
suggests that headhunting still figures significantly in the shaping of
local memory and historical consciousness, however, the Bugkalot’s
representations of the past have been reworked within the framework of
Christianity. Christianity does not only serve as the meta-narrative of
change, it also informs the ways in which the Bugkalot contemplate their
existence in the world and their relationship with the Philippine state.
Contact: Yoko Hayami
Extension 7336, yhayami[at]cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp