The
Batanes Today: Contemporary Material Culture 1946-1980 LIVELIHOOD The
chief means of livelihood of the Ivatans have been (1) agriculture,
(2) fishing, (3) livestock raising, (4) small-scale
hunting,
and (5) small commercial enterprise. Agriculture
Farming is done on small parcels of land located along
the coastal flatlands and slopes and on the hillsides of the
inlands. That lands are limited because the islands are
mountainous, with the exception of Itbayat which has undulating
low terrain. The region around Basco town is hilly, but the top
soil on its rolling hills is thick and fertile. The lower part of
the slopes of the Iraya mountain north of Basco is very fertile
and is well-farmed by the Basco townspeople. Mahatao lies between
the rolling Basco hills to the north and Mt. Matarem on the
south. Its terrain, though rocky in places, is very fertile
compared to those of the southern towns of Ivana, Uyugan and
Sabtang. Mahatao has been long known for its good agricultural
production. The arable coastal lands and inland flatlands
are cultivated with carabao and ox-drawn plows. The hillsides and
mountain slopes are tilled with crude equipment. In the tree and
bush-covered parts farming method is comparable to what natives
of Luzon call Kaingin farming. But it is not called that
among the Ivatan folks. They clear the jungle, kill the trees,
and burn the underbush; although lately, more and more farmers
allow the leaves to rot as fertilizers. The people know the
importance of trees on their hillside plots, and they have made
reforestration of their kaingin farms a regular part of
their farming routine. The common crops cultivated are yam (ubi), corn
(mais), rece (palay), camote (wakay), togue (dukay), gabi (sudi),
vegetables (rakarakanen), fruit trees and a few other
miscellanies. Yam, of a big number of variety, is grown as the
staple food. It is planted in January and February and harvested
starting in the months of July or August. Corn is planted during
the beginning of the cold season and harvested before the onset
of summer. Rice is planted in the summer and is harvested before
the onset of the cold season. Camote is a perrenial crop and may
be planted almost anytime of the year depending on waht variety
it is. What Luzon folk call "togue" is called dukay.
It is usually planted and harvested along with the yam. Gabi,
called sudi is planted usually in the yam fields as a
companion crop.Vegetables and spices are planted in October and
November. Fruit trees are grown in small number for limited home
consumption. Plants are sometimes palnted in the cornfields as
companion crop,and so with variety of peas and beans. Coconuts
are also grown, but the typhoons limit not only their growing but
also their yield. Fishing77 Fishing
is one of the year-round activities of the Ivatns. It has been
one of the chief sources of protein in the Ivatan diet. Today,
the Batanes seas still abound in perrenial as well as seasonal
fishes, and although the means of fishing used by the Ivatans are
still largely carry-over from earlier times,78 new techniques are now
being introduced. Fish culture is also being introduced in some
parts of the province. The chief means of fishing are by (1) nets, (2)
hooks, (3) arrows, (4) harpoons and (5) traps. They have about
six types of nets, eight kinds of hooks and hook-types, arrows of
varied sizes, two harpoons, and miscellany of submarine traps for
fishes and crabs. Clandestine dynamite fishing was frequent in
pre-martial law days and it took a lot of fish and some human
lives. Although most fishermen fish for home
consumption, an increasing number of enterprising men, chiefly
from western Sabtang and eastern Batan, now fish for business.
Several have acquired motor boats to ease deep-sea fishing, and
some significant increase of catch has been noted. The principal
market for fish at present are the people in the various public
services and other non-fishing citizens of Basco and the rest of
the mainland. Livestock Raising
The animals generally raised in Batanes are large
cattle, pigs, chicken goats, a few sheep, some carabaos, a few
horses. Cattle are raised by individual families in relatively
small numbers. Only a few people own sizable numbers of cattle at
any given time. But limited as the number may be, cattle is still
one of the main exports of the provinces to other parts of the
Philippines, generally to Manila. Pigs are not raised in large
numbers, only in small backyard piggeries. They are never
numerous enough for real commercial quantity feeds being a
serious problem. The same can be said of chicken. They are raised
for a limited home consumption, more as a hobby than as a
full-scale source of living, so with goats and sheep. Horses are
raised very limitedly, basically for transportation. And a few
carabaos are raised primarily for farm work. Small-Scale Hunting
Ever since the extinction of wild deer (hagsa) and wild
boar (vulaw a bagu), hunting has largely been reduced to a
minimum. Bird-hunting and bird-trapping is still doneon a very
limited scale, and it is done mainly on definite seasons. During
summer, many birds come out to feed on the multitudinous wild
berries and fruits which ripen during the season. This is a good
season for trapping birds, and for other types of hunting. Other
edible birds hunted, but on very limited scale (and also
seasonal) are wild ducks and herons. Trapping coconut crabs
(tatus) is also a favorite with youngsters. The tatus is a
delicious Ivatan food. Small-Scale Commercial
Enterprises
Because of the smallness of the province and its
population, no really large-scale business can survive. This is
why the only commercial enterprise that survives to the present
are sari-sari (this is not an Ivatan word) stores which
generally get their goods from Manila and sell to the people
there at considerably higher prices, the excuse being the
difficulty of transporting goods from Manila. Commercial goods
are brought to the place at long intervals by small interisland
boats whose usual point of departure is the port of Manila. On
the return trip, small quantities of garlic, and a few hundred
heads of cattle are carried from the Islands. In the remote barrios, one finds a diminutive
collection of goods for sale (a few bottles of gin and rums, some
packs of cigarettes, a few uards of cloth, assorted cheap candy
and other goodies, hats, canned goods, etc.) in someone's house.
