FILIPINO INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE; INDIGENOUS SCIENCE

Philippines is known to be an archipelago. There are 7, 641 islands comprising

the country with three major land masses namely, Luzon, Visayas, and Midanao
(Santos, 2016). Because of the geographical structure of the territory, in the early times,
it became hard to communicate to each other; consequently, the people are subdivided
to different indigenous groups.14-17 million Filipinos are part of indigenous community
belonging to roughly 110 ethno-linguistic groups (United Nations Development
Programme, 2013). For that reason, the Philippines are rich in indigenous knowledge.
Some practices that we inherited from our ethnic groups and/or ancestors are still
evident in our modern society and became the basis of new discoveries and/or
inventions.

”Indigenous knowledge means knowledge systems embedded

in the cultural traditions of regional, indigenous, or
local communities. ”

Before listing down some indigenous knowledge of the Filipino, let us first defined
the word ‘indigenous’ and ‘knowledge’. The word indigenous came from a Latin word
‘indegena’ meaning ‘a native’ (Macmillan Dictionary, 2017), while knowledge means ‘the
body of truth, information, and principle acquired by humankind; the sum of what is
known’. With two words combined ‘indigenous knowledge’ means ‘principles by the
native’ or ‘knowledge systems embedded in the cultural traditions
of regional, indigenous, or local communities’ (Wikipedia, 2012).

Indigenous Knowledge and Practices in Philippines

In line with this, even before technological era, natives have their own way of
figuring things out. One of these is using constellations, animal behavior, and nature in
predicting weather. For example, for the tribe of Subanen residing in Zamboangga City,
they believe that “When the pig of Baebolan moves, it causes earthquake”. The same
as “A Typhoon is coming when the cloud looks like it’s heeding toward the north
direction, which indicates rain and flood. The cloud seems a huge tree”. Another
example is that, “During New Year, when the cow or horse or any of the animals that
eat grass, wail, it meant drought” (Mabini et. al, n.d.), through that natural signs, they
can foresee what would happen; and to contradict what is expected to occur, they would
perform different rituals.

“From the test and trials and observed practices in the early
years, the body of knowledge transcended throughout the time.”

Furthermore, they have their own way of preserving food even before
refrigerators exist. For the Igorots, it is called etag. A chunk of pork is marinated in salt
for about a week (or longer) then air-dried under the sun or smoked for several weeks
(even months), or both. Though any kind of wood will do the smoking, the Igorots would
prefer to use the wood from a tree they calledalnos as it would emit pleasant smoke and
add aromatic smoky flavor to the meat. When it comes to land ownership, Ibaloys
believed that land belongs to the person who worked on it first, except for the forest
lands because forest lands belong to the community (Municipality of Tubay, n.d.).
Moreover, the muyong system or the conservation of the forest, rehabilitation of the
irrigation and the farming system (Butic and Ngidlo, n.d.) of the Ifugaos can be a huge
factor in harmonizing the mutual connection between human and nature (Camacho et.
al, 2016). In addition, the use of plants as a form of medicine originated from those local
tribes.

Indigenous knowledge is the very foundation of science. From the test and trials
and observed practices in the early years, the body of knowledge transcended through
out the time. Philippines is a rich culture of indigenous knowledge, for in fact, National
Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) of Benguet supports the Indigenous Cultural
Communities/ Indigenous People (ICCs/IPs) of Tublay, Benguet as guardians and
keepers of Benguet Land and environment, also as protectors and preservers of the
traditions and customs where indigenous knowledge had originated.
 In Philippines, specially on Tublay Benguet, herbal, botanical plans and even
insects were primarily used as medicines. The use of these custom of curing is
published in the book as traditional herbal medicines of the Philippines. Such of these
are the use of red ant (angiyawan) as a remedy for toothache. These angiyawan are
fried and pulverized and putted inside the aching tooth (NCIP Benguet).

Charcoal or uling has also been a quick remedy for stomach ache, the same as
the red ant, uling is pulverized and mixed in water for drinking. At present the use of
uling for medicine field is processed, one example is “the use of activated charcoal to
treat overdoses or poisonings that can help clear toxins,” Huizen (2018).

Some other indigenous knowledge collectively preserved by the IPs and also the
current science is the use of coconut shell in healing wounds from circumcision, kigis,
guava roots, sapsap shoots for wounds and cogon grass for aiding kidney problems.

