Selling the Cordilleran: How Commodification of Culture

Creates New Authenticities in Tam-awan Village, Philippines

By

Fernan L. Talamayan

Submitted to

Central European University

Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts in Sociology and Social Anthropology

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Supervisors:

Dr. Alexandra Kowalski

Dr. Anna Szemere

Budapest, Hungary

2018
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Words will never be enough to express how grateful I am to all the individuals and
institutions that have inspired and helped me in my journey at CEU. Nonetheless, I would
like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to the following:

To Tam-awan Village and the members of the Tam-awan Village In-House Performing
Group, for allowing me to carry out an anthropological research on the commodification of
the Cordilleran culture;

To the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, for giving me an opportunity to

study at CEU and for making me realize my potential as an academic and as a scholar;

To Professor Alexandra Kowalski, Professor Anna Szemere, and Professor Dorit Geva, for
their substantial comments on my thesis and for guiding me in the process of conducting and
writing my research;

To my brothers in the Sigma Rho Fraternity, for being true brothers – it is them who taught
me that greatness is not founded on our individual achievements but rather on the virtue of
our oneness;

To Gerard, Nikki, and Aila, for being my Filipino family in Budapest – I will forever treasure
everything that I shared with them in this foreign city;

To my closest friends in Budapest, Katya, Fedya, Silvia, and Dariya, and to all my CEU
friends, for helping me survive the coldest winter I have ever experienced and for making my
life in Budapest more memorable;

To Kuya Adonis, the Chairperson of the Department of History and Philosophy, University
of the Philippines Baguio, and a close friend of mine, for all his advice and help especially
during the initial stages of my research;

To my best friends, Lee and Aika, for being consistently reliable and for always being there
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for me, in happiness and in trying times, in spite of the time difference and distance;

To my family who has always motivated me to strive and become a better person;

To Samira who I always remember every single day; and

To Mai, my source of happiness, for always making me feel loved and inspired.

Know that I will forever be in your debt. Maraming salamat!

1
 ABSTRACT

This thesis will narrate the story of the commodification of the Cordilleran culture in Tam-

awan Village, a local space that “outsiders” such as Filipino National Artist Benedicto

“BenCab” Cabrera and other artists have transformed into a “living museum” that is based on

their own perspective of the Cordilleras. Using postcolonial and critical approaches, my

research will focus on Tam-awan’s concept of a “living museum” to problematize the

correlation between authenticity and the process of preservation, exhibition, commodification

and mummification of a culture. I will explain how cultural preservation, when enabled by

commodification, results not into the maintenance of the said culture but instead, the birth of

a new culture, and hence, the creation of new authenticities based on the icons and memories

of the traditional one. To understand this phenomenon, the commodification process and

issues on authenticity will be examined from (1) the Cordillerans’ standpoint as regards their

active participation, negotiation, and collaboration in the process of commodifying their own

way of life and (2) the perspective of the museumgoers or the consumers of the commodified

culture. In a sense, this thesis is a criticism of the presumptions on “tradition” and

“authenticity” as I will reinterpret the meanings of those two notions in the context of the

commodification of a marginalized culture in the postcolonial Philippines.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………… 4

Chapter 1: Introduction…………………………………………………………………….. 5

1.1 Literature Review……………………………………………………………….10

1.2 Methodology……………………………………………………………………19

Chapter 2: Selling The Cordilleran Culture in A “Living” Museum………………………. 24

2.1 Selling the Inauthentic…………………………………………………………. 34

Chapter 3: The Cordilleran: An Adopted Artificial Totality………………………………. 38

3.1 The Problematic Colonial Roots……………………………………………...... 38

3.2 A Side Note on Culture’s Commodification………………………………….... 42

3.3 The Creation of New Culture and Authenticities……………………………… 44

Chapter 4: The Legitimacy and Authenticity of the Performance of a Commodified Cultural

Form………………………………………………………………………………………... 50

4.1 Issues on Legitimacy and Authenticity………………………………………… 50

4.2 Authenticity Issues on Cultural Performances Posted Online…………………. 56

Chapter 5: Conclusion………………………………………………………………………60

References………………………………………………………………………………….. 62
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 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: The Luccong hut.………………………………………………………………… 25

Figure 2: Copy of a Dap-ay………………………………………………………………... 26

Figure 3: The “Gecko over Tam-awan”…………………………………………………….27

Figure 4: Cordilleran clothes………………………………………………………………. 28

Figure 5: Tam-awan Village’s souvenir shop………………………………………………28

Figure 6: Refrigerator magnets…………………………………………………………….. 29

Figure 7: Miniature reproductiojn of the Ifugao rice god………………………………….. 29

Figure 8: Inside the Bugnay Gallery……………………………………………………….. 30

Figure 9: The Ugnayan Gallery……………………………………………………………. 31

Figure 10: The Tam-awan Village In-House Performing Group…………………………...32

Figure 11: Tourists taking a “groufie”……………………………………………………... 32

Figure 12: The Cultural Show Area………………………………………………………... 33

Figure 13: The map of the Tam-awan Village……………………………………………... 34

Figure 14: Nails inside the Dukligan hut…………………………………………………... 35

Figure 15: The Tam-awan Village In-House Performing Group…………………………...36

Figure 16: The map of the Cordilleran Autonomous Region……………………………… 39

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Figure 17: Souvenir during the 1904 St. Louis World Fair………………………………... 40

Figure 18: Alang…………………………………………………………………………… 45

Figure 19: Bul-uls………………………………………………………………………….. 45

Figure 20: The tail of Lozano’s and Dato’s giant lizard…………………………………… 46

Figure 21: The “magic box”……………………………………………………………….. 53

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 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Baguio City, considered as one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Philippines, is

like my second home in my country. For the past ten years, I have been frequenting this

mountain city at the heart of Cordilleran 1 province for its cool weather and abundance of

pine trees. Visiting the city always gives me a sense of refuge; it gives me a feeling of escape

from the stress caused by living in Manila. It has also become a place for me to write my

researches, spend my holidays, relax and reflect on life.

As a young historian during my early 20s, in visiting this century-old colonial city I also get

instant gratification from its vibrancy and “authenticity.” The city’s conscious effort to keep

its traditions in spite of its colonial history and overwhelming Americanness continue to

fascinate me up till now. Though the area where the city currently stands has been inhabited

by the Cordillerans (specifically by the Ibalois) prior to colonization, Baguio City as Filipinos

know it today was founded by the Americans in the early 1900s and was established as a hill

station for American soldiers and administrators seeking to rejuvenate and escape tropical

heat (Cariño, 51). In spite of its colonial past, 2 the city was able to keep the icons and images

of the Cordilleran culture. Hence, it is local and global in a sense as you will see modern
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buildings that exhibit local architectures, restaurants that hang crafts and paintings to

showcase Cordilleran festivities, and idols/gods of various ethno-linguistic groups displayed

as furniture ornaments.

1
A collective name for all the ethnolinguistic groups in the mountain province in the Philippines.
2
It must be noted that in spite of the heavy Americanization of the Filipinos in the early 1900s, there
were American colonial policies in the Cordilleras that encouraged the preservation of the traditions
of the Cordillerans.

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 Two years ago, I had this peculiar experience in Baguio City that made me see the city in a

different light. That experience made me realize that for the past ten years that I have been

visiting the place, it dawned on me that I failed to recognize the existence of a long-standing

issue in the said city. Or perhaps I have been noticing it but because of my over familiarity

with the place and the phenomenon I will discuss, I might just have neglected it and treated it

as something very “normal.” And from this experience the story of my research begins.

As I was showing to a foreign friend the beauty of the Mines View Park in Baguio City, we

encountered an old lady who asked us to have our picture taken while wearing their

traditional dress. In exchange of wearing their traditional dress for a short while and having

our picture taken, she asked us to pay 50 Pesos each (approximately one US Dollar). I was

reluctant to wear their traditional clothes, as I believe that by doing so I am objectifying their

culture. My friend, on the other hand, was so enthusiastic about it and she ended up wearing

their clothes and had her picture taken. While my friend was having her pictures taken, I took

the opportunity to explain to the old woman my reasons for not wearing their traditional

outfit. I told her that I respect and value their traditions and customs so much to the point that

I refuse any forms of objectification of their culture. To my surprise, in the midst of our

seemingly casual conversation, she overtly expressed annoyance, frustration, and antagonism
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toward my conviction. At first, I thought that perhaps she just disliked me because she failed

to earn money from me. For that reason, as the day passed, I did my best to forget about the

experience. But until the time that we returned to our hotel, I found myself still pondering

about the experience. I realized that in spite of being a Filipino, in spite of my historical

knowledge of the city, and in spite of my mastery of navigating all its streets, it became clear

to me that my failure to understand her was obviously a result of being an outsider to their

culture. The experience made me realize that I failed to see their traditions and customs in

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 their perspectives. Upon realizing all these things, I started inquiring about how they see

traditions in the contemporary, globalizing world. I began asking myself why

commodification of culture exists in Baguio City and began exploring how it is being

manifested in the different ways and levels. The conversation I had with the old woman made

me realize how much culture has been commodified in Baguio City.

Large-scale tourism paved way to an overwhelming commercialization of Baguio’s history

and heritage. This phenomenon has had obvious tremendous impact on the daily activities

and wellbeing of its residents, particularly the marginalized indigenous people residing in the

city. Now, the question that begs to be answered is, how will I study and elaborate more on

the said phenomenon? I searched for particular spaces in Baguio City where culture

commodification was undeniably present and I ended up identifying one of my favorite

tourist destinations in the city as my field of research: the Tam-awan Village.

