AETA

The Aeta (Ayta /ˈaɪtə/ EYE-tə ; Kapampangan : áitâ), or Agta, are an indigenous people who live in
scattered, isolated mountainous parts of the island of Luzon , the Philippines . These people are considered to be
Negritos , whose skin ranges from dark to very dark brown, and possessing features such as a small stature and
frame; hair of a curly to kinky texture and a higher frequency of naturally lighter colour ( blondism) relative to
the general population, small nose, and dark brown eyes. They are thought to be among the earliest inhabitants
of the Philippines, preceding the Austronesian migrations.

The Aeta were included in the group of people named " Negrito " during the Spanish Era . Various Aeta
groups in northern Luzon are named Pugut or Pugot, an Ilocano term that also means "goblin" or "forest spirit",
and is the colloquial term for people with darker complexions. As nomadic people, Aeta communities typically
consist of approximately 1 to 5 families of mobile group. So the word Aeta or Agta is frequently used as an
umbrella term for numerous Aeta groups in the Philippines, considering their varied locations in Luzon, including
some living in parts of Visayas and Mindanao. Groups under the “Aeta” umbrella are normally referred to after
their demographic locations. Scholars (particularly anthropologists and ethnographers) focusing on the Aeta
communities tend to follow this particular naming to also account for cultural variations (most notably, in
language) for each individual group. Aeta of Magbukun (also called Aeta of Bataan), [4] Casiguran Dumagat Agta,
Aeta of Zambales (also called Aeta of Mt. Pinatubo), Aeta of San Mariano Isabela, and Agta of Lamika, are some
of the Aeta communities in the Philippine archipelago.

History
The Aeta people in the Philippines are often grouped with other Negritos and the Australo-Melanesian s,
which includes other groups such as Aborigines in Australia ; Papuans ; and the Melanesians of the Solomon
Islands , Vanuatu , Fiji , and the French overseas special collectivity of New Caledonia. The history of the Aetas
continues to confound anthropologists and archaeologists. One theory suggests that the Aeta are the
descendants of the original inhabitants of the Philippines, who, contrary to their seafaring Austronesian
neighbors, arrived through land bridges that linked the islands with the Asian mainland. Unlike many of their
Austronesian counterparts, the Aetas have shown resistance to change. Aetas had little interaction with the
Spaniards as they remained in the mountains during the Spanish rule. Even the attempts of the Spaniards failed
to settle them in reducciones or reservations all throughout Spanish rule . According to Spanish observers like
Miguel López de Legazpi , Negritos possessed iron tools and weapons. Their speed and accuracy with a bow and
arrow were proverbial and they were fearsome warriors. Unwary travelers or field workers were often easy
targets. Despite their martial prowess, however, the Aeta's small numbers, primitive economy and lack of
organization often made them easy prey for better-organized groups. Zambals seeking people to enslave would
often take advantage of their internal feuding. They were often enslaved and sold to Borneo and China, and,
unlike the serf feudal system imposed on other Filipinos, there was little chance of manumission .

Demographic
It is estimated that there are about 20,000 to 30,000 Aeta people living in the Philippines

Lifestyle
The Aeta are nomadic and build only temporary shelters made of sticks driven to the ground and
covered with the palm of banana leaves. The well-situated and more modernized Aetas have moved to villages
and areas of cleared mountains. They live in houses made of bamboo and cogon grass . Aetas are found in
Zambales, Tarlac, Pampanga , Panay, Bataan and Nueva Ecija, but were forced to move to resettlement areas in
Pampanga and Tarlac following the devastating Mount Pinatubo eruption in June 1991. Mining, deforestation,
illegal logging , and slash-and-burn farming have caused the indigenous population in the country to steadily
decrease to the point where they number only in the thousands today. The Philippine government affords them
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little or no protection, and the Aeta have become extremely nomadic due to social and economic strain on their
culture and way of life that had previously remained unchanged for thousands of years. As hunter-gatherers,
adaptation plays an important role in Aeta communities to survive. This often includes gaining knowledge about
the tropical forest that they live in, the typhoon cycles that travel through their area, and other seasonal
weather changes that affect the behavior of the flora and fauna in their location. Dry season for many Aeta
communities means intense work. They not only hunt and fish more, the start of the dry season also means
swiddening the land for future harvest. While the clearing of land is done by both men and women, Aeta women
tend to do most of the harvesting. During this period, they also do business transactions with non-Aeta
communities living around the vicinity they temporarily settled in either to sell the food they gathered, or to
work as temporary farmers or field laborers. Aeta women play more active roles in business transactions with
non-Aeta communities, mostly as traders and agricultural workers for lowland farmers. While dry season
typically means bountiful food for Aetas, rainy season (which often falls in the Philippines between September
and December) often provides the opposite experience, considering the difficulties of traversing flooded and
wet forests for hunting and gathering.