Other natural health practices that were sought to prolong the life of the previous
generation than ours are the use of urine as disinfectant, mother breast milk for sore
eyes, hilot as therapy for muscle pain, the use of a sharp bladed bamboo for cutting the
ambilical cords of newborn babies (NCIP Benguet).

Indigenous science defined by Snively and Corsiglia (2000) is the “science that
relates both the science knowledge of long‐resident, usually oral culture peoples, as
well as the science knowledge of all peoples who as participants in culture are affected
by the worldview and relativist interests of their home communities.”

“However, these knowledge systems are slowly disappearing

due to the changing needs and interests of the indigenous
peoples as well as the proliferation of government programs to
modernize farming technologies.”

The role of indigenous knowledge for the communion of early science to modern
science is very significant, this became the stepping stone of the field and the future of
this body of knowledge. Without the observations and discoveries of our early
ancestors, science had been a weak unit founded by a very weak posts and
foundations.

The abovementioned practices are just a glimpse of the rich traditional

knowledge of the country because there are many more to mention. In accordance to
this, the said (indigenous) knowledge provides a great contribution in the development
of science and technology (Popp, 2018). “Indigenous’, ‘science’, and ‘technology’ is the
the native knowledge that became the foundations of what is science and technology
today. For example, the traditional knowledge about medicinal properties of plants has
been significant in pharmaceutical development; as well as the cultivation of farm crops
(Popp, 2018) and irrigation system in our country. In addition, some countries used the
traditional knowledge as a basis of solution for the natural phenomena. For example,
the Huna Tlingit of Alaska used their traditional knowledge to sustainably harvest the
eggs of glaucous-winged gulls by only gathering eggs from nests with one or two eggs
and leaving nests with three or more eggs (Schmidt and Sticker, 2010). Through this,
we can apprehend that indigenous knowledge can be associated with science and
technology. Since science is used, most of the time, to identify solution, with the use of
local knowledge as a solution to the mentioned example earlier, we can assess that
native information become now an integral part of science because it guided the
scientist on how to solve such dilemma.

Capistrano, Lucy Marie M. and Gallevo, Franzel A1B

References:

Camacho L., Gevaña, Carandang & Camacho S. (2016) Indigenous knowledge and
practices for the sustainable management of Ifugao forests in Cordillera,
Philippines, International Journal of Biodiversity Science, Ecosystem Services &
Management, 12:1-2, 5-13, DOI: 10.1080/21513732.2015.1124453

Butic, Ngidlo, n.d. Muyong forest of Ifugao: Assisted natural regeneration in traditional
forest management - Moises Butic and Robert Ngidlo. Retrieved from
http://www.fao.org/3/ad466e/ad466e06.htm

Mabini, Quilo, Tamiroy, Panerio, Mendoza, (n.d.). Indigenous Knowledge and Practices
in Response to Natural Disaster: The Case of Subanen in Brgy. Guinicolalay,
Dinas, Zamboanga del Sur. Retrieved from http://philippinesociology.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/08/QUILO_Subanen-IKP-Article.pdf

Macmillan Dictionar, 2017. Indigenous. Retrieved from

http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/indigenous

Municipality of Tubay, n.d. The ICCs/ IPs of Tublay Domain. Retrieved from
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tublay/indigenous-knowledge

Palatino, 2018. INDIGENOUS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN THE PH. Retrieved

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Polistico, 2016. Etag. Retrieved from

https://pinoyfoodillustrated.blogspot.com/2016/09/etag.html

Popp, 2018. How Indigenous knowledge advances modern science and technology.
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advances-modern-science-and-technology-89351

Scmidt, and Sticker, 2010. What Tradition Teaches: INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE

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Santos, 2016. 534 New Islands in the Philippines. Retrieved from

http://www.psst.ph/534-new-islands-in-the-philippines/

United Nations Development Programme, 2013. Fast Facts: Indigenous Peoples in the
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http://www.ph.undp.org/content/philippines/en/home/library/democratic_governan
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Wikipedia, 2012. Traditional Knowledge. Retrieved from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_knowledge

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http://www.benguet.gov.ph/index.php/directory/21-directory/216-office-of-the-
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Huizen (2018), What are the benefits of activated charcoal?

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322609.php