Identifying Tam-awan Village as the focal point of my inquiry led me to exploring the issue

of commodification of culture to another related concern: the concern on authenticity. It

became apparent to me that like Tam-awan Village, in selling the Cordilleran culture in most

ethnic tourist destinations in Baguio City, the exchange value of the cultural material or
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performance that they are selling heavily relies on its presumed authenticity. The culture that

they make available for mass consumption has been modified to suit the desire of their

market. So while the Cordillerans sell items or dances that use references from the

Cordilleran past, I realized that in the process of selling the “authenticity” of their culture

they are rather selling new authenticities. This phenomenon of creating and selling new

authenticities will be discussed in great detail in this thesis.

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 Thus, I ended up seeing the connection between commodification and authenticity. It has

become the theme of my thesis.

Banking on the ideas that the Cordilleran’s local culture is their most valuable asset and that

commodification of their culture is one of the consequences of the prevailing capitalist

system in the Philippines, my thesis will show how the commodification of their way of life

does not necessarily preserve their culture but rather mummifies and transforms it. I will

discuss how mummification of culture, when enabled by commodification, leads not to the

recreation of the past life but rather the creation of new cultures and authenticities. Using the

postcolonial and critical approaches, my research will focus on Tam-awan’s concept of a

“living museum” to problematize the correlation between authenticity and the process of

preservation, exhibition, commodification and mummification of a local culture. My goal is

to look at how the Cordillerans and the tourists, through commodification process, reinterpret

meanings of “traditional” and “authentic” in different contexts, but mostly in the postcolonial

context of the Philippines.

It is imperative to emphasize the things that come with the colonial experience of the

Filipinos for it has created for them a set of images and expectations of what the Cordilleran

culture is and who the Cordilleran people are. 3 As I will address later, expectations are
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crucial in understanding people’s notions of “authentic” culture for when it is not met by

performers or by the museum itself, it sparks questions on the performers’ or the museum’s

“authenticity” or its faithfulness to the presumed Cordilleran culture.

3
Museums such as the Tam-awan Village could function as one of the common sites where former
colonies attempt to break free from their colonial past and celebrate their culture that existed prior to
the Westerner’s interference in their politics, economy, and culture. But it is also curious to observe
that Tam-awan Village, in spite of its attempt to positively promote “deeper understanding, respect
and pride in the cultural heritage of the Cordillera people” (Tam-awan Village, n.d.), seems to
contribute to the persistence of the colonial stereotypes about the Cordillerans and further reinforces
the highland-lowland divide in the country.

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 In deconstructing the concepts “tradition” and “authenticity” in relation to the process of

culture commodification, in this thesis I will answer the question: How do commodification

of culture and the country’s colonial past create authenticities? Also, I will seek answers to

the following research questions:

 How do the Cordillerans see and treat their traditions and culture?

 How do the Cordillerans perceive their commodification of their culture?

 What happens to the Cordilleran culture as it goes through the process of

commodification?

 How are commercialized performances of the Cordilleran heritage enacted by the

Cordillerans? How do its audiences perceive it?

 How do questions on authenticity arise among Filipinos who see or experience the

performance of commodified rituals or dances in Tam-awan Village?

 Who determines authenticity? Is authenticity needed? If so, who needs authenticity?

What does it satisfy?

To answer these questions, I conducted my field research in Baguio City, Philippines in order
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to witness and understand how meanings of “traditional” and “authentic” shift as it go

through commodification and mummification. I went to Tam-awan Village several times as a

tourist from November 2016 to April 2017 and stayed in Baguio City (and in the said

museum) as an anthropologist from July to August 2017. I conducted archival researches,

individual and group interviews, and ethnographic observations. I have documented the

things I observed and studied in the field: I filmed videos of the performances of the

Cordillerans, recorded my interviews with the museum performers, some tourists, and other

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 employees of the museum, and took notes of information that I deemed significant in my

study. Everyone who I interviewed during my visits and stay were informed of my intentions

and they have granted me permission to document, conduct research and use the information

I have gathered for my own purposes.

1.1 LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1.1 Culture Commodification and New Authenticities in Postcolonial Contexts

Tourism plays a big role in constructing an image of people who are marginalized by

colonialism. It serves as a venue for greater understanding and awareness of the “othered”

population in a society. Furthermore, as Ryan Chris and Michelle Aicken write in their book

Indigenous Tourism: The Commodification and Management of Culture (2005), tourism

can be viewed as a “means by which those people aspire to economic and political power for

self advancement, and as a place of dialogue between and within differing worldviews” (p.

4). Chris and Aicken (2005) expound on this argument by discussing the reasons behind

Australian Aboriginal people’s exhibition of their festivals to narrate a “counter story” to

colonial histories (p. 4). Since the aboriginal people have been culturally marginalized and
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economically dislodged, promoting their culture and heritage would consequently mean

commodifying their way of living in order to survive and adapt to the modern capitalist

system (Chris and Aicken, 2005, p. 6).

Survival, as Cambridge Dictionary defines it, means, “continuing to exist” or “wanting to

continue to exist.” 4 The desire to survive arises when something threatens to end one’s

4
www.dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary

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 existence. Marginalized cultures are always on the verge of disappearance in highly

globalized, capitalistic societies and hence, the need for preserving their cultures. Sylvia

Kleinert, in her article ‘Keeping up the Culture’: Gunai Engagements with Tourism (2012),

examines how assimilation through tourism becomes a means for Aboriginal culture’s

survival. Kleinert (p. 86) explains in her article how the Aboriginal tourism, on the one hand,

signifies “encounter with a ‘primitive’ other” for the tourist or non-aborigines, and on the

other hand, “keeping up the culture” for the aborigines themselves. Kleinert (2012) also

provides an explanation to the role of tourism in the recognition and representation of the

previously unrecognized and unrepresented in the Australian national discourse (p. 86).

Tourism, according to Kleinert (2012), “provides a critical insight into the representation and

recognition of aboriginal identities at a time when assimilation policies sought to render

aborigines invisible” (p. 86). In a similar fashion, Tam-awan Village embraces the role in

promoting the marginalized Cordilleran culture. Cordilleran culture, as I have mentioned

earlier, has long been marginalized not just by the Westerners but also by the dominating

lowlanders, who occupy most of the seats in the Philippine national government. Tam-awan

Village believes that in its own way, through exhibiting Cordilleran culture, conducting

national workshops, and hosting activities that raises awareness and involvement among

Cordillerans, they are able to keep the Cordilleran culture alive and make other Filipinos gain
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a deeper appreciation of such culture. But what Kleinert failed to see in her research about

some consequences of keeping up an indigenous culture, which I will elaborate in my

research, is the fact that preserving and promoting marginalized culture could also reinforce

exclusion. Exclusion, both as a cause and effect of culture commodification, will only be

partly discussed 5
to show how such phenomenon affects meanings of “tradition” and

“authenticity.” As I have witnessed several times in my fieldwork in Tam-awan Village, in

5
Discussing the inclusion-exculsion issue will be a different topic altogether.

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 spite of the pro-Cordilleran objectives of the museum, the presentation of the rituals and life

of the Cordillerans in the museum has instead promoted tourist gaze. Such gaze logically

encourages the continuation of the colonial stereotypes of and among the Cordillerans and

thus essentially defeating the intended purpose of the museum.

Consequently, commodification and objectification of culture and the continuation of the

colonial stereotypes result to the transformation of a community’s structure. E. Wanda

George and Donald Reid explain in their article The Power of Tourism: A Metamorphosis of

Community Culture (2005) that culture commodification logically results in the death of the

traditions and the birth of a new culture based on the icons of the traditional one (p. 88).

Tourism commodification involves a two-fold process. The first process, according to George

and Reid (2005), entails summarizing the “long-standing culture into series of icons and

markers” which often is revisionist and romanticized in nature to appeal to the tourists (p.

93). The mummification process will then follow as the represented culture “gets frozen in

time and subsequently is no longer a living, changing, and adapting culture” (George and

Reid, 2005, p. 93). This is what they describe as the “death–rebirth-like process,” which

reproduces a culture founded not on the constructs of the “original culture” but on survival

(George and Reid, 2005, p. 88). In presenting the case of Tam-awan Village, I will see if
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commodification of culture leads to the same results as described by George and Reid.

However, George and Reid’s article primarily centers on a culture’s vulnerability. They took

the discussion further as they posited that while local culture could be a community’s most

valuable asset, commodification of it may also “impede a community’s efforts to achieve

sustainability” and leads to exploitation (George and Reid, 2005, p. 88). The choice of words

of the authors shows their negative perception on commodification; a perception that I will

not share in this thesis. My discussion on the phenomenon of culture commodification will

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 revolve around the shifts of meanings or the discourses of “tradition,” “modernity,” and

“authenticity.”

Ruth Ellen Gruber’s Beyond Virtually Jewish: New Authenticities and Real Imaginary

Spaces in Europe (2009) proves to be helpful in setting George and Reid’s “death-rebirth-

like process” in the discourse of authenticity. In her discussion of both the “’virtually Jewish’

and ‘imaginary western’ realms,” (p. 489) she brings to mind the concern on authenticity on

spaces that simulates the past through the creation of physical spaces that recreates imagined

past environments. In her work, she starts her discussion about “new authenticities” by

referring to Umberto Eco’s “Travels in Hyperreality” (p. 490) as she sees the described

recreation as a necessity to absorb history. She writes, quoting Umberto Eco, “for historical

information to be absorbed, it has to assume the aspect of reincarnation” (p. 490). To her, this

reincarnation leads to “instances where ‘absolute reality is offered as real presence’” (p. 490).

Then in quoting Umberto Eco she takes the discussion of the virtually Jewish and the

imaginary Wild West phenomena a step further by asserting that these two things deal with

constructs or reconstructions, which are often stereotypes of what was being signified (p.

