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Rice, Rituals, and Identity: Resistance and Maintenance of Ifugao Agricultural Practice Stephen Acabado Department of Anthropology, UCLA Marlon Martin Save the Ifugao Terraces Movement The shift to wet-rice cultivation and construction of rice terraces in Ifugao, northern Philippines has recently been associated with the Spanish colonization. Previously thought to be at least 2,000 years old, investigations in the region have now established that wet-rice cultivation was a response of highland populations to the Spanish conquest at ca. 1650 CE. The shift to an intensive form of cultivation drastically changed Ifugao social organization that allowed them to successfully resist multiple attempts of the Spanish to place them under the colonial administration. Contemporary Ifugao identity is based on the narrative of being uncolonized as well as centered on wet-rice cultivation. Even when the market economy exerts pressure on the agricultural system, Ifugao families endeavor to continue producing wet-rice in the terraces and sponsor rice-planting rituals associated. The persistence of wet-rice farming and rice rituals are interpreted as an active resistance of the Ifugao against assimilation to the larger Philippine society and conscious acts of maintaining their identity. Utilizing ethnographic, spatial, productivity, and energetics data associated with wet-rice cultivation, this presentation aims to illustrate the continuity of Ifugao struggle against hegemonic cultures. As such, we show that resistance against Spanish colonialism became the foundation of Ifugao identity and that resistance remains even today. INTRODUCTION Colonialism has been thought to be disruptive to indigenous cultures, especially when the entanglements prioritize assimilation. Because of this, scholars have emphasized the way colonized peoples have responded to culture-contact (Acabado 2017; Atalay 2006; Lightfoot 2005; Panich 2010, 2013; Rodriguez-Alegria 2008; Silliman 2005, 2009, 2012). These studies have also mediated the idea of continuity and persistence amidst the imposed order by colonial powers. Voss (2015) argues that indigenous populations respond creatively to the unequal power relationship to perpetuate certain aspects their culture.

In the Philippines, the influence of the Spanish Empire is magnified by the rapid conversion to Catholicism by indigenous groups. This has also resulted in the marginalization of non-Christianized groups, and the continued division among those who were directly colonized and those that successfully resisted Spanish conquest. These processes (conversion and resistance) have been the basis for present-day identities of Filipinos. In this article, we provide a case study that provides details on how colonialism catalyzed the identity of the Ifugao, who are portrayed in dominant historical narratives as uncolonized.

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Ifugao identity is based on three fundamental aspects of their history: uncolonized, long history of rice terracing system, and the centrality of rice in their culture. These aspects are integrated into a tradition that emphasizes distinctions between highland and lowland ethnic identities. However these differences are products of colonialism and history and have its roots in the Spanish conquest of the Philippines. This paper argues that culture contact provided the venue for Philippine groups to craft their identities in relation to the more powerful Spanish Empire. For example, the Bicolanos, described as the fiercest warriors that the Spanish have encountered, chose to become part of the new colonial power and embraced Catholicism. Today, Bicolanos are known as one of, if not the, most religious of all Philippine ethnolinguistic groups. On the other hand, the contemporary Ifugao base their identity on the dominant narratives in Philippine history that describe them as uncolonized. The Ifugao inhabit the interior of the Philippine Cordillera and are known for their rice terraces (Figure 1). The Spanish never established a permanent presence in the region, and thus, Spanish cultural influences in the Cordilleras are scant. While it is true that the Ifugao successfully resisted multiple attempts by the Spanish to subjugate them, they were not isolated and were participants to the colonial enterprise, as documented by Acabado (2009, 2015, 2017).

Figure 1. Map of Northern Luzon, Philippines (inset: Banaue [top] and Batad [bottom]) terraces.

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Related to this view is the proposition that the terraces are at least 2,000 years old. This model, however, is not based on even “a single shovelful of archaeological evidence”, using Robert Maher's (1973: 40) words, but it entered the national consciousness because of how history is taught in Philippine basic education. Connie Bodner (1986), working in another region in the Cordillera (Bontoc), has also strongly argued for the later inception (after 1600 CE) of wet-rice cultivation in the region – argument that, like in the case of Ifugao, is supported by archaeological datasets.