These goods are usually bought from the stores at Basco and
resold at higher prices in the Barrios. HOUSE
AND FURNITURE The contemporary Ivatan houses have
now become more difficult to typify than they used to be. They
have diversified in both material and style of construction.
Today, the dominant types of houses are (1) stone and lime
walling with cogon roof, and (2) reinforced concrete walling with
galvanized iron or concrete roof. Although most houses until
after the Second World War had only one floor, the two storey
house now become a fashion. Only one essential feature has been
permanent in Ivatan architecture : durability calculated to
withstand typhoons. In the census of 1970, 99.14% of Ivatan homes
and buildings were registered as being made of "strong"
and "mixed materials". Most of the 0.86% made of light
materials are in fact not regular homes, being farm houses or
storerooms for farm equipment and products. Modern Ivatan homes made of concrete and
galvanized iron had been largely patterned after urban Luzon
models and have no distinctively Ivatan character, except that
the wall tend to be thicker than the urban Luzon types, and that
poured concrete is on the whole preferred to hollow blocks. The
furnishings of these homes are also patterned after those of
Luzon types, being generally the homes of the upper economic
class of Ivatans. The more typical Ivatan homes are made of
lime-and-stone stone wall and cogon roof, the living room being
separate structure from the kitchen. The typical kitchen is still
a single floor structure, whereas living rooms tend to be
two-storey structures, though the greater number are still
essentially one-floor houses inspite of the common existence of a
basement or cellar-like room below main floor which is usually
too low for habitation, and is often used merely as a storeroom.
This basement sort of room is usually without a good flooring.
There are usually two doors and two large windows. The usual
position of the doors is on the sides of the vuilding facing
inland, whereas the windows are on the sides facing seaward. (All
the towns and barrios of Batan and Sabtang islands are close to
the sea.) The woodward of the flooring and of the roofs
are usually made from locally obtained lumber, although some
lumber has been imported from Luzon ever since Spanish times. Living rooms are generally one-room affairs
which serve both as sala and sleeping quarters, but the putting
of light partitions to make two small rooms has been gaining
ground. One of these rooms serves as storeroom for trunks,
sleeping mats, clothing and other household paraphernalia which
would ordinarily be considered awkward to be seen stacked in a
room where visitors are received. The most common furniture in most quises are
wooden cahirs of simple design, or long benches, the tops of
wooden trunks (lakasan) used for storing cloth and other
valuables serve as benches. There is usually a large table in a
convenient side of the room where religious images are kept along
with the house's only source of light, and less frequently, gas
lamps. The typical Ivatan kitchen is lower and smaller
in dimensions than the living room edifice. But its general
structural designs and materials for construction are essentially
the same. There are ususally three doors, one on each side, and
another usually on the mouth-end wall. It houses the stones, the
dining room, and the 2 storerooms for food and agricultural
equipment. The kitchen has no chimney, and because Ivatans use
wood for fuel, the inside of the kitchen is usually blackened
entirely.