490). Gruber (2009) perfectly sums up the framework that my thesis upholds when I discuss

the birth of a new culture:

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I believe that what we actually have is the creation of “new authenticities” –

things, places, and experiences that in themselves are real, with all the trappings
of reality, but are quite different from the “realities” on which they are modeled
or that they are attempting to evoke. This process, which can be seen as
“creating” something new in itself rather than “re-creating” something that once
existed, has led to the formation of its own models, stereotypes, modes of
behavior, and even traditions (p. 490-491).

Similarly, David Lowenthal, in his book The Past is a Foreign Country (1985), also refers to

“imagined pasts” in his discussion of nostalgia and the humanity’s “age-old dream of

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 recovering or returning to the past” (p. xix). Retrieving or reliving the past has long been a

major preoccupation of people and because of this phenomenon it has become a trend to

reincarnate past life (p. 18-19) and profit from nostalgia (p. 4). But how can we relive the

past when the past is lived in a context of its own? This irony is brilliantly captured by

Lowenthal (1985) as he writes:

However faithfully we preserve, however authentically we restore, however

deeply we immerse ourselves in bygone times, life back then was based on ways
of being and believing incommensurable with our own. The past’s difference is,
indeed, one of its charms: no one would yearn for it if it merely replicated the
present. But we cannot help but view and celebrate it through present-day lenses
(p. xvi).

Lowenthal, in a sense, also describes the rebirth process I was describing earlier. Since the

past is a foreign country, in “preserving the past” with the objective of “reliving” it, you do

not necessarily relive the past but rather you experience and celebrate the present – a present

which merely uses references from an imagined, reconstructed past.

1.1.2 On Identity, Authenticity, Tradition and Performances

To make studying of the discourses of “tradition,” “modernity,” and “authenticity” feasible, it

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is necessary to identify observable manifestations of those three concepts. A big part of the

discussion of “tradition,” “modernity,” and “authenticity” in this thesis will revolve around

the performances of tradition by the Tam-awan Village performers, for it is them who

actually make the museum a “living” one. For this reason observing performances of

ethnicity and social identity in ethnic tourism destinations like the Tam-awan Village makes a

good case in understanding the notions of authenticity and tradition. To set my discussion

about the Tam-awan Village performers and the online discourse on the concepts of

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 authenticity, tradition, and performances, it would be necessary to situate these concepts in its

bigger sociological discourse.

Steph Lawler, in her book Identity: Sociological Perspectives (2008), explains how the West

creates a distinction between “being an (authentic) identity” and “doing an identity

(performing)” (p. 101) and debunks it by citing the works of several scholars, most notably

Erving Goffman and Judith Butler, as both Goffman and Butler see identity as something that

is always done and achieved, rather than innate (Lawler, 2008, p. 104). For instance, in

addressing the issue on “being an identity (authenticity),” Lawler echoes Goffman as she

explains why it is wrong to distinguish between ‘true’ and ‘false’ performances. Lawler

(2008) argues that the distinction should instead be between “convincing and unconvincing

performances: between those that ‘work’ and those that do not” (p. 107). Ethnic

performances, regardless of its commitment or detachment to older traditions, are still ethnic

performances. Authenticity of performances only surfaces as a concern to tourists or

museumgoers when their expectations and perspectives of “authentic” indigenous rituals and

dances are not met, and thus, become unconvinced of the performance they witness.

This tension between convincing and unconvincing performances is a result of differing

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perspective of tradition among those who perform the culture and those who witness the

performed culture. As Richard Jenkins writes in his book Social identity (1996), internal and

external dialectic impacts people’s social identification. Hence, it could be understood that

perspectives on ethnic performances, which I treat as a significant determinant of a social

identity, is generally affected by the discourses that are both internal and external to one’s

culture.

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 “Authenticity” of the performance of the Cordilleran dancers are also questioned when the

younger Cordillerans themselves deviate from the “original” Cordilleran rituals and dances

(i.e. reducing a two hour ritual to 15 minutes). But as I argue, indigenous rituals or dances,

whenever performed by younger generations of Cordillerans in a manner that do not adhere

to the way rituals or dances are performed by older generations, remain to be a manifestation

of Cordilleran identity. For everything that is performed, whether staged or not, are

constitutive of one’s “true” identity. I draw this logic from Butler’s argument about Rivière’s

theory of “femininity as masquerade” and Goffman’s dramaturgy. Judith Butler, in her book

Gender Trouble (1990), questions what is being masked by the masquerade (p. 71) and

posits that, “genuine womanliness and the ‘masquerade’ are the same (p. 72). She explains

that, “the mask does not hide, but constitutes the person” (Lawler, 2008, p. 114) and this

somehow reiterates Goffman’s dramaturgy, as Goffman argues that performances, far from

masking the “true person”, are what make us persons (Lawler, 2008, p. 106).

For the Cordillerans, changing the way by which a ritual or dance is performed is in a sense a

form of negotiating one’s identity. Negotiating one’s identity as well as embodying or

rejecting stereotypes contribute to how identity or ethnicity is performed for an audience.

Carol Silverman, in her book Romani Routes: Cultural Politics and Balkan Music in
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Diaspora (2012), explains how Romani identity is stereotyped, negotiated and performed in

the context of capitalism and transnational migration. Silverman’s narrative on how Romani

performers negotiate their identity and strategically use stereotypes (and at the same time

resist certain representations of themselves) in their performances (p. 7) will be useful in

understanding the process of commodification of the Cordilleran culture.

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 Negotiating one’s identity also creates shift in meanings of tradition. Analyzing these shifts

has been done by Analyn Salvador-Amores in her book Tapping Ink, Tattooing identities:

Tradition and Modernity in Contemporary Kalinga Society, North Luzon, Philippines

(2013), where she deconstructed the meanings of “tradition,” “modern,” and “authentic” in

the context of the “transformation and engagement of the Kalinga tattoos with technology,

mobility, diaspora, and globalization” (p. 8). Meanings of “tradition” and “modern,” as

Salvador-Amores (2013) describes, “shifted in mutual interaction in the context of the Butbut

tattoos” (p. 8). I treat her book as a useful reference in dealing with the discourses on

tradition, modernity, and authenticity in the Philippine setting. Salvador-Amores, in defining

tradition, quotes Handler and Linnekin (1984), “tradition resembles less an artefactual

assemblage than a process of thought – an ongoing interpretation of the past” (p. 274) and

links it with Wagner’s (1975) definition that it “involves a continual process of self-

modification or “dialectical invention” (p. 9). She looks at tradition as something fluid and

dynamic as it changes in time, depending on the cultural, social, and economic needs of the

bearers of such traditions (Salvador-Amores, 2013, p. 8-9). Commodification of culture, in a

sense, is a manifestation of tradition’s continuous revival or reinvention (Salvador-Amores,

2013, p. 10).
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What also captured my interest in studying issues on the authenticity of commodified culture

or heritage is the contradiction between the fluidity of tradition and “the sense of timelessness

of authenticity” (Salamandra, 2004, p. 16). But in the same way, like tradition, the definition

of authenticity tends to be fluid as well. Christa Salamandra, in her book, A New Old

Damascus: Authenticity and Distinction in Urban Syria (2004), provides different ways of

defining and interpreting authenticity, depending on who uses, receives, needs, or determines

authenticity. For instance, authenticity “becomes a means of controlling representation” in

17
 the context of identity politics (Salamandra, 2004, p. 16) while in the context of Western art

markets, authenticity relates to “authentic primitive pieces” which are “untouched by history

and contact with the West” (Salamandra, 2004, p. 16). In connecting my work with

Salamandra’s framework, in Tam-awan Village, as I will explain further in the next chapters

of my thesis, I found out that the performers of the commodified Cordilleran culture and their

audiences would have different take on the authenticity (or inauthenticity) of the performers’

cultural performances. In this thesis, I also trace various ways of constructing and

determining “authenticities” in the different forms of commodified Cordilleran culture.

1.1.3 Analyzing Online Discourses of Authentic and Traditional Performances

Since a section in this research will be dedicated on analyzing the online discourse of

authenticity which the videos of the performances of the Tam-awan Village performers has

generated, it would then be necessary to discuss works which I will refer to in analyzing the

online discourse of “authentic” and “traditional” performance: Jean Baudrillard’s Simulacra

and Simulation (1981) and Stuart Hall’s Encoding/Decoding (1999).

In this thesis I treat YouTube as a constructed world where cultural materials are transformed

into online texts whenever they are documented and posted. Jean Baudrillard’s Simulacra
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and Simulation (1981) challenges the notion of the “true” and the “real.” In his work, he

invalidates the distinction between the object and its representation and argues that

constructed worlds have no referent in any “reality” except their own (p. 6-7). His claims put

“reality” into question especially when a cultural material or representation is constructed

online. Since reality of constructed texts is self-referential, it can be argued that the

“authenticity” of “traditional” performances, when posted and discussed online, are also self-

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 referential. Hence, those who participate in the production and reproduction of the online

discourse of authentic cultural/traditional performance, regardless of its offline referent,

perceive the online discourse of such performance as the “real” definition of an authentic

cultural/traditional performance.

Self-referential reality of constructed texts could also be analyzed using Stuart Hall’s

Encoding/Decoding (1999) since “the 'message form' is the necessary 'form of appearance' of

an event (p. 509) and the meaning of this message is affected by its medium and the

structures in which the message originated and in which it is received. While Hall focuses on

the equivalence (or the lack of it) of meanings in transmitting messages from the source to its

receiver and discusses how these messages are interpreted from three different positions

namely the dominant-hegemonic, negotiated, and oppositional, his work remains to be

relevant in my study for it provides a perspective which enables media scholars to understand

how meanings of texts could be understood in the message or text’s and the encoders’

positionality. As Hall (1999) argues, the signifiers and the way they signify could be

observed as fragments of ideology (p. 513). Such is the case for the videos of the Tam-awan

Village Performers – the way netizens comment on and interpret their performances are

reflective of the netizens’ ideology. Picking up from Hall, I argue that what is regarded as
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authentic by netizens mainly depend on their positionality in decoding the documented and/or

posted videos of the Cordilleran performances.