The long-history model is a representative caricature of the uncolonized, isolated peoples, and “original Filipinos”—unsubstantiated by fact and replete with colonial perspectives that depict the Ifugao as unchanging. Perspectives such as this continue to reprise the colonial views of upland Filipinos as “backward” - and underscore how obviously this view of Cordilleran peoples as primeval Filipino ancestors has no place in contemporary scholarship. In this article, we consider the later emergence of wet-rice cultivation as one of the responses of the Ifugao to the arrival of the Spanish in the northern Philippines. Elsewhere, Acabado (2010, 2015, 2017) argued that the highlands become a refugium for lowland populations who were avoiding the Spanish. He further argued that the highlands are pericolonial areas (2017: 3) that served as a venue for political and economic consolidation. Indeed, archaeological, ethnographic, and spatial datasets strongly support rapid subsistence, environmental, and social change in the region soon after the arrival of the Spanish in northern Luzon at ca. 1573 CE. Lavish feasts and rituals, particularly those that are related to agriculture, which solidified Ifugao social organization, accompanied the shift to wet-rice cultivation. More importantly, these activities reinforced Ifugao identity. It is thus, argued that colonialism and culture contact paved the way for Ifugao ethnogenesis. The archaeological correlates of this shift has been described by Acabado and colleagues (Acabado 2017, Lapena and Acabado 2017, Acabado et. al 2017), but we further argue that this pattern is still observed among contemporary Ifugao populations who reinforce their Ifugao identity through the cultivation of Ifugao rice varieties (tinawon). Tinawon varieties are not economically viable, but our data suggest that Ifugao farmers continue to cultivate them even with the pressures exerted by market forces. Using productivity data obtained from Kiangan, we suggest that the Ifugao identity spurred by the Spanish colonialism continues to be reinforced because of the pressure to assimilate into a larger Philippine society.

Globalization and the imposition of the market economy have shaped the rapid transformations that traditional and indigenous peoples around the world have faced. These changes are more accentuated among peoples whose subsistence pattern is intertwined with their political and religious realms. Studies of traditional societies often emphasize the sustainability of indigenous agricultural practices (e.g. Altieri 2004; Pawluk et al. 1992; Lwoga et al. 2010; Sillitoe 1988), particularly economic systems that are considered as composite or complementary (Rambo 1996; Conklin 1980). However, studies such as these often overlook the fact that communities make decisions based on a variety of options available to them. The endurance of rituals among the Ifugao is an expression of identity maintenance and resistance to assimilation, even in the midst of economic and political transformations sponsored by the state. Scott (1976, 1985) has

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argued that shifts such as those observed in Ifugao could be part of what he calls, peasant struggles against class divisions. IFUGAO ETHNOHISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY Ferdinand Magellan, sailing under the flag of the Spanish Empire, dropped anchor along the coast of the Central Philippines in March 19, 1521. His voyage to the Philippines was spurred by the objective of discovering a western route to the Spice Islands, which are located south of the Philippine archipelago. Although Magellan planted the Spanish flag in the Philippines in 1521, it was not until 1565 that Miguel Lopez de Legaspi formally established a colonial government in present-day Cebu City. The establishment of the Spanish colonial government in the Philippines was a consequence of the discovery of a safe route between the Philippine and Mexico, the so-called torno viaje, which facilitated the famous Manila-Acapulco Trade. The Philippines was an afterthought in the conquest of the East Indies as the archipelago was thought to be an expensive possession, but the islands offered the potential springboard to trade with and to colonize China (Skowronek 1998).

Legaspi moved the administration capital from Cebu to Manila in 1571 because of news about gold mines in Luzon (Cordillera and Bicol). Within six months of his capture of Manila, his grandson, Juan de Salcedo, lead an expedition to explore the west coastal region of northern Luzon, which was the emporium for the Igorot gold (Scott 1974:9). The Ifugao region did not have gold, their Benguet neighbors did, but the Spanish wanted to subdue all Cordillera groups so that they could have free reign over the Igorot gold.

The Spanish had heard about the Ifugao and other highland groups as early as 1575 CE, largely due to the famed Cordillera gold. Spanish, and later German, explorers provided the earliest historical reports of the agricultural systems of Cordillera populations (Scott 1974). Surprisingly, it was not until 1801 CE that a description of wet-rice terracing appeared in Spanish documents. This glaring absence in any early colonial documents motivated Keesing (1962) to argue that the terraces were much younger than what pioneer anthropologists (Barton 1919; Beyer 1955) had proposed.

