The Tinguian and Ilocano Peoples--an ethnography based on the work of Cole

[Ian]

Over the past few months there has been much discussion on these pages of weapons attributable in style to the Ilocano people of northern and central Luzon. We have been uncertain about specific attributions because of the possible diffusion of styles among various cultural groups in the region. To better understand these people and their interactions, I have been reading some of the anthropological and ethnographic studies conducted in the early 20th C by U.S. researchers. A prominent author on the peoples of this region was Fay-Cooper Cole, a researcher and later a member of the curatorial staff at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. He went on to become Chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago.

Cole, accompanied by his wife who assisted with the research, undertook field studies in northern Luzon from January, 1907 to June, 1908. Their findings were published later, and the main work, The Tinguian: Social, Religious and Economic Life of a Philippine Tribe, appeared in 1922. Lengthy and detailed, this is considered a classic of ethnographic research. Additional publications focused on language, customs and folk lore.

The following is taken from the Introduction to the main work:

" ... I am under the impression that at one time this whole region was inhabited by pygmy blacks, known as Aeta or Negrito, small groups of whom still retain their identity. With the coming of an alien people they were pressed back from the coasts to the less hospitable regions of the interior, where they were, for the most part, exterminated, but they intermarried with the invaders to such an extent that to-day there is no tribe or group in northwestern Luzon but shows evidence of intermixture with them. I believe that the newcomers were drawn from the so-called primitive Malay peoples of southeastern Asia; that in their movement eastward and northward they met with and absorbed remnants of an earlier migration made up of a people closely related to the Polynesians, and that the results of this intermixture are still evident, not only in Luzon, but in every part of the Archipelago.

In northern Luzon, I hold, we find evidences of at least two series of waves and periods of migration, the members of which are similar physical type and language. It appears, however, that they came from somewhat different localities of southeastern Asia and had, in their old homes, developed social organizations and other elements of culture radically different from one another—institutions and groupings which they brought with them to the Philippines, and which they have maintained up to the present time.

To the first series belong the Igorot with their institutions of trial marriage; division of their settlements into social and political units known as ato; separate dormitories for unmarried men and women; government by the federated divisions of a village as represented by the old men; and a peculiar and characteristic type of dwelling.

In the second wave series we find the Apayao, the western division at least of the people known as Kalinga, the Tinguian, and Ilocano. In none of these groups do we find the institutions just mentioned. Trial unions are unknown, and marriage restrictions are based solely on blood relationship; government is through the headman aided by the elders of his village, or is a pure democracy. Considerable variation exists between the dwellings of these four peoples, yet they conform to a general type which is radically different from that of the Igorot.

The Apayao and Kalinga divisions of this second wave series, by reason of their environment, their more isolated localities and consequent lack of frequent communication with the coast, have a simpler culture than that of the Tinguian; yet they have, during many generations, developed certain traits and institutions now apparently peculiar to them. The Tinguian and Ilocano, on the other hand, have had the advantages of outside communication of extensive trade, and the admixture of a certain amount of foreign blood.

These last two groups evidently left their ancient home as a unit, at a time prior to the Hindu domination of Java and Sumatra, but probably not until the influence of that civilization had begun to make itself felt. Traces of Indian culture are still to be found in the language, folklore, religion, and economic life of this people, while the native script which the Spanish found in use among the Ilocano seems, without doubt, to owe its origin to that source.

After reaching Luzon, this people slowly broke up into groups which spread out over the provinces of Ilocos Sur and Norte, Union and Abra. The partial isolation of some of these divisions, local feuds, the universal custom of head-hunting, and the need of human victims to accompany the spirits of the dead, all doubtless aided in separating the tribe into a number of dialect groups—groups which nevertheless retained the old culture to a surprising degree.

Long before the arrival of the Spanish, Chinese and Japanese traders were visiting the Ilocos coasts. We are also informed that merchants from Macao and India went there from time to time, while trade relations with Pangasinan and the Tagalog provinces were well developed.

The leavening influence of trade and contact with other peoples resulted in such advancement that this people was early mentioned as one of the six “civilized” tribes of the Philippines.