In earlier times, as indeed in the case in a number of homes even
today, the kitchen - which also serve as the dining room - had no
dining table. But today, dining tables are common furniture of
kitchens. They are generally of two types: the standard height
dining table, and the low table called dulang. The latter
is the far more numerous : and in order to eat at such a low
table, one has to sit on a low bench (bangku) about 15 to
20 cm. high. In the barrios it is usual to see a third
edifice other than the two already mentioned. It is called rahaung
(also called camarin). It is usually a wood and cogoc
structure smaller than the kitchen. In most cases it does not
have walls, its roof baing supported mainly by large wooden
posts. It is ordinarily used as a storeroom for larger farm
equipment such as plows, harrows, sleds, card, and the ox-drawn
pole used for clearing off camote and other vines from fields
being prepared for recultivation. If there is no separate pig
pen, pigs are also kept in the rahaung. The corn mill is
also usually kept there. GEAR
AND ORNAMENT The
Ivatans as town dwellers are not distinguisable from the rest of
their Filipino lowland Christian brothers because in contemporary
times, direct and frequent contact with Luzon has kept them in
the main stream of styles and fashion. It is in their
occupational wear that they differ. A very large number of farmers, both men and
women, have taken to wearing rubber and plastic slippers to, on
and from the farm in recent years. But up to about a decade ago,
the Ivatan farmer walked in town and on the farm barefooted.
Shoes and sandals were strictly for special occasions and for
church. Fishermen, on the other hand, who do their fishing on the
shallow raock coasts, ahve traditionally worn sandals woven out
of fibers and discarded cloth. During hot days, it is also worn
by farmers to protect their feet from the hot sand and on the
coastal roads and beaches. The men wear long-sleeved shirt and trousers
made usually of durable material. And over these, during cold and
rainy days, they wear a coat woven out of finely striped leaves
of banana or vuyavuy (a small palm growing usually on
Batanes coastal hills.) The common head gear is the talugung,
a kind of conical hat woven from strips made from the stalk of a
local plant called nini. Some are woven from thin strips
of bamboo. The talugung is the Ivatan version of salakot. Other
head gear, other than those imported from Luzon, are hats woven
from pandan leaves, and nito. It is also usual for men going to
the farm to carry small bamboo or rattan baskets on their backs.
This basket called (pasikin) contains a variety of things
from the farm : vegetables, fruits, even camote, yam and so on.
The bolo (lukoy) which the farmer carries in a sheath (suhut)
hanging from his waist is an indispensible gear. Women also wear on the farm clothing made of
durable material, their work being in most cases, just a bit
lighter than that of men. They frequently wear their shirts and
sleeves long. Their head gear is called suut or vakul
which is a head-and-back covering woven from the stripped leaves
of banana or the vuyavuy. It is worn as protection against
both sun and rain. All over the province women carry baskets (alat)
to and from the farms. It is a cylindrical contraption with
slightly tapering bottom which has for its base a square wooden
frame that can hold it upright both when empty and loaded. It is
carried on the back, but hangs on the woamn's head with a strap.
The baskets are used for carrying small farm equipment and farm
produce. When a woman carries a basket, she wears the vakul
over the basket. Ornaments were an important part of the costumes
of both men and women in pre-Hispanic times as well as the early
contact with the Spaniards. The men wore earrings as well as the
women. The women wore beads interlocked with their gold jewelry.
When Don Joaquin del Castillo decreed a prohibition against the
use of abalarios and jewelry at the close of the 18th
century, the use of ornaments suddenly came to near halt. In
place of the beads, the Christianized Ivatan wore austere
rosaries around their necks. Their earrings were decently
unostentatious, the more gaud the gold jewelry being reserved for
wear during fiestas and other special occasions. Some of these
traditional finery have come down to modern times but with
probably a strong influence of Spanish style in goldsmithing.