Archaeological work is limited to Robert Maher’s series of visits from the 1960s to early 1980s. Maher conducted the first archaeological project in the province, later resulting to the initial archaeological publications regarding the region (1973, 1984, 1985, 1989). Sites at two localities were excavated, one in Banaue in Central Ifugao and the other in the Burnay District of Southeast Ifugao. These sites provided radiocarbon evidence for site occupation, but not necessarily rice terrace construction, up to 2950±250 14C yr BP and 1340±375 14C yr BP, respectively, well before Spanish impacts in the region after c. 375 cal BP (1570 CE). Subsequent archaeological investigations of Ifugao Province were carried out relatively recently, in Banaue (Acabado 2009, 2010) and at the Old Kiyyangan Village site (OKV), in Kiangan (Acabado 2012a, 2012b, 2013, 2015, 2017). OKV is thought to have been the first settled by the Tuwali-Ifugao, an Ifugao ethnolinguistic group that later settled in the current town of Kiangan, about 4 km from the archaeological site. Other scholars on the Ifugao including Lambrecht (1967) and most recently Acabado (2009, 2012b, 2017), using evidence from lexical information, ethno-historic documents, and archaeological data, suggest that the terraced landscapes of the Ifugao are

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the end-result of population expansion into the Cordillera highlands in response to Spanish colonization. Lowland-mountain contacts even before the Spanish arrival might have facilitated the movement of lowland peoples to the highlands when the Spanish established bases in their locales (Acabado & Martin 2015). Though the Ifugao’s terracing technology probably started, in its present site, nearly nine hundred years ago with the cultivation of taro (Colocasia esculenta) on split-levelled pond fields (Acabado 2012b), it was the cultivation of wet rice that served as impetus for the rapid expansion of terraces as we see it now and along with it the elaboration of cultural correlates associated with this one grain. Religion, custom law, community values and indigenous knowledge revolved and evolved around the rice.

The debate on the antiquity of the Ifugao terraces, however, does not provide the same answer if asked of the wider rice culture of the Ifugaos. Did the rice rituals of the Ifugao including religion and rice-centered oral literature coincide with the construction of the terraces in present day Ifugao? Or were they in fact the builders of the irrigated rice fields in the upper Magat as observed by the Spanish expedition in 1591 as postulated by Keesing (1962); if it were so then perhaps the terraces in modern-day Ifugao Province was a continuation of an interrupted rice-growing culture in the lowlands? These questions however can be settled by further archaeological and ethnographic research to bring together a more holistic understanding of the UNESCO-inscribed Ifugao Rice Terraces and the oral literature of the Ifugao that apparently focuses on rice.

Currently, the Ifugao subsistence pattern is characterized by a complementary system of irrigated rice-terraced fields, swiddens, and agroforestry (Acabado 2012b). As an agroecological system, it is guided by integrated patterns of mixed farming that includes the management of private forests, swidden cultivation of sweet potatoes, pond-field rice farming, inter-cropping of many secondary domesticates (i.e. sweet potatoes, potatoes, cabbage, and other cash crops), and the raising of pigs, chickens, and other livestock (Conklin 1980: 36). Though rice terraces appear to dominate the Ifugao landscape, these fields are part of a system that includes managed forests and swidden fields.

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FIGURE 2. Ifugao terrace ecology; a typical Ifugao terrace system includes privately-owned woodlot, communal forest, swidden fields, a house terrace, irrigation channels, and rice terraces.

The primary consideration when building these terraces on the mountain slopes is a sufficient water source. Slope inclination, elevation, or aspect are secondary (Acabado 2010, 2012a, 2015). The irrigation source of a particular terrace system is usually located a few kilometers upstream. This ensures sufficient water pressure to supply the fields downstream. Earthen irrigation channels wind through the mountainous topography, replenishing topsoil and nutrients lost from the bunded fields. Although the rice terraces dominate the Ifugao landscape, the main source of carbohydrate in Ifugao, historically, is swidden-field cultivation of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas). Swidden fields are located in areas higher in elevation and with no available water source (Acabado 2012a, 2015).

