Description

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The Cordillera mountain ranges in the Philippine Northern Luzon Island are the home of indigenous people collectively known as Kaigorotan (Igorot peoples). These indigenous communities have a homogeneous identity in sociocultural traits and religious beliefs. The traditional religion has its own cosmic worldview. The supreme God is often identified with the sun and lives in space, referred to as Kabunian. Western influences arrived in the Cordillera in the early 20th century when the Catholic missionaries started schools and hospitals as a means of spreading Christianity. They unscrupulously prohibited all traditional cultural practices of the people. This paved the way for Museumization of Kabunianism. Today only a small minority of people practice pure traditional native religion and traditional cultural practices; the majority follow a conflated or mixed version of Christianity or Kabunianism.The author favors the unprecedented term Kabunianism to classify the unorganized religion of this indigenous people and, their major concept of sickness as pneumasomatic sickness.

About the Author

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Janetius completed his Doctorate from De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines in Counseling Psychology, under the guidance of Dr Alexa Abrenica, studying the healing practices of Cordillera people in the Philippines. Living more than three years among the indigenous people in the Cordillera provinces, he experienced the daily lifestyle and existential issues of the people before completing his doctoral research. He is a multidisciplinary researcher who has written and edited books on Culture and Higher Education in Ethiopia, Indian Higher Education Today, Human Rights Abuse on Elders, Visions in Mahabharata and Bible and Rural Empowerment for Sustainable Development.