Upon the arrival of Salcedo, the greater portion of the coast people accepted the rule of Spain and the Christian religion, while the more conservative element retired to the interior, and there became merged with the mountain people. To the Spaniards, the Christianized natives became known as Ilocano, while the people of the mountain valleys were called Tinguian, or mountain dwellers.

If the foregoing sketch is correct, as I believe the data which follow prove it to be, we find in the Tinguian of today a people living much the same sort of life as did the members of the more advanced groups at the time of the Spanish invasion, and we can study in them early Philippine society stripped of its European veneer...."

In one of the attachments to this post is a PDF file that contains the full Introduction to Cole's work and selected abstracted comments and figures concerning edged weapons and shields used by this group. Being mountain people, the Tinguian had adopted the head axe, spears and shields similar to the Igorot and Kalinga groups. However, their knives are much closer to the style of the Ilocano than the mountain groups.

The text drawings of the weapons are also shown below. In Figure 7 of Cole's publication, knife no. 5 is of the form we often call a tabak and attribute to the Ilocano, but which is also used by the Negrito where it seems to have been called a katana. This is known to be a fighting knife. The remaining knives are likely multipurpose, being tools that could be used for weapons. The hilts on these knives have full length tangs peined over at the end, and each seems to have a spiral wrap of twisted wire along the grip, with two short metal ferrules, one at each end. A curious feature on each of these knives is a small cut-out notch at the ricasso where, presumably, the forefinger would rest rather than slide down onto the sharpened edge. Such notches are not seen (at least not commonly) on Ilocano knives or the knives from other mountain dwelling groups. A notch at this point is sometimes found on Spanish colonial knives (e.g., Canary Islands knives), and has been noted also on some Visayan knives.

If you are interested in anthropology, Cole's work is a good read and very thorough. It is, however, nearly a hundred years since publication and more recent research may have negated some of his conclusions. If anyone has more recent information on ethnic groups of northern Luzon (with particular reference to weapons), please let me know.

The full text of Cole's paper can be found at the Gutenberg Project here.

Ian

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[Sajen]

Hi Ian,

thank you very much for posting this interesting article! I am very surprised that nobody comment until now.

Regards,
Detlef

[ShazamsLaw]

New to the forums here, thanks for the pdf.

One of the things that caught my eye was his analysis on the quality of weapons they produced.

"The blades are by no means of equal temper or perfection, but the smiths of the Tinguian-Kalinga border villages seldom turn out poor weapons, and as a result, their spears and head-axes have a wide distribution over northwestern Luzon."

Whats interesting is that regardless of how deep the interior is, you can still find quality produced weapons by people who are far from the coastal regions

[Ian]

You're welcome Detlef. Perhaps people are digesting Cole's paper before replying. Or maybe the subject is a bit too "academic" for many folks.

I thought Cole's observations about the origins of the various groups in Northern Luzon was interesting, and helps explain the distribution of these groups in the past and today. My own interests are in the influence of Ilocano culture on the area, as it relates to edged weapons. The Spanish considered the Ilocanos the most "civilized" of the groups in northern Luzon, and Cole makes mention of them interbreeding with foreign groups, including Chinese immigrants. As the most cosmopolitan and technologically advanced group in northern Luzon at the time of the Spanish arrival, it is perhaps not surprising that their culture influenced many of the other groups in the region, primarily through trade. Again, Cole specifically mentions trading patterns between the Ilocanos and Pangasinan and the Tagalog areas.

The Tinguian, ethnologically similar to the Ilocanos, offer another avenue through which Ilocano technology and culture may have spread to other mountain dwelling groups when the former chose to preserve their traditional ways and move inland rather than convert to Catholicism and engage with the Spanish.


Ian

[Ian]

Here is another figure from a different Cole article on the Distribution of Non-Christian Groups in NW Luzon. It is helpful in understanding the first article I posted.

Attached is a PDF file of the article and the map it contains.

Ian.

Complete reference: Distribution of the Non - Christian Tribes of Northwestern Luzon
Author(s): Fay Cooper Cole
Source: American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 11, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1909), pp. 329-347
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Anthropological Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/659623

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[Ian]

On looking through my files of pictures that might reveal an example of a Tinguian knife, I came across this one. The knife resembles No. 1 in Cole's Figure 7 that I posted above. Note the small cut out notch for the forefinger, and the drop point blade. The hilt is a little different but otherwise it seems like a fairly close match.