Elsewhere, Acabado (2013) argued that rice production and consumption forms the nexus of modern Ifugao social relationships (Acabado 2013). As an example, the customary wealth indicator in Ifugao is based on the rice-land holdings of an individual and the person’s ability to sponsor feasts, which requires the distribution of rice and consumption of rice wine. Elites (owners of rice land) are called the kadangyan, while the

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poor are called the nawotwot (which literally means, root-crop eater). Community members who own rice lands but are unable to sponsor feasts are called tagu or natumok. The tagu are usually relatives of the kadangyan. Ranking in Ifugao is non-hereditary, although an individual born to an elite family would have the resources needed to reach the kadangyan rank. Property, especially land holdings and prestige goods, is inherited by the first-born (primogeniture) regardless of gender. Ethnographic (Barton 1919, 1922, 1930,1938; Lambrecht 1967) and ethnohistoric (Antolin 1789) accounts have described this ranking in Ifugao society. THE IFUGAO RICE PRODUCTION To the Ifugaos, the rice terraces not merely represent an agricultural landscape where a staple food is cultivated. More than that, it is the physical expression of a socio-cultural belief system which ultimately defined a people’s ethnic identity – a sacred space where ancestral spirits are invoked and deities are bribed with animal sacrifices to magically increase the grains to last until the next harvest season.

Like most indigenous peoples, the Ifugaos equate their cultural landscape to life itself, a hallowed ground sanctified by a covenant between the gods and their ancestors. The terraces are the setting of almost all sacred myths (hu’uwa) of the Ifugao chanted by a dwindling number of ritual specialists (mumbaki). These sacred myths emphasize the sanctity and centrality of the terraced landscape, the core of a vanishing belief system and an entire way of life. Even today where Christianity permeates most of the activities of these formerly animistic people, the more important matters relating to the terraces like property transfer, purchase or exchange, the Ifugao would revert to the rites of the old religion and customary law, a residual practice that indicates deep reverence to an ancient way of life deeply anchored to the land. Since the introduction of civil government by the Americans however, the customary laws of the Ifugao gradually succumbed to nationally enforced policies.

The UNESCO-inscribed World Heritage Site and FAO-recognized Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) rice terraces located in Ifugao Province, Northern Philippines fits the definition of a sacred cultural landscape, a sacred space maintained for several hundred years not only for its economic value but more for its importance as a link between the modern times and the ancient ways of the ancestors. The rice terraces connect the worlds of the living and the dead as ancestors who previously cultivated these agricultural spaces are invoked in the different seasonal rituals of rice to intercede in behalf of the current possessors of the land. Numerous agricultural gods are offered animal sacrifices to appease forces of nature beyond the control of mortals.

Rice alone merited an entire cycle of rituals in the old Ifugao religion. Feasts of merit sanctified by ritual specialists that elevated individuals in the social hierarchy were pre-conditioned on existing rice field holdings. Social structure was defined by rice through rituals that necessitated the invocation of a thousand or so agricultural gods. Ritual rice fields were consecrated to set the pace of community labor and establish socio-political hierarchy. The terraced landscape is thus the setting of a belief system where gods and mortals communed, where sacrifices are offered and divine providence is manifested.

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In the performance of rice rituals (Figure 2), the ancestral spirits of the sponsoring couple are invoked first just as in the rituals for man. Ancestors are invoked so they may join their living kin in petitioning the gods. This ritual significance of ancestral spirits makes the Ifugao an expert genealogist. This knowledge of pedigree is of paramount importance to an Ifugao. Some priests are able to provide genealogies for ten or eleven generations which include descendants in both lines of important ancestors. In the conduct of ritual feasts where relatives are required to attend, a functional knowledge of one’s lineage easily determines whom to invite (Dumia 1979) and whom to distribute the meat of sacrificed animals. Aside from being mere ritual sympathizers, deceased blood relatives, if properly propitiated can ensure good harvests, increase in livestock and large healthy families (Conklin 1980).

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Figure 2. The Tuwali-Ifugao Agricultural Calendar with associated rice rituals.

The Ifugao observes elaborate ritual offerings for every single phase of the rice from the sowing of consecrated seeds meticulously selected by highly-skilled elderly women to the harvesting of the ripened grains. The rice rituals follow the natural cycle of the Tinawon, heirloom varieties believed by the Ifugaos to have been handed down by gods of the Skyworld as narrated in their sacred myths. These agricultural rituals are sponsored by the Tumonak, agricultural leaders whose landholdings may not be the widest in the area, but are consecrated by deities to be the ritual field for a particular agricultural district. The tumonaks are necessarily of the kadangyan class, families or individuals who performed lavish prestige rites to earn a place among the elite of Ifugao society. There is usually one tumonak in every district who may be a man or a woman but