Aeta communities use different tools in their hunting and gathering activities. Traditional tools include
traps, knives, and bow and arrow, with different types of arrow points for specialized purposes. Most Aetas are
trained for hunting and gathering at age 15, including Aeta women. While men and some women typically use
the standard bow and arrow, most Aeta women prefer knives and often hunt with their dogs and in groups to
increase efficiency and for social reasons. Fishing and food gathering are also done by both males and females.
In terms of gender, then, Aeta communities are more egalitarian in structure and in practice.

Language
All Aeta communities have adopted the language of their Austronesian Filipino neighbors , which have
sometimes diverged over time to become different languages. These include, in order of number of speakers,
Mag-indi , Mag-antsi , Abellen, Ambala , and Mariveleño .

Religion
Indigenous monotheistic religion
There are different views on the dominant character of the Aeta religion. Those who believe they are
monotheistic argue that various Aeta tribes believe in a supreme being who rules over lesser spirits or deities,
with the Aeta of Mt. Pinatubo worshipping "Apo Na ". The Aetas are also animists . For example, the Pinatubo
Aeta believe in environmental spirits. They believe that good and evil spirits inhabit the environment, such as
the spirits of the river, sea, sky, mountain, hill, valley and other places. No special occasion is needed for the
Aeta to pray , but there is a clear link between prayer and economic activities. The Aeta dance before and after a
pig hunt. The night before Aeta women gather shellfish, they perform a dance which is partly an apology to the
fish and partly a charm to ensure the catch. Similarly, the men hold a bee dance before and after the expeditions
for honey .

Indigenous polytheistic religion

There are four manifestations of the "great creator" who rules the world: Tigbalog is the source of life
and action; Lueve takes care of production and growth; Amas moves people to pity, love, unity, and peace of
heart; while Binangewan is responsible for change, sickness, and death. Gutugutumakkan – The Supreme Being
and Great Creator who have four manifestations, namely, Tigbalog, Lueve, Amas, and Binangewan.
Kedes - The god of the hunt.
Pawi - The god of the forest.
Sedsed - The god of the sea.

Colonial religion
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 In the mid-1960s, missionaries of the American-based Evangelical Protestant mission group New Tribes
Mission , in their effort to reach every Philippine tribal group with the Christian Gospel, reached out to the
Agtas/Aetas. The mission agency provided education, including pastoral training for natives to reach members of
their own tribe. Today, a large percentage of Agtas/Aetas of Zambales and Pampanga are Evangelicals .
Jehovah's Witnesses also have members of the Aeta people. (See 1993 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses)

Clothing
Their traditional clothing is very plain. The young women wear wrap around skirts. Elder women wear
bark cloth, while elder men wear loin cloths. The old women of the Agta wear a bark cloth strip which passes
between the legs, and is attached to a string around the waist. Today, most Aeta who have been in contact with
lowlanders have adopted the T-shirts, pants and rubber sandals commonly used by the latter.

Practices
The Aetas are skillful in weaving and plaiting. Women exclusively weave winnows and mats. Only men
make armlets. They also produce raincoats made of palm leaves whose bases surround the neck of the wearer,
and whose topmost part spreads like a fan all around the body.

According to one study, "About 85% of Philippine Aeta women hunt, and they hunt the same quarry as
men. Aeta women hunt in groups and with dogs, and have a 31% success rate as opposed to 17% for men. Their
rates are even better when they combine forces with men: mixed hunting groups have a full 41% success rate
among the Aeta."