I had filed this knife under "Ilocano," so pretty close to Tinguian.

Ian.


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[Ian]

Shazam,

Thanks for bringing that quote up. Indeed, the distribution of quality weapons is an important contribution of the Ilocano/Tinguian groups and emphasizes the influence of this ethnic group on others in the region.

It is my belief that Ilocano/Tinguian weapons were traded widely to the south also, including Pangasinan and the Tagalog provinces. Cole makes mention of longstanding trade with those areas, and it seems that weapons manufacture was prominent among the Ilocano/Tinguian groups. I also think that later in the 20th C, the enterprising Ilocano/Tinguian craftsmen came to see the lucrative market of American servicemen at Clark AFB and Subic Bay Naval Base as a target for their goods. Whether some of them set up shop around those bases or traded their goods to local merchants is unclear, but many of the Ilocano/Tinguian style weapons ended up in the hands of U.S. servicemen. Some local manufacture does seem to have occurred as there is evidence of custom made pieces in the Ilocano/Tinguian style.

Ian.

[A. G. Maisey]

Ian, in respect of this:-

" --- A curious feature on each of these knives is a small cut-out notch at the ricasso where, presumably, the forefinger would rest rather than slide down onto the sharpened edge ---"

this notch is called a "choil", its purpose is to permit the entire length of a blade to be sharpened (A.G. Russell)

There has been lengthy, ongoing debate about the choil in modern custom knife circles, but its purpose is clear;- it permits the entire length of a cutting edge to be sharpened and prevents damage to other parts of a knife during the process of sharpening.

It has the incidental effect of providing a warning to a user when his hand moves too far forward on the hilt, and in some knives the choil can be made large enough to permit the hand to move onto the blade, in this case the choil retains its original function, but loses its original form, in that it forms an unbroken line with the hilt, and is sometimes given a checkered or cross-hatched surface to prevent slippage.

In a work knife that is intended for detail work, the Balinese work knife shown below provides a design that permits full on-blade control, in that the section of blade that declines to the cutting edge from the hilt ferrule is left wide and unsharpened, a mere finger notch cannot provide anything like the same degree of blade control, and in a heavy blade that was expected to be used at times for chopping, a finger-on-blade design would have an adverse effect upon practicality.

[Ian]

Alan,

Thank you for the comment about choils. Yes, this feature certainly looks like a choil and may be intended for the purpose you describe. I used the word "curious" because such a feature is very uncommon on Filipino knives of the late 19th and early 20th C. I cannot recall seeing it on other knives from Luzon or Mindanao dating to that time period, and earlier examples are rather sparse and difficult to draw conclusions. As I mentioned earlier, there are occasional Visayan knives with similar features.

The question becomes where did the Tinguian get the idea to adopt this feature when they chose to avoid European contact and move inland? The Spanish certainly have knives with similar features but the Tinguian deliberately shunned them. Their Ilocano cousins, who had far more contact with the outside world, did not choose to adopt the feature and the Mountain groups with whom the Tinguian lived did not use a choil either. Maybe they reinvented the idea themselves. I just find it an odd and out of place observation that is intriguing.

Ian.

[A. G. Maisey]

Yes Ian, I understood your comment to be within the context of knives from this geographic area. I added my post in an attempt to clarify exactly what that cutout was.

The addition of a choil to a blade is something that can occur anywhere, and without any outside influence. I used to cut a choil into the blades of knives I used as a kid, sub-12 years of age. I'd never seen a blade with a choil at that time, I did not know what a choil was, but I did know that if I didn't run a rats tail file across the blade edge up near the end of the cutting edge, I would damage the ferrule or the hilt itself, and the cutout made the blade easier to sharpen.

There is a theory known as "parallel development". Broadly it states that similar things happen at similar times in widely spaced places and without any cross contact or influence.

Possibly that is what we can see in these Tinguian knives:- they did not need to get the idea to use a choil from anywhere, they simply found that it was a natural development that made life easier.

Sometimes human beings act in similar ways simply because they are human beings.

