by: Arlene Sapanza
They typify the outstanding negrito physical traits of dark brown to black color and curly hair. The few cases of straight hair and light complexion may be chiefly the result of mixture with the lowland christians. They have beautifully proportioned bodies, arms, legs and breasts especially among women. Their stature compares to an average Filipino. The women stand at 4 feet 10 inches to 5 feet 4 inches and the men tower from 5 feet to 5 feet 9 inches.
The Dumagats are found in the province of Nueva Ecija, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte, Rizal and Bulacan. They live in single-pole make-shift nipa huts along the river banks during summertime and move to sturdier dwellings on higher grounds during the monsoon rains.
They live the life of hunters and rattan traders. Hunting is their basic occupation. Their weapons consists of bow and arrow. Hunting with dogs is a favorite technique. They gather rattan palms from the forest cleansing and scraping them until they are ready to be split into smaller pieces. After these are ready, they deliver them to the tabong (market) in the lowlands and exchange them for rice, sugar, salt and other basic commodities. They also use the kaingin system of farming live by fishing with hooks, traps and spears.
Dumagats speak a language of their own among themselves. But as scholars have discovered, they can also speak with facility the language of the region to which they have migrated. A careful examination of the Dumagat language today places its historical origin at the adoption of a mixed Palanan dialect around 1783 when different ethnic groups took refuge in the town in their attempt to escape the Tobacco Monopoly. The vocabulary consists largely of Tagalog, Ibanag, Ilocano, and Bisayan terms.
For the Dumagats, there is no wedding ceremony save for a simple celebration to which the couple's relatives and guests are invited and at which the union is announced. As simply as the union is made, so too is its dissolution. A Dumagat couple separate simply by mutual consent.
The Dumagats have no structured religion of their own although they claim to believe in nameless, faceless gods whom they invoke to protect them from danger. They are peace-loving people. When they die, usually of sickness or old age, their remains are placed in simple coffins of buho or bamboo and buried in silence. No prayers are offered over the graves, no sad songs chanted. Relatives and friends of the dead put aromatic herbs around their arms to serve as their perfume.
SOURCE: Katutubo Directory "A Global YES Event for the UN Decade
of Indegenous People"