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with one or two alternates who would take his or her place in case he fails in his/her duties. The most important role of the tumonak is to maintain the synchronicity of labor in the terraces and at the same time maintain the rice rituals. Unfortunately, we now speak of the tumonak more as an institution of the vanishing past as this “keeper of rituals” is doomed to fade away along with the old ways as the new religion incessantly wreaks havoc at the very core of the old religion. CONTEMPORARY PRODUCTION SYSTEM The Ifugao agricultural system is an “agro-cultural complex”, a term popularized by O’Connor (1995) to describe the interlocking nature of agricultural practices, social systems, political, historical, and, cultural changes. This is an apt term because for the Ifugao, wet-rice cultivation is part of a much larger production system that includes swiddening and agro-forestry (Acabado 2012a; Acabado and Martin 2015). The terraces are planted mainly with rice interspersed with taro, legumes, beans and other crops. Its surrounding forests, both private and communal, are managed using an indigenous system of natural resources management passed down by earlier generations. Both the swidden and agro-forest serve as economic supplements and buffers in case of crop failure in the rice terraces. The maintenance of the living rice terraces reflects primarily a cooperative approach of the whole community which is based on detailed knowledge of the rich biodiversity of biological resources existing in the Ifugao agro-ecosystem, a finely tuned annual system respecting the lunar cycle, zoning and planning, extensive soil and water conservation, mastery of a most complex pest control regime based on the processing of a variety of herbs, accompanied by religious rituals (UNESCO, 2012). Notwithstanding the more recognizable pastoral feature of the terraces, it is equally important to understand the intangible and sacred component of the Ifugao terraced landscape. The traditional rice has always been at the center of the Ifugao way of life. It is thus interesting to note that even with the pressures of the market economy, Ifugao farmers strive to maintain the cultivation of tinawon. Although commercial varieties are rapidly replacing local varieties (Acabado and Martin 2015), farmers (both land owners and tenants) continue to prioritize the latter. At first glance, it seems that tinawon provides more cash inflow since tinawon varieties are much more expensive than commercial varieties (Table 1). However, most Ifugao farmers store their yield for special occasions, rather than sell them.

In the 1970’s, the Philippine government launched its own Green Revolution Program to boost the agricultural sector and wean the country from its dependence on agricultural imports. Rice, as the staple food of Filipinos, was prioritized for maximum production. New varieties of commercial rice, products of intensive research by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) based in the Philippines, were distributed for cultivation all over the Philippines. The Ifugao Rice Terraces were not spared from this revolutionary development initiative. Heirloom Ifugao rice varieties, the tinawon, harvested only once a year, were substituted with the new high-yielding varieties promising double or even triple the usual harvest volume. The campaign by the government was so effective, most traditional farmers readily shifted to the high-yielding varieties. The initial years of HYV cultivation delivered as promised, but the negative

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results of HYV cultivation will be felt only after several years after the demise of the local culture within which tinawon varieties are embedded. The accruing effects of chemical fertilization, pesticides and disruptions of biodiversity are already apparent, and will contribute to a degrading environment in the rice terraces. Table 2 shows that the 2017 harvest season had mostly losses in terms of capital outlay, even with the commercial varieties, which are mainly sold to the market. It is noteworthy though that the tinawon varieties are not really cultivated for economic reasons, but rather, for prestige. It could be that the farmers who crop tinawon varieties have other sources of income, and thus, able to keep most of the yield for household consumption (for rituals). According to the farmers that we interviewed, the data presented in Table 1, mirrors the same pattern in the last twenty years.

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Commercial Varieties Tinawon Varieties 52 Binogon 82 Botnol 222 Iggamay C-12 Imbannig C-2 Imbuukan C-4 Madduli C-4 red Mayawyaw Diamond Halaylay Ingaspar Ingaspi Korean Migapas Minmis Mukoz Mulmug Munoz NSCI-208 Pakulsa Oakland Oklan Oklan Minaangan Pangasinan variety PJ-27 PJ-7 RC-218 RI-152 RI-238 Romelia RP 224 Super 60 Taiwan Thunder

Table 1. Known and named commercial and local rice varieties cultivated in Kiangan and Hungduan Municipalities.

