KANKANAEY PEOPLE

The Kankana-ey are an ethnic division of the Igorots , an indigenous people of the Cordillera region, in the Philippines island of Luzon. They are one of the two original inhabitants of Benguet. Their primary sources of living are gold mining, slash-and burn farming, and planting vegetables.

Clothing and adornment

In early times, a male Kankana-ey wore a G-string, known to the natives as wanes when made of woven cloth and koba when made of bark. The men were known to grow their hair long as well as moustaches as noted by David Barrows. For the women, their native outfit was the palingay or tapis, which is a wrapped-around skirt held in place with the aid of a cloth belt. They also wore an upper short-sleeved blouse called kaba. For ornamentation, tattooing on the arms was practiced by both sexes, women also wore beads and men wore headbands or bedbed specifically aristocratic old men as symbol of prestige.

Some Traditions:

ATANG

This is a symbolic plate or basket of food for the spirits of our ancestors. Before food is being served to all the mourners and guests, an "ATANG" is set aside in a corner for the spirits. By the way, also every time a new bottle of Gin, a jar of new rice wine has to be opened for the community to be drunk, the first drops or a glass of wine has to be offered to the spirits.

BAYYA-O

Bayya-o is a sort of Eulogy in form of singing. The person usually doing the Bayya-o relates some stories how the person was in his life - the way they knew him/her. A person performing the bayya-o starts singing a story about the dead person, and after some stanzas all those gathered make a chorus with him.

[ Ti bayya-o ket daytay 'incantation' no adda natay, similar to the pasyon during holy week. Daytay agbaya-o agtugaw wenno agdalupisak iti sango ti bangkay ket salaysayenna ti kabibiag daytay natay ken aminen nga kayatna nga iyebkas maipapan kenkuana]

Example : (from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLcPxf6R_ZI)

Day- eng

Day-eng is a general term which refer to the ballads sang during different occasions. The day-eng was sung as alibaby (friendly conversation) during a peshit. The people who can recite the day-eng were the old folks who understood the meaning which was profuse with idiomatic expressions. The genealogy of the host was traded, other important topics regarding the person who gave the cañao were sung. Blessings to become rich so that he would host a cañao in the future, hopes for meeting again were expressed in the songs. The aboy was sung to impress the person who hosted songs. The aboy was sung to impress the person who hosted the cañao.

Example: ( from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akxjlAJr3iI )

References:

http://herbs.ph/attachments/article/359/The%20Kankanaey%20people%20of%20Buguias%20entral,%20Buguias,%20Benguet.pdf

http://igorotvideosongs.blogspot.com/p/igorot-traditions.html

http://www.benguet.gov.ph/index.php?Itemid=271