The Negrito And Allied Types In The Philippines

THE NEGRITO AND ALLIED TYPES IN THE PHILIPPINES - BARROWS - 1910 - American Anthropologist - Wiley Online Library

Some excerpts:

What has not been generally noted, however, is the fact that
nearly all the peoples of eastern Mindanao, usually described as
“Malayan’! or “Indonesian,” are to a large degree Negrito. This is
especially true of the Manobo of the lower waters of the river
Agusan. I have no measurements of these people, but the appearance of nearly every individual in their communities is Negritic
rather than Malayan. The stature is very low and frail, hair black
and wavy to frizzly, features negroid, and behavior that of the
pacified Negrito. Similar characters, though in a less marked degree, display themselves among the tribes southward and about the
gulf of Davao. There is no doubt that there is a large amount of
absorbed Negrito stock in the pagan peoples of all this great island.
Even among the Subanon of the Samboanga peninsula, who are
perhaps as purely Malayan as any, I have seen occasional individuals with marked Negrito characters.
I shall not attempt here to estimate the proportion of Negrito
blood in the Christian peoples of the Philippines-Bisaya, Bikol,
Tagalog, Ilokano, etc.-further than to express my conviction that
*.n certain regions it is very large and has greatly modified the primitive Malayan type. But let us turn to the consideration of possible
Negrito blood in two interesting pagan stocks of northern Luzon,
the “Igorot” and the “Ilongot” or “Ibilao.”

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The term Igorot is used to include all the wild, head-hunting,
mountain-dwelling peoples of the great cordillera of Luzon, a region
some two hundred miles in length by forty across. This mountain
area is divisible into regions wherein the culture, physical type,
and language of the inhabitants are homogeneous or nearly so.
These regions, in reports made some years ago on the wild tribes
of the Philippines, I have called “culture areas,” and they may serve,
in the absence of the tribal relation, as the basis of classification.
Beginning with the southern end of this mountain system we have
the area of southern Benguet and Kayapa inhabited by Igorot
speaking a dialect called “Nabaloi.” In northern Benguet, Amburayan, and southern Lepanto are the “Kankanay.” In the central mountain region, a great area with several subdivisions, the
“Bontok”; and southeast, occupying the former Cornandancia of
Kiangan, the “Ifugao.” North of Bontok are the “Tinglayan,”
the “Tinggian” or “Itnig,” the “Kalinga,” and “Apayao” areas,
and perhaps others. Of these most northerly peoples I have no
ant-hropometric data. Their general appearance is somewhat different from that of the Igorot farther south. They appear to the
eye to be more slender and handsomely built, with finer features,
especially in the case of the Tinggian. I am of opinion, however,
that these dissimilarities are apparent rather than real, and that
measurements and careful observation will demonstrate unity of
physical type throughout the entire cordillera. This unity does
not refer of course to manner of dressing the hair, ornamentation,
artificial deformations, etc., in which there is wide variation. The
ethnological origin of these Igorot peoples is at first very puzzling.
They are obviously not typical Malayans. Some physical measurements which I have should, and I believe do, throw some light on
the problem.