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Farmer Variety Local Name Field Land

Area (sqm) Yield (kgs)

Market Value

PhP Value

Sold to Market (kgs)

Household Consumption (kgs)

Production Cost

Profit/Loss

1 Commercial Taiwan 4427 2080 PhP17/kg 35360 1601.6 278.72 36,736 loss - 4776 2 Commercial C4 Nd 630 PhP17/kg 10710 none 567 14,340 loss -5340 3 Commercial Taiwan 5000 2950 PhP17/kg 50150 678.5 1976.5 28,788 profit- 3850 4 Commercial C4 4000 2385 PhP18/kg 42930 395.91 1559.79 24,190 profit-10,370 5 Commercial C4 4163 2680 PhP13/kg 34840 884.4 1599.96 20,540 profit-10,660 6 Tinawon Maduli;

inapyahan; botnol

5300

441 PhP90/kg 39690 44.1 396.9 26,050 profit-13,640 7 Tinawon Maduli;

inapyahan; botnol

1945

168 PhP100/kg 16800 97.44 70.56 17,900 loss-6,700 8 Tinawon Bukig 4450 840 PhP100/kg 84000 0 798 27,600 profit-31,620 9 Tinawon Inapyahan;

pugut Nd

280 PhP100/kg 28000 0 280 33,830 loss-8,630 10 Tinawon Bukig Nd 700 PhP90/kg 63000 0 700 18,920 profit-44,080 Table 2. Nagacadan District Productivity Data from the 2017 harvest Season.

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The increase in the number of commercial rice varieties in Ifugao has swamped the terraced rice fields of Ifugao, particularly, those of the rice terraces in Kiangan (Figure 4). Moore (2014) has gathered data that indicate the dominance of non-local rice varieties in at least two agricultural districts that she investigated. We surmise that this is partly influenced by the proximity and elevations of Kiangan compared to Hungduan –higher elevation sites are still too cold for most commercial rice varieties.

Figure 4. Rice varieties cultivated in three villages investigated by J. Moore. Note: Other upland varieties are rice varieties developed by other Cordilleran groups (i.e. Bontoc, Kalinga). It has been more than 40 years since green revolution (commercial) rice varieties have been introduced in Ifugao as part of the Philippine government’s Rice Sufficiency Program (Salas 1985). Although they have negatively impacted Ifugao culture and terrace ecology, it has also brought economic stability to Ifugao farmers. Since tinawon varieties are not commonly traded because they are prestige food, the shift to commercial rice varieties have provided a source of income to Ifugao farmers. The challenge now is to include this shifting agricultural system to the conservation programs of the Ifugao rice terraces.

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CONTINUITY AND CHANGE: MAINTENANCE OF IDENTITY Voss (2015: 686) calls for a serious examinations of how archaeologists have utilized the concept of ethnogenesis. Previous iterations of the ethnogenesis concept have focused on the idea of the loss or extinction of indigenous cultures (Panich 2013: 16), but recent archaeological investigations on culture contact have highlighted the observation that conquered groups tend to perpetuate certain aspects of their culture. Among the contemporary Ifugao, their identity revolves around the long history of their terraces and the historical narratives that they were uncolonized – both concepts proposed by earlier scholars that appear to leave Ifugao agency. Acabado (2017) has argued that these earlier models failed to identify how the indigenous group creatively responded to entanglements in the Philippine colonial period because of the inordinate focus on the exotic. Instead of humanizing the Ifugao, ideas of deep history and uncolonized fundamentally shaped how lowland Filipinos view the former. The archaeological evidence strongly suggest that the Ifugao were able to resist Spanish conquest by accepting the economic pressures exerted by the colonial administration. The shift to wet-rice cultivation gave them the ability to consolidate political and economic resources needed to solidify their ethnic identity. This pattern is observed today, with the assimilation of the Ifugao to the Philippine state and the dominance of the market economy.

As a dynamic culture, the Ifugao have responded to this process with ingenuity by choosing to be part of the larger Philippine society, but maintaining their identity. Of particular emphasis is the revitalization of rice rituals that, as we have outline, have eroded significantly in the last 50 years. This revitalization could have been initially prompted by tourism, but we have observed that farmer-communities welcome the revenue brought in by tourists as these funds provide the needed resources for the expensive rituals (i.e. pigs, chicken, and rice wine). We recognize that there is a fine line that separates spectacle and heritage conservation when they are in the context of tourism, but in this case, the latter provides the avenue for the continuity of tradition. Following Scott’s (1985: 29) argument that powerless groups contest domination by “foot dragging, dissimulation, false compliance, pilfering, feigned ignorance, slander, arson, sabotage, and so forth,” we contend that the Ifugao respond to cultural domination creatively – by actively choosing options that are advantageous for their own purposes. Taken in a more positive way than how Scott illustrate how peasants around the world fight the perils of the market economy, the Ifugao chose to strengthen the power of their rice fields.

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