Origin of the Kalinga Axe

[migueldiaz]

Originally Posted by Nonoy Tan

... Being able to discover the possibility of an Ibanag origin is exciting. It is known historically that while the western coast of Luzon (i.e. Ilocos provinces) was a thriving place for international trade, so did the eastern Luzon coast (Cagayan, etc. where the Ibanags are found). Unfortunately, the western coast has been empahized more in popular books, and not too many know about the eastern provinces. There are lots of archaeological evidences from Eastern Luzon what we may have to check, as they are often overlooked ...

Nonoy,

Here's another bit of info that may support the possibility of the Cordillera [highlands] axe originating from the Cagayan-Isabela [lowlands] area, as you intimated.

For info of everyone, both Cagayan and Isabela provinces are adjacent to and east of the Cordilleras.

In Samuel K. Tan's A History of the Philippines (1987), Tan outlined the patterns of leadership per ethnic group:

"The Ivatan of the Batanes islands developed a system in which two leaders shared authority ... The Ilocano observed a power arrangement in which the babacnang or amaen ti ili exercised dominant influence and power. The Igorot setup consisted of the Apo who performed roles with authority ... The Ilongot, a neighbor of the Igorot, had a sort of 'familial government' ... Somewhat different was the Zambal political arrangement which simply gave the best and recognized fighting man the honor of being the leader. The Gaddang [i.e., one of the Cagayan natives] of Northern Luzon developed a setup in which the best headhunter, called the mingal, exercised dominant authority ...."

Again the proposed proof is indirect, given the scanty info we have. But the logic goes like this -- if headhunting was most celebrated in Cagayan, then perhaps the skills and weapons needed in headhunting were also most developed in Cagayan; therefore, the headhunter's axe's original design may have come from Cagayan, and from there the axe's design just evolved as the axe was adopted by the neighboring provinces.

Of course it does not necessarily follow that the headhunting weapon of choice for the Gaddangs was the axe. It could have been a bolo.

But on the other hand, it could have been an axe, too.

Just thinking out loud ...

[dennee]

For what it's worth, here are a couple of prints removed from an early twentieth-century photo album of the Philippines.