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While the above expressed hypothesis of the origin of the Igorot
appears to me to have much probability, for a similar theory to
explain the Malay type of the Ilongot or Ibilao I feel even stronger
confidence. This curious people occupies a very broken mountain
area formed by the junction of the Sierra Madre with the Caraballo
Sur. This is the headwaters of the Kagayan river and to a less
degree of the Pampanga. Besides being wholly mountainous it is
covered with thick and well nigh impenetrable jungle, in which the
scattered homes of these wild people are hidden and protected.
They have long had the worst of reputations as head hunters and
marauders, and little information about them has circulated except
wild rumors of their strange appearance and treacherous ferocity.
They have been described as “very tall,” “heavily bearded,”
“light in color,” “white,” and of a type elsewhere unknown in the
Philippines. My
experience with this people is limited to two visits to two different
communities, in 1902 to a group in the jurisdiction of Nueva
Vizcaya and in 1909 to a community in the mountains back of
Pantabangan, Nueva Ecija. On the first visit measurements and
notes were made of four men and three women. Their stature was
found to be as follows:
For most of these reports there is no foundation.
MEN WOMEN
I 480 1386
I jI8 1440
1553 I j10
1590
The average stature of these men was 1535, a little less than the
average stature of Igorot, and so a very short human height. The
cephalic index for the seven, and the nasal index for six (one missing)
are as follows:
CEPHALIC IXDEX NASAL INDEX
79.7 77.5
80.8 88.6
83.8 88.6
Sj.1 88.7
sx.0
80.7 82. j
87. I 90.9
374 -4AfEh’ICAN A Nl HR OPOL 0 GIST [N. S., 12, 1910
All are brachycephalic except one (79.7), and all are platyrhinian
but one.
In the second community I measured twelve men and five
women, with the following results:
STATURE MEN STATURE WOMEN
1610 I453
1583 1450
I j82 1441
I 580 1422
1 jj0 1412
1544
1532
1503
1486
I467
I439
1240 (a boy)
CEPHALIC INDEX
89
87
85.9
85
84
83.7
83.3
83
81
81
81
80
80
79
73
76
86
NASAL INDEX
100
98
95
95
94
93
90
89
89
88
87.8
87
87
83
82
82
76
The height of these men presents a wider variation, as would be
expected in the larger number (1601 to 1437), but the mean and
the general results are the same. The head index is brachycephalic
except in the case of three, and all are platyrhinian, or nearly so,
except one. Thus in these Ilongot we have a short race, even
shorter than the Igorot, brachycephalic and platyrhinian. Their
hair is wavy, except when it is curly. The
face is .occasionally hairy; a few individuals have been seen with
sparse but quite long, curly beards. Their eyes are larger, finer,
and more open than is usual in the Igorot and the Malay. One
peculiarity of the face is noticeable: it narrows rapidly from the
cheek bones to the chin, giving the face a pentagonal shape. The
color may be a little lighter than in the Igorot, who is more exposed
to sunlight than the Ilongot of the forest, and it is much lighter
than in the Negrito, but by no means light enough to justify any
likeness to either white or Mongol races.
It is usually worn long.
375 BAR ROWS] THE flE CRf TO ZN THE PHf L f PPf A.E S
In these people we have, I am quite sure, a mixture of primitive
Malayan and Negrito, with more Negrito than in the case of the
Igorot. Stature, curly hair, short head, and broad, flat nosethese are all negritic characters, as is also the hairiness of the face
and body. In fact there can be no doubt of the presence of Negrito
blood in the Ilongot, for the processof assimilation can be seen going
on. The Negrito of a comparatively pure type is a neighbor of the
Ilongot on both the south and the north. Usually they are at
enmity, but this does not, and certainly has not in the past, prevented commingling. The culture of the Ilongot is intermediate,
or a composite of Malayan and Negrito elements. He uses the
bow and arrow of the Negrito and the spear of the Malayan as well.
There are few things in the ethnography of the Ilongot that seem
unusual and for which the culture of neither Malay nor Negrito
does not provide an explanation. One curious peculiarity, however,
is an aptitude and taste for decorative carving, applied to the door
posts, lintels, and other parts of his house, to the planting sticks of
the woman, to the rattan frame of his deer-hide rain-hat, etc. But
except for this there seems little that is not an inheritance from the
two above strains or a development due to isolation in these mountainous forests that have long been his home.
In concluding this account of the Ilongot I cannot forbear
calling attention to what appears to me a striking resemblance
between them and the “Sakay” of the Malay peninsula as
these latter are photographed and described in Skeat and Blagden’s
Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula. There, as in the Philippines,
we have a wavy-haired people (the Sakay) located in between,
and obviously mingling with, the Negrito (“Semang”) on the
north and the primitive (“Jakun”) Malayan on the south.
The type is clearly intermediate between these two races, and
every Sakay community seems to contain individuals that exhibit
both pronounced Negrito and Malayan characters. There seem
to be no culture elements in the ethnography of the Sakay
that are not found in the life of Semang, Jakun, or allied
peoples. And yet, in the face of what wouId seem to be the obvious and natural supposition that the Sakay is a half-breed of the
Semang and Jakun, our authors, following Professor Rudolf Martin
3 76 AhfEh’IC’AN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. S., 12, 1910
(Die Inlandstamme der malayischen Halbinsel), discover in the Sakay
a distinct race of wholly different origin from the Semang and Jakun
-but allied to the Veddahs of Ceylon! This seems to me to be
creating a far-fetched theory where none is necessary. While I
have not had an opportunity of studying the Sakay at first hand, I
am tolerably familiar with Negrito and primitive Malayan, and the
results of their intermarriage, and every fresh examination of the
texts and illustrations above referred to increases my belief that
the Sakay, like so many of the types of the Philippines, is an exhibit
to the widely diffused Negrito element in Malayan peoples.