1.2 Methodology

As I build on Gruber’s “new authenticities,” in this thesis I adopt George and Reid’s usage of

commodification and mummification processes in looking at tourism, and use critical

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 analysis in reading the shifts of meanings of and deconstructing the concepts of “traditional”

and “authentic” in those two processes. I will discuss how Cordilleran culture is commodified

in Tam-awan Village and see how the museum and the Cordillerans construct meanings of

“traditional” and “authentic” in the commodification phase and reinterprets them in the

mummification phase. I will also examine other Filipinos’ (especially those who visited the

museum or has seen and commented on the videos of the performances of the Tam-awan

Village performers on YouTube) idea of “traditional” and “authentic” and see if there are

intersection and/or disconnection with the museum and the Cordillerans’ meanings of these

two words. I will explain how the use of references from older traditions, when situated in

the context of commodification, leads to the production of new authenticities.

While I will focus much on what is contemporary, I also aim to contextualize my

deconstructionist reading of the meanings of “traditional” and “authentic” in the post/colonial

background of Baguio City. This is to ensure that my research is grounded in the time and

space that the commodification and mummification process I will describe is situated. This is

also to recognize the fact that the country’s long colonial history has affected Filipinos’

general conception of “traditional and “authentic” and thus sets a classical dichotomy

between what is “traditional” and “modern.” Following Salvador-Amores, I will also debunk

this dichotomy as I treat tradition in this thesis as something fluid – a component of a culture
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that constantly changes over time.

As I have mentioned earlier, I have been to Tam-awan Village in several occasions both as a

tourist and as an anthropologist. I entered the museum as a tourist several times, revisiting

sites, artifacts, and artworks that the museum’s map identifies as places or things to

appreciate. I would sometimes do the tour alone when I wanted to do a deeper examination of

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 what was being exhibited. I then followed groups of visitors and at times made friends with

them to observe how they interact with the things they consume in the museum. I also joined

other visitors in watching performances held in the museum and even participated in the

dances in instances that the performers invited the crowd to dance with them. In July to

August 2017, I revisited the museum and introduced myself as anthropologist/researcher. I

rented an “authentic” Cordilleran hut inside the museum and stayed there to do an

ethnographic research for a month. I spent most of my time sharing experiences with or

observing the museumgoers, eating and chatting with the museum employees, especially the

performers, and appreciating the harmony of nature, culture, music, and art in the said

museum. On top of asking permission to use the information that I will be collecting from

them, I have also informed them of the documentation I have done as a tourist.

Nevertheless, even though I make a distinction between my visits as a “tourist” and as an

“anthropologist,” it must be noted that I also observed the museum as an anthropologist at

times when I participated as a tourist. Participant observation enables researchers to learn

about the “activities of the people under study in the natural setting” through “observing and

participating in those activities” on a daily basis (Kawulich, 2005). As I interact with the

performers and museum employees and administrators, I was able to observe their activities
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and examine several modes of commodification they consciously and unconsciously conduct.

I was also able to internalize the narrative that the museum created for its visitors and

connected it to both the museum’s and the visitors’ conception of the “traditional” and

“authentic.”

A month of doing ethnography also enabled me to identify personal, historical, sociological,

and economic factors, which made the said commodification inevitable among members of

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 the Cordilleran community. Conducting selective and focused observations helped me see

Cordillerans’ perspective with regard to their active participation, negotiation, and

collaboration in the production of a commodified and mummified Cordilleran culture. I also

conducted several semi-structured interviews with the tourists, Tam-awan Village performers

and other museum employees with the objective of collecting more qualitative data. I

employed the semi-structured interview as one of my methods to ask my interviewee/s open-

ended questions. Drawing from Lioness Ayres (2012), semi-structured interview is preferred

for two reasons: (1) semi-structured interviews give researchers “more control over the topics

of the interview” because in contrast to unstructured interviews, it allow researchers to come

up with questions before meeting the interviewee/s, and (2) in semi-structured interviews

there are “no fixed range of responses to each question” compared to structured interviews

that use closed questions. Based on my experience, semi-structured interviews give me a

better understanding of my interviewees’ perspectives and motivations because in spite of the

fact that my guide questions create an outline for inquiry, interviewee/s had more freedom to

express their thoughts in their own terms and hence make me know more than what I just

asked.

Since it is also important to understand how “authenticity” of the Cordilleran culture becomes
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questionable among those who consume the commodified culture (for it also adds up to the

construction of what “traditional” or “authentic” culture is for Filipinos), I have also used

YouTube videos posted by Filipinos that show the performance of the Tam-awan Village

performers. By analyzing the comments sections in several uploaded documentation of the

dancer's performances on YouTube and by cross-referencing those to the interviews I have

conducted I will be explaining how performances become inauthentic or unconvincing to

some Filipinos. Other manifestations of the commodification of the Cordilleran culture such

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 as the sale of replicas of their gods and other icons and its relation to the “authenticity”

concerns will also be addressed in this thesis.

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 CHAPTER 2: SELLING THE CORDILLERAN CULTURE

IN A “LIVING” MUSEUM

Tam-awan Village, situated in the northwestern outskirts of Baguio City, is a “living

museum” visualized to promote community awareness and showcase indigenous Cordilleran

customs and traditions. The brainchild of Filipino artists and philanthropists, most notably,

National Artist Benedicto “BenCab” Cabrera, the museum does not only exhibit Cordilleran

art and make you experience sleeping in an “authentic” Cordilleran house; it also gives you a

picture of a typical highlander village where you can experience snippets of their indigenous

festivities and dances alike.

Chanum Foundation, Inc. founded the museum with the installation of “authentic”

Cordilleran houses in the land where it currently stands, with the vision of creating a typical

Cordilleran village accessible to “lowlanders who have yet to visit the interiors of the

Cordillera” (Kasilag, 1996, p. 1). The first three Cordilleran huts in the museum, as the

Chanum Foundation explains in their website, were transported from Banga-an, Ifugao and

were reconstructed in Tam-awan Village. They boast that they solely used original materials

in rebuilding the huts and it was the “traditional artisans” who “reconstructed the houses and
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laid them out resembling the design of a traditional Cordillera Village” (www.tam-

awanvillage.com/welcome). Presently, they house nine Cordilleran huts, all of which are

named after the areas where the museum acquired them. From the province of Ifugao, they

acquired the Bangaan hut, Anaba hut, Batad hut, Dukligan hut, Kinakin hut, and Nagor hut

and from the province of Kalinga they got the Luccong (see figure 1) and Bugnay huts

(www.tam-awanvillage.com/welcome). Those who desire to experience living in these huts

are accommodated by the museum for the cost of 500 PHP (approximately 10 USD) per night

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 per person. The only exception is the Bugnay hut, which serves as one of the village’s

galleries (www.tam-awanvillage.com/welcome).

Figure 1. The Luccong hut (ca. 1923), which classifies as a binayon hut (traditional
octagonal hut), is one of the three surviving binayon houses in the Butbut area in the
Cordillera Region. According to the plaque displayed in front of the hut, this binayon hut was
considered a dwelling place for the rich Kalingas (one of the ethnic groups who live in the
Cordillera). Photo taken by the author.

Other than the huts, it also features a Dap-ay (see figure 2), a stone-paved gathering place

where elders from the Cordilleras usually discuss important village concerns (Kasilag, 1996,

p. 2). The museum also has the following: an art gallery and crafts shop, a coffee shop, a
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fishpond, eco-tours for trekkers, martial arts demonstrations, art workshops, livelihood and

crafts demonstrations such as weaving, paper-making, woodcarving, printmaking, bamboo

crafts, rice-wine making, solar drawing, and batik printing (Kasilag, 1996, p. 2). Most

importantly, the museum also gives the tourists opportunities to interact with Cordillera

performers and artists. To experience all these, adults are asked to pay 50 PHP

(approximately 1 USD) for the entrance and 30 PHP and 20 PHP for students and children

respectively. For the workshops, people are charged 450 PHP (approximately 9 USD) each.

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 Figure 2. A copy of a Dap-ay. People are allowed to build a bonfire in this area. Building a
bonfire will cost the visitors 120 PHP (approximately 2.40 USD). Photo taken by the author.

Different modes of culture’s commodification of in Tam-awan Village could be observed

right from the very entrance (which also serves as its exit too) until the cultural show area of

the village. In the entrance of the museum, museumgoers are welcomed by artworks such as

the “Gecko over Tam-awan,” a relief piece with the Tam-awan logo flanked by two lizards

(lizards believed to be a Cordilleran symbol of prosperity and good fortune) and the “Pat-

ong,” a relief piece that shows a traditional Cordilleran dance that is performed with a
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traditional musical instrument called gang-za (a local gong), both giving museumgoers an

idea of what to see and expect inside Tam-awan Village (see figure 3). The next thing that

the visitors will see as they head to the cultural show area and the café is the pile of

Cordilleran traditional clothes, which they are encouraged to borrow and wear in exchange of

some “donations” (see figure 4). In front of it is the souvenir shop that sells Cordilleran

clothes and linen, Cordilleran musical instruments, key chains and refrigerator magnets that

features reliefs of Cordilleran people, huts, and gods (see figures 5 and 6). Miniature replicas

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 of their gods and deities are also being sold (see figure 7). Beside the souvenir shop are art

galleries (see figure 8) that house paintings about the Cordillerans whose prices range from

6,000 PHP (approximately 120 USD) to 50,000 PHP (approximately 1000 USD).