Many are still being worn by today's women and young girls. Some
of the well-known ones are necklaces, earrings, pendants,
bracelets, and rings. Among the necklaces are the batulinaw,
which is made of hollow globules (1½ cm. in diameter)
interspersed with smaller pieces of gold in floral patterns and
held together by a string made of fiber. The tamburin is
an all-gold necklace whose beads are smaller and more ornate than
the batulinaw, and lockets. The Spanish influence is
evident in the frequency with which the pendants and lockets are
in the shape of the cross in varying degrees of ornateness. The earrings used by present day Ivatan women
are numerous in variety, but elderly informants are agreed that
the following are traditional and come from at least the Spanish
period : (1) seseng, (2) pamaaw, (3) chingkakawayan,
(4) liyano, (5) de pelo, (6) dima s'bato,
(7) pitu s'bato, (8) de perlas, (9) bumbolya,
(10) karakol and (11) pinatapatan. The last one is
generally believed to be indegenous, and it is distinguished for
the quantity of its gold content. It is traditional status symbol
for it is believed that only the really rich could afford to own
such jewelry during pre-American times. Bracelets and rings of gold and silver have also
been in use even up to the present. Those which have been used by
Ivatans from at least the Spanish period have been generally
plain in design, with the bracelets tending to be more
occasionally more ornate than the rings. Passing into disuse among the younger generation
were gold-adorned combs which are still used by elderly women on
special occasions such as going to Sunday mass or attending
special fiestas or functions. Spanish gold coin of the secong half of the 19th
century have been used variedly as earrings, parts of rings. or
stringed together for bracelets. TRANSPORTATION Because
of the isolation of the islands from the rest of the Philippines,
transportation is the only real means by which the lifeblood of
the country can reach the Ivatans. But it is the one public
service that has so far been the most unsufficient; and it may be
said that the deficiency of the transportation has paralyzed much
of the Ivatan effort to catch up with progress. Batanes seaports are comparative inspite of
intermitent government aid to build the ports like that on Basco
Bay. It is now complete with wharf. But much of the effort of the
government has been frustrated by periodic destruction of the
wharf by tidal waters spawned by violent typhoons. Nevertheless,
the Basco seaport has been the most functional bacuse of its
proximity to the capital, and its accessibilityto the land
transport facilities. The result of such inconviniences has been the
total ansence in recent years of any viable commercial interest
of managers of inter-island shipping companies. Government boats
have been the only transporters of essential commodities from
Luzon, and the products of the none too prosperous cattle
industry of the province. If a government takes four or three
trips to the province in a year, people consider it a lucky year.
Two sometimes the most they can expect. But the cargo these ships
can carry is seriously limited by the fact that these trips are
essentially official trips scheduled to bring supplies for public
works and services: gasoline, equipment, cement, rice, and so on. The Basco airport has been the more efficient
link of the province to Luzon. Philippine airlines (PAL) has been
maintaining a constant schedule of trips to Basco since after
World War II. It is the only regular carrier of Batanes mail. It
has also served as means of regular transport for a few essential
consumer commodities. But the price of air transport is almost
commercially fatal. So air travel has been limited largely to the
transport of people to and from the province. Vehicular land transportation is limited to
Batan island alone where a functional national railroad runs
around most of the island. There is a privately owned (only one
unit) which plies between Basco (its north terminal) and Uyugan
(on the south). Between the two towns are Mahatao and Ivana. A
jeepney, also privately owned, also plies the same route. Both
bus and jeepney have regular trip schedules daily when there is
enough gasoline supply. The only other vehicles plying the national
roads on Batan are a few government trucks, jeeps, pick-up, other
public service vehicles belonging to the provincial hospital, the
Philippine constabulary, and a couple of vehicles or so of the
Batanes Catholic missions. Motorcycles have become a bit more
fashionable in recent years, although there are as yet too many
of them on the road: A few commuters between Basco and the
southern towns use bicycles. Among the islands, transportation is almost
entirley by means of locally-made wooden boats. These depend on
salis and rowers numbering between eight to twelve depending on
their sizes. In recent years, several of these boats have been
"motorized" - a development that has begun to
revolutionize somewhat both fishing and interisland travel. Within the islands themsleves, the farmers
travel on foot to and from the farms. Horses are not numerous and
as means of transportation. They are rather the exception than
the rule. The only transport facilities one can mention in
connection with the ethnic material culture are the rather
primitive equipment used for transporting farm goods and
equipment from village to farm or from farm to village. WATER
SYSTEM The
town of Basco has, in recent years, become the beneficiary of a
generous water system harnessed from the spring gushing from high
up the northern slopes of Iraya mountain northeast of the town.
But in earlier yaers, a pipeline brought to the town water from
Miyaga, a traditional water source about 2 km. north of Basco
town. Mahatao and Ivana have their own reasonably
dependable water system, the two towns being located within
convenient distances from good water springs. But Uyugan is less
forunate. Although the town is built at the mouth of the stream
that drains the Uyugan inland hills, the bed is dry most of of
the year. Water storage is an essential household preoccupation.
Sabtang has uneven fortune with water. All around the coastal areas, particularly at
certain points on the beaches, there are water springs where
farmers, travellers and cattle find water holes, but with the
disadvantage during high tide, the water springs are submarine. All over Batanes, but especially in those towns
with poor water supply, jars (angang) apparently imported from
the Ilocos have served as water stroage. These jars are to be
found in considerable number on Batan and Sabtang islands where
they are used not only as water storage jars bu as fermentation
jars for the production of the local sugarcane beverage - palek.
Locally made earthern jars are diminishing in number. It was in
these home-made earthern jars that water was stored for use in
the farms in the past, and to a lesser degree in modern times.