Matatagu'n Anitu (Living Anito) as a Trope for Recontextualizing Tradition and Re/Presenting Indigeneity
BIBLIOGRAPHIC ENTRY: Scott Magkachi Saboy. 2016. “Matatagu’n Anitu (Living Anito) as a Trope for Recontextualizing Tradition and Re/Presenting Indigeneity.” In CSSTRP 2: Consolidating Lessons and Charting Directions, edited by Lorelei Crisologo- Mendoza, 275-285. Baguio City: Cordillera Studies Center-University of the Philippines Baguio.
ABSTRACT
The anito has come a long way from its sacred position at swidden farms, in rice granaries and on house thresholds to its amorphous, uncertain state as a curio in the man-made mountains and nests of the city. Its story is one of carving, refashioning, framing, and relocating. It is also emblematic of the dynamic complexity of local culture and identity.
Taking cue from an ethnopop band in Kalinga that calls itself “The Living Anitos,” this paper proposes to take “living anito” as a trope for the continuing recontextualization of the various facets of Kalinga traditional culture. It presents “living anito” as a conceptual site of/for the articulation, contestation, negotiation, resolution and/ or escalation of personal and community concerns or issues like authenticity and hybridity.
This proposition requires the application of concepts from literary and cultural studies, as well as from ethnomusicology and folkloristics.
Keywords: Living anito, Kalinga, ethnopop music, tradition