Indigenous Religions (Reviewer) Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by Zniv

-Six percent of the world's population practices indigenous religions, including African tradit­ional, Chinese folk, Native American, and Australian aboriginal religions, witchc­raft, healing rituals, shamanism, ancestor worship, and spirit posses­sion, according to Pew Research Center 2012.


-Indig­enous commun­ities often view folk religions as simple, primitive, or less complex compared to establ­ished "­World Religi­ons­" in religious studies textbooks. It's crucial to consider indigenous beliefs to challenge stereo­types, as they are often associated with specific ethnic groups.


These are typically the indigenous people whose identities have been kept preserved against foreig­ners.2 There are many defini­tions of indigenous people but a common denomi­nator is that they are persons and their descen­dants "who lived on their lands before settlers came from elsewhere. The new arrivals later became dominant through means that may have included conquest, occupa­tion, and settle­men­t" (Bahr 2005, 3).


The Indigenous Peoples' Rights Act (IPRA) of 1997 is a crucial law in the Philip­pines that protects and promotes the rights of indigenous commun­ities. It defines indigenous people as groups of people or societies who have lived on communally defined territ­ories, shared common cultural traits, and have histor­ically been differ­ent­iated from the majority of Filipinos due to resistance to coloni­zation and nonind­igenous religions and cultures.


Indigenous commun­ities (ICCs/IPs) include people who are considered indigenous due to their descent from the original popula­tion, coloni­zation, or the introd­uction of non-in­dig­enous religions or cultures. They retain their own social, economic, cultural, and political instit­utions but may have been displaced or resettled. Cultural Survival estimates that there are 370 million indigenous people, making up 5% of the world's popula­tion. They speak 4,000 languages and form 5,000 different groups in 90 countries, with 70% in Asia. In the Philip­pines, there are 14-17 million indigenous people, forming 110 ethnol­ing­uistic groups.

The Ifugao worldview is charac­terized by the presence of malevolent deities called Pulay, which can extract an indivi­dual's soul while asleep or prevent it from returning to the same body. These deities are approached through rituals known as baki, where the offici­ating mombaki chants the prayer and offers sacrifices to the deities. The items used during these rituals include betel nut, rice, a bolo, a hunting spear, and tobacco.

Indigenous commun­ities have been margin­alized globally due to colonial enterp­rises and modern­ization projects. They are often impove­rished, less educated, and vulnerable to military conflict and evictions. This margin­ali­zation is reinforced by stereo­types that they are uneduc­ated, unempl­oyed, and backward with their lifest­yles. Some activists fear that the Bangsamoro govern­ment, led by a Muslim-led govern­ment, will exacerbate the already margin­alized condition of indigenous people in Mindanao.

Rites are carried out based on the needs of a family or community, such as pahang for pregnant women, bubun for weddings, kate rites for deaths, and bogwa for cleansing rites. Rice rites are conducted throughout the year to seek protection for produce and blessing for a bountiful harvest

The mombaki officiates lukya at the start of the agricu­ltural calendar, where chickens are sacrificed to ensure rice consum­ption or sale. Panal is performed when seeds are sown to seek blessings for growth. During harvest, the mombaki performs ani, which includes the recitation of harvest narrat­ives. Pigs are often offered, as Remme (2014) argues that the offering of pigs embodies the transa­ction humans make with the deities.