Figure 3. The “Gecko over Tam-awan” (bottom left) and the “Pat-ong” (bottom right). Photo
taken by the author.
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 Figure 4. Tourists are expected to give donations when they try these traditional clothes on.
In other tourist destinations in Baguio City such as the Mines View Park and Botanical
Garden, people are required to pay at least 50 PHP (approximately 1 USD) to wear them.
Photo taken by the author.
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Figure 5. Tam-awan Village’s souvenir shop. Photo taken by the author.

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 Figure 6. Refrigerator magnets that have reliefs of things that represents the Cordilleras.
Photo taken by the author.
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Figure 7. A miniature reproduction of the Ifugao rice god, Bul-ul. In the museum it is
generally regarded as a Cordilleran god. Photo taken by the author.

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 Figure 8. Inside the Bugnay Gallery. Photo taken by the author.

After passing through the souvenir shop and the art galleries, museumgoers will reach the

cultural show area where they can choose to stay in the “Ugnayan Gallery” (literally

translated as the gallery to connect, see figure 9) and wait for the young Cordillerans who

call themselves as the Tam-awan Village In-House Performing Group to exhibit traditional

dances (see figure 10). These Cordillerans perform in the museum every Saturday and

features dances that come from different ethnic groups in the Cordillera Region. The Tam-

awan Village In-House Performing Group stay in one corner for almost the entire duration of
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the museum hours, waiting for visitors to gather around them. Once a large enough group has

formed, they would begin playing their traditional instruments and perform segments of their

ritualistic dances. During the encounter, museumgoers are encouraged to surround the

performers and as I noticed, most of the audience would stay in the Ugnayan Gallery for it

offers a good view for taking pictures and/or videos of the Cordilleran performers.

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 Also, as I have observed, the Tam-awan Village In-House Performing Group would often

perform three to four dances per session. They commonly perform Kalinga’s “Sakpaya,” and

some community dances such as Ifugao’s “Dinnuy-a,” Balbalan, Kalinga’s “Tadek,” and

Mountain Province’s “Ballangbang.” 6

In the last performance, which usually is the

“Ballangbang,” members of the audience are invited by the Tam-awan Village In-House

Performing Group to participate and dance with them. After the performance, the Cordilleran

performers would tell the audience that it would be fine to take pictures with them (see figure

11 and 12). Pictorials, as I have observed, also creates opportunity for the museumgoers to

give donations to the performers.

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Figure 9. The Ugnayan Gallery. Photo taken by the author.

6
Ballangbang is the most common dance in the Mountain Province. In this dance, there are five or
more male gong players female dancers could range from a single dancer to more than 10
(www.icbe.eu/accordion-b/level-2/677-ethnic-dances-in-mountain-province). The male gong players
move in a circular direction as each participant synchronizes their steps with other dancers. The
women dancers follow the male leader but if the females have their own female leader, they are
expected to follow their the female one.

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 Figure 10. The Tam-awan Village In-House Performing Group. Photo taken by the author.
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Figure 11. A tourist taking a “groufie” (a group selfie) with the Tam-awan Village In-House
Performing Group. Photo taken by the author.

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 Figure 12. The Cultural Show Area and the Ugnayan Gallery are usually more crowded at
peak hours. Photo taken by the author.

Note that in this thesis a separate discussion will be dedicated for the performers for it is them

who primarily make the museum a “living” one. Also, much of the authenticity concerns that

I problematize in this thesis revolve around their performances and presentations.

As the visitors near the end of the tour in Tam-awan Village, they are expected to have a

broader picture of the Cordilleran culture, which as I argue in this thesis, often results in the

reinforcement of the colonial stereotypes 7 of the Cordillerans and the continuation of the
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preexisting ignorance of most lowland Filipinos of the differences of the various ethnic

groups in the Cordillera Region. Meanwhile, in analyzing the map of the Tam-awan Village

(see figure 13), the commodification of the Cordilleran culture mostly happens in the space

near the entrance/exit (lower right part of the map). Activities and material culture that can be

bought are strategically located in that area since most of the foot traffic is directed in that

area.

7
Details of the stereotypes associated to the Cordillerans will be discussed in the next chapter.

33
 Figure 13. The map of the Tam-awan Village that the museum provides to its visitors. Photo
taken by the author.

2.1 Selling the Inauthentic?

In their website, the Tam-awan Village emphasizes the authenticity of their Cordilleran huts.
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The museum (www.tam-awanvillage.com/welcome/), in describing the huts that are in their

possession:

An Ifugao house is compact and though deceptively simple, its architecture is

quite sophisticated. Built by clever mortise makers without nails or hardware, it
exemplifies the exactness of Ifugao construction.

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 Even in their brochures, visitors are warned, “our huts are all authentic and likewise follow

Cordilleran architecture which may have lower ceilings and beams” (Tam-awan Village,

n.d.). But staying in the Dukligan hut for a month made me notice that nails were actually

used by those who reconstructed the hut (see figure 14).

Figure 14. Nails I found in one of the Dukligan hut’s beams. Photo taken by the author.
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If there are probable authenticity issues on the huts, the commercial nature of the

performances of the Tam-awan Village In-House Performing Group also put their exhibition

in the same bad light. Furthermore, Cordillerans in reality no longer wear traditional clothes

on a normal basis. People from the Cordillera Region wear clothes that any other “modern”

person would wear these days. The practice among Cordillerans nowadays is to wear their

traditional clothes only when they would perform for a public. In the museum, whether it is

raining or not, the young Cordillerans who perform for the museumgoers wear the traditional

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 clothes the entire day. They only change to their typical daily clothes when the last visitor

exits the museum.

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Figure 15. The Tam-awan Village In-House Performing Group, dancing for an audience in
spite of the ugly weather. Photo taken by the author.

These are some of my initial concerns and findings on Tam-awan Village’s claim to

authenticity when I did my fieldwork in the museum in July and August 2017. Inauthenticity,

as Alex Neill (1999) defines, “invariably marks flaw or failing in whatever it characterizes”

(p. 197). But after a month of stay, I realized that the question on the authenticity of the

commodified Cordilleran culture should not center on its “flaws.” The real issue on

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 authenticity does not lie on the existence of nails in “authentic” Cordilleran huts, in the

clothes that they encourage people to wear (in exchange of some donations), or in the fact

that the Cordillerans no longer wear the clothes their ancestors normally did. The real

concern lies on how authenticity should be perceived in the context of a fast-changing world

and how the use of the Cordilleran as a collective name to pertain to all cultures and

traditions that originates from the entire region affects authenticity.

In the next chapter I will first address the need to understand the Cordilleran’s use and

appropriation of the “Cordilleran identity” in displaying their culture. Doing so will help in

tracing how the meaning of authenticity and tradition changes in our contemporary world.
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 CHAPTER 3: THE CORDILLERAN:

AN ADOPTED ARTIFICIAL TOTALITY

Discussing issues of authenticity on the Cordilleran tradition as exhibited in Tam-awan

Village entail understanding the following: (1) the colonial roots of the name, Cordilleran,

and (2) the role and effect of commodification of material culture and performed tradition in

the adoption of the Cordilleran identity. Once the context of the adopted identity has been

established, the flaws or the truthfulness of the exhibited Cordilleran culture in Tam-awan

Village would be much more traceable.

3.1 The Problematic Colonial Roots

Cordilleran is a collective name for all people belonging to different ethnic groups in the

Cordilleran Administrative Region, the mountainous region of the Northern Philippines (see

figure 16). The Cordillerans come from different provinces in the said region with each

province having its own dominant ethnic group: Itnegs in Abra, Isnags in Apayao, the Ibalois,

Kankanaeys, and Kalanguya in Benguet, the Ifugaos in Ifugao, the Kalingas in Kalinga, the

Kankanaeys, Aplai, Balangao, and Bontoks 8 in Mountain Province (Belen, 1990, p. 7). The
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artificiality of the name must be noted for it did not originate from the local population.

Outsiders among the Cordillerans, particularly Western colonizers, coined the term

Cordilleran and it consequently comes with some stereotypes created by the Westerners

about the indigenous people. Interestingly, in spite of being an independent nation for almost

a century now, because of the colonial origins of this collective name, the term Cordilleran

continues to carry colonial stereotypes among Filipinos.

8
The name Bontok pertains to the people while Bontoc pertains to the city where most Bontoks
reside.

38
 Figure 16. The map of the Cordilleran Administrative Region. Taken from:
www.ati.da.gov.ph/ati-car/content/area-coverage

The fascination for and perceptions with Cordilleran culture has been greatly influenced by

the country’s colonial past. Western colonialism in the Philippines, as well as in other former

Western colonies, has created various depictions of indigenous peoples such as “primitive,”

“backward,” “unhygienic,” “barbaric,” and “savage.” Colonial governments contrasted

Western civilization and “modernity” with the “primitive” and “backward” culture of their

subjects to conveniently justify their colonial agendas to conquer and modernize. Such
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depictions have also exoticized 9 the indigenous population in the country. For instance, when

the Americans showcased their newly acquired Philippines in the St. Louis World Fair in

Missouri in 1904 (see figure 17), the Cordillerans, who they described as "dog-eating

Igorots," were made to perform their rituals and other aspects of their culture, which were

then portrayed as the Filipino culture (Clevenger, 2000). While the intention of the U.S. in

9
Carbonell (2000) defines exoticism as displacement, the strangeness enacted by difference that
stands as a representation for the whole (p. 51).

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 hosting the exhibit was to show the world that they had become an imperial power (Sit, 2008,

p. 1), with the way they exhibited the Cordillerans they have created a stereotype of the

Filipino people: a group of brown-skinned, dog-eating, primitive, and uncivilized half-naked

men and women from the Pacific. Visitors of the St. Louis World Fair were not sufficiently

informed that the Cordilleran culture is only one among many cultures in the Philippines.