[Ian]

Alan, yes parallel development could certainly explain why a choil might be found on knives of a single ethnic group from Luzon. After eliminating external influences it really is the only explanation left.

Attached is an example of a Canary Island knife (Spanish colonial). Would you consider this shape to also be a choil? It's sometimes referred to as a "Spanish notch."

Ian


-----------Canary Island knife-------------

[Ian]

Well, to answer my own question, I searched online for "Spanish notch" and found that it is a synonym for "choil." Here is a compilation of examples that I found on Blade Forums


Ian.


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[A. G. Maisey]

No Ian, I would not refer to the finger stop on the Canary Island knife as a choil.

In simple terms a choil is an area between the cutting edge and the tang that is intended as the point where the sharpening of the cutting edge begins.

It is not a guard, nor a finger stop, nor a ricasso, it is not there to catch an opponent's blade in knife combat, it is not a decorative element, it is not intended to interrupt the flow of blood on the blade and redirect it away from the user's hand, it has no religious function nor association, it is not intended to be used to strip sinew, nor to strip bark.

The choil is a design element in a blade that indicates the point at which blade sharpening should commence. It can occur in various forms, and some are large enough to accommodate a finger, but the purpose of the choil is not to accommodate a finger.

The Spanish Notch is usually found in a similar position to the choil, but although it may be similar to a choil, and can also be used to indicate the point at which sharpening should begin, it is not a choil. The Spanish Notch appears to have its origins in mediaeval left hand daggers, it continued as a design element in the line of large knives that followed the left hand dagger and in these knives it eventually developed into a decorative feature.

In modern custom knives the Spanish Notch is sometimes included as a decorative element, I very much doubt if most custom makers have any understanding of its origins or original purpose.

[Ian]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

... The Spanish Notch is usually found in a similar position to the choil, but although it may be similar to a choil, and can also be used to indicate the point at which sharpening should begin, it is not a choil. The Spanish Notch appears to have its origins in mediaeval left hand daggers, it continued as a design element in the line of large knives that followed the left hand dagger and in these knives it eventually developed into a decorative feature.

In modern custom knives the Spanish Notch is sometimes included as a decorative element, I very much doubt if most custom makers have any understanding of its origins or original purpose.

Thanks Alan. Very helpful explanation. The Spanish colonial knives of the Canary Islands and South America that show a notch tend to be on the small side, generally less than 12 inches in overall length in my experience. Is that your experience too.

[A. G. Maisey]

Ian, I have no experience in the field of Spanish colonial knives.

For many years my single minded focus has been the Javanese keris, but I do have lengthy experience preceding that Javanese focus, in sharp pointy things in general, including about 20 years in custom knife making, mostly in blade smithing. Add to this a life long interest in the way in which edged weapons have been used in various societies, and that forms the background to my comments in respect of choils & notches.

I have owned a few Spanish, and Spanish-like knives over the years, but they have never been of much interest to me.

The only reason for my original comment was to attempt to identify the notch at the ricasso of the Tinguian knives for what I believe it to be.

I had no intention of diverting discussion of this thread into a different direction.

[Ian]

An important amendment needs to be made to the foregoing discussion. It has been brought to my attention that all the blades shown in Cole, Figure 7 (above) are made in Ilocos norte and acquired from there by the Tinguian. The weapons shown in Figures 8 and 9 are the indigenous weapons of the Tinguian who have close cultural ties with the Kalinga people. The Tinguian/Kalinga apparently make excellent head axes, as shown above, as well as spears and shields (also shown above).


Ian

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by Ian

An important amendment needs to be made to the foregoing discussion. It has been brought to my attention that all the blades shown in Cole, Figure 7 (above) are made in Ilocos norte and acquired from there by the Tinguian. The weapons shown in Figures 8 and 9 are the indigenous weapons of the Tinguian who have close cultural ties with the Kalinga people. The Tinguian/Kalinga apparently make excellent head axes, as shown above, as well as spears and shields (also shown above).

Thank you for clarification Ian! I was direct sceptical but never post it here. I would have placed them to Ilocos Norte, that is what I gleaned from you and others.

Regards,
Detlef

[Battara]

Ian, I've always wondered this. Makes more sense now.