Medicine
Aeta women are known around the country as experts of the herbal medicines . Among the Aeta
community in Ilagan, Isabela for example, banana leaves are used to cure toothache. They also bathe
themselves with cooled-down water boiled with camphor leaves ( subusob ) to help alleviate fever, or they
make herbal teas out of the camphor leaves that they then drink thrice a day if the fever and cold still persist.
For muscle pains, they drink herbal teas extracted from kalulong leaves and have the patient take it thrice a day.
In order to prevent relapse after giving birth, women also bathe themselves in cooled-down water boiled with
sahagubit roots. The drinking of sahagubit herbal tea is likewise recommended to deworm Aeta children, or
generally to alleviate stomachache. For birth control purposes, Aeta women drink wine made out of lukban
(pamelo) root. They are, however, not advised to drink herbal tea from makahiya extract even if it's also used to
elevate stomachache problems due to the belief that it will cause abortion. The idea behind this is that like the
closing of makahiya leaves once touched, the womb may also close once the makahiya touches it. The Aeta in
Isabela also recommend drinking herbal tea out of wormwood ( herbaca) leaves or stem to address women's
irregular menstrual cycle. They take herbal teas from lemon grass ( barbaraniw) extract thrice a day to normalize
blood pressure.

If the illness persists even after continuous drinking of recommended herbal medicine, that's when they
seek the help of an herbolario (or soothsayer). They do so because the Aeta believe that their illnesses are
caused by a spirit that they may have offended, in which case herbal medicines or medical doctors won't be able
to address. In order to appease the spirits, they ask the herbolario to perform a ritual called ud- udung. In this
ritual, the herbolario places rice or raw eggs on the patient's forehead first to determine what causes the illness
and repeats this several times to confirm. After the herbolario is satisfied, the patient will be asked to bathe with
ricewash, and then to offer food to appease the offended spirit.

The Aeta communities take pride in their use of herbal medicines and their own natural ways of curing
the sick. Finding their main source of herbal medicines in their habitat rather than buying costly medicines,

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emphasizing the mutual relationship with the nature, also has a great attitudinal impact pertaining to
sustainability approach and practices in healthcare.

Art
A traditional form of visual art is body scarification. The Aetas intentionally wound the skin on their
back, arms, breast, legs, hands, calves and abdomen, and then they irritate the wounds with fire, lime and other
means to form scars. Other "decorative disfigurements" include the chipping of the teeth. With the use of a file,
the Dumagat modify their teeth during late puberty. The teeth are dyed black a few years afterwards.

The Aetas generally use ornaments typical of people living in subsistence economies. Flowers and leaves
are used as earplugs for certain occasions. Girdles, necklaces, and neckbands of braided rattan incorporated
with wild pig bristles are frequently worn.

Music
The Aeta have a musical heritage consisting of various types of agung ensembles, ensembles composed
of large hanging, suspended or held, bossed/ knobbed gongs , which act as drone, without any accompanying
melodic instrument.

Traditional political organization

While the father is normally the figurehead of the family, Aeta communities or bands traditionally had
anarchic political structure wherein they don't have appointed chiefs to exercise authority over them. Individual
Aeta is on equal grounds with the other and their main course of social interaction is through their tradition. It's
also the tradition, and not constituted laws, that maintain the equality among them and guide their way of life.
They do have group of elders in their community, called pisen, who they tend to go to when it comes to
arbitrating decisions. However, the decisions made by the elders only remain in advisory capacity and no one
could force any individual to follow those decisions. Their guiding principle and conflict resolution is through a
sustained deliberation.

Overtime, this egalitarian political structure was disturbed due to recurring contacts with the lowland
Filipinos wherein the local officials and individuals they interact with forced Aeta communities to create
government structure resembling those in the lowlands. At times, Aeta communities do organize themselves in
government-like system with a Capitan (Captain), Conseyal (Council) and Policia (Police). But mostly, they resist
such imposed organization. In particular, they refuse to appoint a chief (or a president) that will govern them
although they do have one elder that takes the responsibility of leadership. This informal kind of government
can also be found in their judicial process. When someone in their community did something wrong, they would
deliberate about it but more importantly, they don't talk about what kind of punishment they will hand to the
wrong-doer but instead the deliberation is about understanding the motivation behind the action and prevent
the consequence of the action from developing into something worse. Young men and women are excluded
from the deliberation process. In this particular case, women are also largely excluded from the deliberation
process even when they are allowed to attend the hearing or even when sometimes they can make their opinion
about the problem. For the most part, women are not given room within the decision making process because
the Aeta communities also follow a strict gender role were women are mostly expected take care of the children
and the husband.

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