Figure 17. One of the souvenirs during the 1904 St. Louis World Fair. It features an Igorot (a
Cordilleran) wearing his traditional costume. Taken from: www.asamnews.com/wp-
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content/uploads/2015/12/1904-St.-Louise-Worlds-Fair-Philippines1.jpeg

Meanwhile, among Filipinos the same perception on indigenous Cordilleran culture prevailed

in the 1900s, especially to those who received American colonial education in the country

and/or had access to Western media texts. Because of the American colonial propaganda,

Filipinos learned the colonial depictions of the Cordillerans and, as I will argue in this thesis,

such depictions, among others, have influenced their expectations and notions of an

“authentic” Cordilleran culture.

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 Adoption of the colonial “primitive” stereotypes of the highlanders by the Cordillerans

themselves is particularly manifested during “live” exhibition of Cordilleran dances in Tam-

awan Village. While the traditional dance itself acts as the core of the exhibited “primitivity,”

the wearing of traditional clothes and the use of traditional musical instruments help them in

projecting a “primitive” image of themselves. As I gathered from the interviews I have

conducted with some museumgoers, the entire performance are perceived as truly

“Cordilleran” since the presentation contains most of their expected elements of things that

are distinctly highlander or “Cordilleran.” 10

The demeanor of lowlander museumgoers toward the dance and the performers when they

participate in the dances are also indicative of how much they believe the authenticity of the

performance that they experience. Since they perceive the performance as true to Cordilleran

traditions, the lowlanders continue to manifest discriminatory attitudes toward the

highlanders when they interact with the performers or when they comment on the

performances. For instance, I have observed that some museumgoers that participate in the

dances actually mock the steps, which the Tam-awan Village In-House Performing Group

teaches them. There were some instances when some members of the audience would tease

their friends who participate in the performance and laughingly call them “Igorot” (another
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discriminatory term that pertains to the mountain people). Following Goffman’s idea on the

taken-for-grantedness of communicative rules, here I describe a seamless interaction in

playing roles in a way that goes as expected where rules are not contested and questioned by

both the performers and the audience.

10
Interview with tourists, August 12, 2017.

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 3.2 A Side Note on Culture’s Commodification

Though in spite of the negative light that the phenomenon I described earlier shows, as I have

observed, the phenomenon swings to the favor of both parties economically: the museum

performers for instance have been willing to capitalize on their marginality to earn money,

while the museumgoers have been willing to pay and donate money to the performers which

may be interpreted as acts to show that they are in a better position in society or perhaps

reassure their belongingness in the historically “more-privileged” lowland culture. An

interview I conducted last August 12, 2017 with the Tam-awan Village In-House Performing

Group confirms my claim. During my fieldwork I found out that those who perform in Tam-

awan Village are college students who are mostly from schools in La Trinidad, a town very

close to Baguio City. Some of them admitted to me that even though they support the

museum’s objective in promoting Cordilleran culture, they primarily see their job as a means

to support their studies. 11 One of the members who do not want his name to be mentioned in

my thesis told me, “I am here for my livelihood because we are students.” 12 They also told

me that they don’t see themselves keeping such jobs when they have eventually earned their

college degrees. 13 This kind of perspective toward work in the tourism industry brings to

mind Toney Thomas’ discussion on primary and secondary occupation shift in his essay
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entitled Rural Tourism in the Vulnerable Economy: The Community Perception (2009). In

this work Thomas (2009) remarks that some communities look at tourism as a “temporary

tool for survival” rather than “a major sector of development” (p. 11-12).

11
Interview with Tam-awan Village In-House Performing Group, August 12, 2017.
12
“Nandito ako para sa kabuhayan dahil estudyante kami.” (Interview with Tam-awan Village In-
House Performing Group, August 12, 2017)
13
Interview with Tam-awan Village In-House Performing Group, August 12, 2017.

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 To this end, I argue that it is imperative to understand the Philippines’ colonial past for it sets

the tone for the commodification of the marginalized cultures in the country. This

marginalized culture, when commodified, is consumed by museumgoers and other types of

consumers for its authenticity (hence the marketing of the authenticity of the exhibited

Cordilleran culture in the museum). Also, it must be emphasized the museum’s visitors find

authenticity in the “inferiority” and “primitivity” 14 of the Cordilleran culture. For instance,

museumgoers will not be willing to donate money to the Tam-awan Village In-House

Performing Group if they are unconvinced with the group’s performance of marginality or

with their Cordilleran-ness. As I have explained earlier, most of the museumgoers I have

spoken with are convinced with the authenticity of the performances and the material culture

that are exhibited in the museum for it satisfy their expectation of the culture of the

Cordilleran people 15 – an expectation that has been developed in the context of colonial

(mis)education.

The museum’s use of the name Cordilleran as an identity does not only give a recall to its

colonial roots, but also results in the mixing of different cultures of the various ethnic groups

in the Cordilleran region. But in stating the issue on mixing I do not intend to argue that it

leads to the exhibition of “inauthentic” materials and tradition in the museum. What I propose

in this thesis is that such phenomenon leads to the production of new authenticities – the birth
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of a new culture founded on the adoption and negotiation of identities.

14
The perspectives created by colonial exoticization of Filipinos, when adopted by Filipinos
themselves, reinforce the country’s highland-lowland divide. This divide put the lowlanders in a
seemingly superior position since unlike the highlanders, they have been subjugated to the Western
rule and have been mostly converted to Catholicism and sent to schools and thus, “civilized.” For the
highlanders (or the Cordillerans), exoticization conducted by Filipinos themselves led to the
production and reproduction of their “primitive” stereotypes for centuries
15
Interview with tourists, August 12, 2017.

43
 3.3 The Creation of New Culture and Authenticities

This section will focus on explaining two key points: (1) the adoption of the “Cordilleran” as

an identity and its commodification implied the mixing of all cultures in the Cordillera

Region into one and it resulted to the creation of new authenticities, and (2) cultural

preservation, when enabled by commodification, results not into the maintenance of the said

culture but instead, the birth of a new culture based on the icons and memories of the

traditional one.

An outcome of this commodifying and negotiating culture and identity is the fusion of

performances, icons, deities, etc. of various ethnic groups into one single entity, the

Cordilleran. The Tam-awan Village’s exhibition of Bul-uls or rice gods inside the alang or

the Bontoc rice granary (see figures 18 and 19) near the exit of the museum could serve as

the best example for this phenomenon. While it is true that agriculture is the main economic

activity for most ethnic groups in the Cordillera Region, the Bul-ul and the alang actually

originate from two different ethnic groups: the Bul-ul comes from the Ifugao, while the

Alang is a rice granary of the Bontoks. Tam-awan Village, in this sense, has mixed two

different cultures into one exhibit, which they portray as Cordilleran. And as I gathered in my
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fieldwork, most lowland museumgoers, when they see this display, would not even recognize

this “flaw.” They just see it as something distinctly “Cordilleran” – an exhibit that is neither

Ifugao nor Bontok. The visitors find it authentic as well, for it meets what they expect as

embodiments of the Cordilleran culture. 16

16
Interview with tourists, August 12, 2017.

44
 Figure 18. An alang (ca. 1950) housing three Bul-uls. Photo taken by the author.
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Figure 19. Bul-uls or the rice gods of the Ifugaos. Photo taken by the author.

Outsiders among the Cordillerans who are participants in the production of Cordilleran art in

Tam-awan Village also contribute to the reinforcement of the mixed Cordilleran culture. For

instance, Tam-awan Village’s in-house artists, Art Lozano and Alfred Dato, describe their

work “Color My World” (see figure 20), a giant lizard, as an artwork inspired by

45
 Cordillerans’ belief that a lizard brings luck to people. They explain that it “represents good

fortune, long life, and a prosperous livelihood” (Tam-awan Village, n.d.). Adopting this

belief, they also tell the museumgoers that the artwork is “set at the main entrance of the

village to give good tidings to all who enter as well as blessings to those who leave [the

museum]” (Tam-awan Village, n.d.) the museum. According to the artists, lizards could be

found in “carved covers including that of coffins in the Mountain Province.” While the artists

identify the origin of the carvings from the Mountain Province, they regard the belief as

Cordilleran, not as Bontok, which essentially is the biggest ethnic group in the Mountain

Province.
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Figure 20. The tail of Lozano’s and Dato’s giant lizard. This artwork is located beside the
stairs that leads to the souvenir shop and the art galleries. Photo taken by the author.

The same thing could be said with the dances performed by the Tam-awan Village In-House

Performing Group. Even though they mention the source cultures of the dances that they

perform, since they are in-house performers of the Tam-awan Village, they collaborate with

the museum and automatically adopt the manner in which the museum has decided to

46
 commodify and classify the indigenous cultures. As Dominique Kulallad, the Tam-awan

Village In-House Performing Group leader, was explaining to me how Tam-awan Village

helps in preserving and promoting their culture, he has also implied that what was being

promoted by the museum was a merged Cordilleran culture:

Tam-awan [Village] is a big help because it merges diverse communities that are
apart from each other. The place has become a natural reserve. Every aspect of our
way of living before can still be experienced. The trend here [in the museum] is
like how life was before. It adds to [the museumgoers] knowledge. 17

He explained that showcasing the life in their communities in the past gives museumgoers

knowledge about them. Hence, in representing the group’s standpoint on the matter of what

was being showcased was a merged culture, he told me that they find no issue with how the

museum exhibits a merged Cordilleran culture. 18 They have embraced the identity and also

expressed no animosity as to how the museum exhibits them as part of the whole Tam-awan

Village experience. He told me:

Yes, we are like exhibits, but we are happy with what we do and we are able to
showcase our culture. 19

He adds that they find it enjoyable to contribute in changing people’s perspective of them:
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17
“Malaki ang tulong ng Tam-awan [Village] dahil [yung] parang diverse na community namin sa
magkakalayong lugar, parang pinag-iisa dito. Parang naging natural reserve na rin yung lugar dito.
Parang lahat naeexperience pa rin yung buhay noon. Talagang yung trend dito, yung parang buhay
dati talaga. Nakakadagdag ng knowledge.” (Interview with Dominique Kulallad and the Tam-awan
Village In-House Performing Group, August 12, 2017)
18
Interview with Dominique Kulallad and the Tam-awan Village In-House Performing Group,
August 12, 2017.
19
“Oo parang exhibit kami, pero masaya naman kami sa ginagawa namin at naishoshowcase namin
ang kultura namin.” (Interview with Dominique Kulallad and the Tam-awan Village In-House
Performing Group, August 12, 2017)

47
 It is fun to perform especially when a lot of people are watching. [We see that]
People’s perspectives about Igorots are changed. Before, we are just seen (as
people) with tails and are dirty. 20

While other performers admitted that they come to the museum for the earnings they get from
21
performing, Dominique, in representing the group, asserts that one of their main

motivations to dance in front of a public is to assure the continuation of their culture and raise
22
awareness of the Cordilleran culture among outsiders. And in so doing, the group has

negotiated their identity and accepted an artificial identity.

In embracing this artificial identity, the knowledge that they share to museumgoers about

them is no longer the same cultures, which they intended to preserve. Their cultures are

presented to visitors as something that come from one source culture. With the manner by

which they choose to perform their dances and traditions, (and in the same way the museum

presents the Cordilleran culture), they have created a new culture and hence, new authenticity

– an authenticity that is rooted not on the structures of their diverse ethnicities but rather on

the structures of our modern capitalist society.

But to be effective in producing new authenticities, icons and memories of the traditional one
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are still appropriated, as it was the case in Tam-awan Village. So in preserving the indigenous

culture, what the museum actually did was mummify the culture and in so doing they have

20
Masaya magperform lalo na kapag mas maraming nanonood. [Tingin naming ay] Nag-iiba yung
tingin nila sa Igorot. Tingin nila dati may buntot, marumi (Interview with Dominique Kulallad and the
Tam-awan Village In-House Performing Group, August 12, 2017).
21
Performing ethnic dances proves to be profitable for these young Cordillerans. According to
Dominique Kulallad, at the end of their work day they would split among themselves all the money
donated by visitors. On regular days, each member would end up bringing home around 500 to 800
PHP (approximately 10 USD to 16 USD). Receiving 500 PHP compensation for a day of hard work is
already considered generous in Cordillera Region’s standard. During peak seasons (during summer or
national holidays), each member receives at least 1500 PHP (approximately 30 USD).
22
Interview with the Tam-awan Village In-House Performing Group, August 12, 2017.

48
 instead created a new culture. Ruth Gruber (2009, p. 490), in describing new authenticities,

explains “things, places, and experiences” are in themselves real, with “all the trappings of

reality.” Thus, in “re-creating something that once existed,” something new is created –

something that leads to “the formation of its own models, stereotypes, modes of behavior,

and even traditions” (Gruber, 2009, p. 491).

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49
 CHAPTER 4: THE LEGITIMACY AND AUTHENTICITY OF THE

PERFORMANCE OF A COMMODIFIED CULTURAL FORM

Drawing from the data I gathered from my fieldwork, it appears that when preservation of a

marginalized culture in a postcolonial country such as the Philippines is enabled by

commodification and commercialization, one of the most probable actions of the institution

exhibiting that culture is to maintain colonial stereotypes to meet the expectations of its

consumers. Such is true for the Tam-awan Village In-House Performing Group. Since

commodification of their culture has become a tactic to financially survive, the local people

has maintained the colonial stereotypes and negotiated their identities by embracing the

artificial collective identity. But consequently, commodifying their culture through

embracing an artificial identity evokes questions on the authenticity of the showcased culture.

Issues on authenticity of the performances of the Tam-awan Village In-House Performing

Group mainly center on two interrelated questions: (1) legitimacy of the performers to

perform the ethnic dances and (2) the faithfulness of the performances to its origins, both of

which I will discuss in this chapter.

4.1 Issues on Legitimacy and Authenticity

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The question on the legitimacy of the members in performing traditional ethnic dances is a

question of their origin. The composition of the membership of the Tam-awan Village is as

complex and diverse as the ethnicities existing in the Cordillera Region. Their current leader,

Dominique, a 22 year-old college student who lives in La Trinidad (a town close to Baguio

City), traces his roots from the Mountain Province but identifies his parents as Kalinga. Other

50
 members trace their roots from Bontoc, Benguet, and Baguio City. Below is a list of their

members who have agreed to have their names, ages, and origins published in my thesis:

Name Age Origin

Dominique Kulallad 22 Kalinga

May-Ann Fatoyog 21 Mountain Province and Benguet
Aldrin Chewacheo 21 Bontoc
Ghovie Awingan Bang-towan 23 Baguio City
Johana Joy Tudlong 21 Mountain Province and Benguet
Mark Celo 21 Benguet

Some of them would have mixed origins and this phenomenon might be a case particular to

Baguio City and the towns near it. Since there are more opportunities in big, touristic cities or

regional centers like Baguio City, it has consistently attracted large numbers of migrants not

just from the Cordillera Administrative Region but also from various lowland regions. As a

matter of fact, according to a statistics published in 1987 by National Economic Development

Authority of the Philippines (NEDA), only one-fourth of the population of Baguio City was

born in the area (Prill-Brett, 1996, p. 1). And since several indigenous peoples belonging to

different ethnic groups have inhabited the Baguio City, it then follows that employees of

different companies or businesses in the city are also multi-ethnic. As my informants claim,

because of the multi-ethnic character of the city, a significant number of younger

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Cordillerans no longer belong to a single ethnic group – it has become a norm for different

ethnic groups to intermarry. 23

The varied composition of membership of the Tam-awan Village In-House Performing

Group definitely impacts the group in different respects as I have derived from the interviews

and observation I have conducted: (1) their ancestry determines the selection of what they

23
Interview with the Tam-awan Village In-House Performing Group, August 5, 2017.

51
 perform for the museumgoers, and (2) to those who are knowledgeable or who pays attention

to the details of their performances, having a member belonging to the ethnic group where

the ethnic dance they perform originates from gives legitimacy to their performance. But the

merging of different ethnicities in one performing group lead to authenticity issues among

essentialist outsiders who have a “better” understanding of the differences of cultures in the

Cordilleras. For instance, when their group performs a snippet of a specific ethnic group’s

dance (lets say the Kalingas), the authenticity of their performance could be put into question

for some members of the group do not necessarily originate from the source culture of the

particular dance that has been performed.

But central to the question of legitimacy and authenticity is the question on who determines

legitimacy and authenticity. The Tam-awan Village In-House Performing Group find

themselves as producers of authentic Cordilleran culture because in spite of coming from

different ethnic groups in the Cordillera Region, the fact remains that they have embraced the

Cordilleran identity as exhibited and embodied in the museum. If the concern on legitimacy

and authenticity will be based on the perception of the visitors, as I gathered from my

fieldwork, most visitors also consider the performances of the Tam-awan Village In-House

Performing Group legitimate, and hence, authentic, since the expectations of the visitors on
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the performances are usually easily met due to their limited knowledge about the indigenous

people of the Cordillera Region. Museumgoers express no concerns as to which tribe or

ethnic group each member originates from. 24 Museumgoers see them not as individuals who

come from different ethnic groups; they view the performers as members of one big ethnic

group – they call them Igorots, Cordilleran, or sometimes, Ifugao (confusing the collective

24
Interview with tourists, August 12, 2017.

52
 25
name Igorot with Ifugao). An affirmation of the visitors being convinced with the

performance and the legitimacy of the performers are the amount of donation they receive

from the audience. Donations, which are collected in what the Tam-awan Village In-House

Performing Group call as their “mahiwagang kahon” (translated as “magic box,” see figure

21) or “pangkabuhayan package” (literaly translated as “livelihood package”), are given by

those visitors who believe that these performers do not possess enough money or resources –

a general lowlander view of the members of the ethnic minorities in the Philippines.
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Figure 21. The Tam-awan Village Performer’s “magic box.” Photo taken by the author.

Although most people see the performances authentic, its commercial nature also makes

some people see inauthenticity in the performances. There are museumgoers that are

conscious that the performances are artificial because they know that the dances they

experience or witness are supposed to be danced during festivities or special occasions. 26

25
Interview with tourists, August 12, 2017.
26
Interview with tourists, August 12, 2017.

53
 This logic of contradiction proves the fluidity of the meaning of authenticity – that it is

dynamic and ever changing, a characteristic that could be attributed to its positionality.

But it should also be mentioned that the artificiality of the performance does not only bank on

its function in the museum. What the museumgoers do not realize is that what they witness

during encounters are just snippets of the “traditional.” For instance, as Dominique 27 shared

with me, most young people from his hometown only know one traditional dance. No one

taught him the steps of the traditional dances from his hometown; he only learned the steps

just by observing the other people or other groups dance during their festivities. Quoting him:

It is like we only know one dance before, just the one from the Mountain
Province. In our community, there were many groups. Like we live in Trinidad
and there are many groups in Trinidad to whom we learn dances. We are never
taught the dance for us to absorb it. In short, we just watch it. When you know
the steps a little, and then (we realize) there were lacking (steps), that is when we
ask someone to teach as the actual dance. 28

Another member of the group, May-Ann, shares with me that she mostly learned the steps of
29
most traditional dance she performs from observing performances during weddings. In

retrospect, the Kalinga dance that Dominique and the other members of his group perform,

are steps that they mainly recall from their observations of some traditional dances performed
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by other groups. While it is true that most cultural learning happens by observation and

imitation, what I try to point out in emphasizing the manner by which the Tam-awan Village

27
“Parang iisang sayaw lang alam namin noon, yung Mountain Province lang. Sa community namin,
may mga grupo-grupo. Kunwari, nakatira kami sa Trinidad, maraming grupo doon, so doon na namin
natutunan yung sayaw. Hindi na talaga tinuturo sa amin para iabsorb. Kumbaga pinapanood na lang
namin. Kapag medyo alam mo, tapos may kulang, papaturo mo na lang sa mga mismong
nagsasayaw.” (Interview with Dominique Kulallad, August 12, 2017)
28
Interview with Dominique Kulallad and other members of the Tam-awan In-house Performing
Group, August 12, 2017.
29
Interview with May-Ann Fatoyog and other members of the Tam-awan In-house Performing
Group, August 12, 2017.

54
 In-House Performers learned how to perform the traditional dances of different ethnic groups

in the Cordillera Region is that it could be identified as a source of authenticity issue on their

performance since they present themselves as the actual bearers of the dances which they

perform to the museumgoers.

Add to this the fact that since they are performing in a museum where visitors are not

expected to stay for more than an hour, the dancers are then compelled to reduce the

“traditional” dance from an hour to five minutes. For instance, the community dance

“Ballangbang” could last for several minutes (for as long as the gong players continue to play

music), making it a perfect dance for mass participation as people who dances it can join or

exit the performance as it goes on. Other males participating in the festivity can also replace

tired male gong players. Meanwhile, in the Tam-awan Village, Ballangbang only lasts for

almost two minutes, and female visitors can even try playing the gongs. In this context of

commodification, I would like to refer again to my earlier point – that the performers

essentially create and perform new dances or new traditions – dances or traditions based on

the steps and gestures of the older one but at the same time new because it is adjusted and

performed for a different purpose.

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Interestingly, the nuances in the performances and the classification of the dances of the

Tam-awan Village In-House Performing Group are more observed by its consumers when the

performances are documented and posted online. As a result, it opens larger discussions on

the authenticity of the performance of an ethnic tradition. While there are some videos of

Tam-awan Village In-House Performing Group on YouTube where the viewers’ comments

reflect the same perception among live audiences on the young Cordillerans’ performances

(that there is no doubt that the performance is “truly” Cordilleran or Igorot), it is striking to

55
 see that in the online world, there are also some dominant discourses where in the source

culture of the dances that the Tam-awan Village In-House Performing Group perform is

criticized or corrected. In the next section, I will discuss how authenticity of Tam-awan

Village In-House Performing Group’s performances is perceived in an online community

created by YouTube.

4.2 Authenticity Issues on Cultural Performances Posted Online

YouTube, as a platform, enables people to have a voice for they envision the world as “a

better place when we listen, share and build community through our stories.” 30 For thirteen

years, it has provided a medium for everyone to post personal, entertainment, or instructional

videos where everyone could comment or share their thoughts and insights. For

museumgoers, it became a tool for documenting their experience and sharing their experience

to a public domain. In this section I will focus on the videos posted by people who have

documented the performances of the Tam-awan Village In-House Performing Group, as well

as the comments of those people who viewed their documentation, for analyzing these

materials also add to the discourse of “authenticity” of the commodified Cordilleran culture.
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Most of the videos posted on YouTube usually feature the short dances of the Tam-awan

Village In-House Performing Group. Videos that usually receive the highest number of

comments are those who commit mistakes in naming the origin of the dance, which the Tam-

awan Village In-House Performing Group act. Because of the user-generated nature of

YouTube, it appears that people who are knowledgeable of the diversity of the Cordilleran

rituals would correct those people who comment wrongly about the performance. Or in some

30
www.youtube.com/yt/about

56
 instances, other users often bash some YouTube users who post the videos and attribute the

documented performance to a wrong ethnic group. For instance, a post entitled “Ifugao

Cordillera Tribal Dance” 31

in 2015 shows the Tam-awan Village In-House Performing

Group dancing a Kalinga dance and one of the users commented, “This is not an Ifugao

Dance, it must be Mountain Province” and another user remarked, “It should be Kalinga.” 32

Another YouTube video 33 in 2013 shares similar issue; a user posted a performance of the

Tam-awan Village In-House Performing Group dance in April of that year and called the

performance “Benguet dance,” perhaps because the museum is located at the heart of the

Benguet province. Two users commented that it was not Benguet but rather Kalinga.

Noteworthy is a user who commented not on the title but the performance itself, saying that

“You guys perform random dances and you mix up all the cultural dances in the Cordillera.

In effect it diminishes the originality and the uniqueness of each cultures in the Cordilleras.

PS Don’t mess up.” 34

Other videos such as the “Igorot performance at Tam-awan Village, Baguio City,” 35 “Igorot

cultural dance,” 36 and “Young Igorots dancing Canao Pt. 1,” 37 that do not contain negative

comments feature the same performances. They also hold the same caption for the videos,
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pertaining to different Cordilleran dances collectively as Igorot. As I observed, because of the

lack of knowledge of the museumgoers about the difference between several Cordilleran

ethnic groups, they would tend to brand the performance collectively as Ifugao, Igorot, or

31
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bufEkpr9h6g
32
“Kalinga ah dapat”
33
Paras, “Kalinga (cultural) dance performed in Baguio City,”
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocLpq029UA8
34
“Kung ano ano ang sinasayaw. nyo pinaghahalo nyo ang cultural dance ng cordillera. Nawawala
tuloy Yong originality and the uniqueness. PS don't mess up”
35
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kvj8gZXPdUQ
36
www.youtube.com/watch?v=opl1GVs1QQw
37
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy6ZkE6t4s4

57
 Cordilleran. This situation also leads to authenticity issues, for some viewers who are more

aware of the differences in the performances will say that the performances of the Tam-awan

Village In-House Performing Group are not “true” to their origins. Following Lawler (2008),

authenticity issues arise when the viewers’ expectation is not met – and in this case

expectations of what “Igorot” performance is which has been greatly influenced by the

country’s highland-lowland divide and its colonial education.

YouTube posts and comments on the performances of the young Cordillerans in Tam-awan

Village is also reflective of most Filipinos’ limited understanding of the Cordilleran culture.

The posts and comments reaffirm my earlier claim that because a generalized reductionist

perspective of these indigenous people was created by colonialism, Filipinos would often

generally brand them as Igorots. They don’t normally distinguish Ifugaos from the Kalingas,

the Ibalois, or the Kankanaeys. To them, everyone from the mountain province is merely a

big group of mountain people.

Through following Baudrillard’s idea of the self-referentiality of meanings in constructed

worlds, it could be said that perception and understanding about a media text (in this case, the

videos of the Tam-awan Village In-House Performing Group) on YouTube are highly

dependent on the dominating discourse in its comment section. We can determine people’s
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notion of an authentic or traditional performance even just by studying the thread of

comments on a particular documented performance. Because of YouTube’s intent to make

videos accessible and shareable to the public, the comment section becomes a rich resource to

learn how people create meanings within that dimension and, for the purpose of this research,

it also becomes a tool to know people’s perception on authenticity and tradition. The number

of likes (and dislikes) show how people agree (or disagree) with other people, and hence give

58
 scholars an opportunity to determine which reading of a particular media text could be treated

as the current dominant reading of that text.

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59
 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION

Colonialism and capitalism have economically and politically dislodged the marginalized

people and made them be perceived as “different” in the society for centuries.

Commodification of culture will naturally be the most viable option for them to survive for

they are left with nothing but their culture to capitalize on. This phenomenon enabled me to

explore issues on authenticities too, for commodification, as I have discussed in my thesis,

has undeniably had an impact on the perception and use of authenticity.

In this thesis I have chosen to study the commodification of the Cordilleran culture in the

Philippines – a culture that has been marginalized for centuries not just by former colonizers

but also by lowlander Filipinos. But in studying the commodification of the Cordilleran

culture in relation to authenticity, it is imperative to understand the intricacy and complexities

of their identity for it has a bearing on the perceptions of authenticities in the country. The

Cordilleran, as an identity, is artificial for it has developed outside the Cordilleran

community. The Cordilleran identity, being a product of a larger orientalist reproduction of

Westerner’s imagination of the East, reflects reductionist perception of the Cordillerans. But

it must be noted that the Cordillerans themselves adopt these stereotypes when it serves their
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purpose or needs. Colonial stereotypes are maintained by the indigenous population to further

their own marketing agenda and hence, as commodification of their culture has become a

tactic to financially survive, the local people has negotiated their identities by embracing the

artificial collective identity.

As the museum adopted the term Cordilleran as a name to collectively pertain to all ethnic

groups in the Cordilleran region, it has also created a new way of looking at the material

60
 culture as well as the performed tradition of the indigenous people. Dances, songs, and deities

have become mixed, and hence, have led to the birth of a new culture that is not specifically

Itneg, Isnag, Ibaloi, Kankanaey, Ifugao, Kalinga, or Bontok but rather a collective

Cordilleran culture.

Origin and legitimacy are the usual focal points of concern on the authenticity of the

commodified Cordilleran culture. As my research shows, it is no longer important if the

performers, for instance, come from various ethnic groups because the museumgoers see

them as a group who belongs to one cultural group, which is the Cordilleran. In this regard,

the audience has given legitimacy to the identity the museum and the performers have

reinforced, embraced, and negotiated.

To conclude, I would like to reemphasize the two key points of my thesis: (1) In retrospect,

heritage, other than its role as an identity marker or a local/national symbol, also becomes a

resource because of commercialization and capitalism and (2) when preserving a culture, that

culture is also transformed. Reiterating the dynamism of culture gives an impression that

issues on the authenticity of the commodified Cordilleran culture are poorly founded since

every time a culture is preserved and exhibited, it becomes a different culture of its own,
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existing in the context of its own realms and reality. In commodifying their own culture they

create new “traditions” which, in a sense, is an authentic culture by itself and hence, the term,

new authenticities.

61
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