Inlaod Tinguian funerary practices and their value-integration in the Christianized Inlaod Tinguian family and kin network

• Main Author: Valera, Felinore Angelica H.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 1999
• Subjects: Funeral rites and ceremonies; Manners and customs; Tinguian (Philippine people); Values; Belief and doubt; Christian life; Christianity; Religion
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/838
• Institution: De La Salle University

This is an anthropological study conducted in Barangay Caupasan, Danglas, Abra, with the Inlaod Tinguian tribe. It describes and presents Tinguian funerary practices and their value-integration into the Christianized Tinguian family and kin network.The study used the descriptive-exploratory method of research, using face-to-face interviews and limited participant-observation for data-gathering purposes. The conceptual framework evolved from the posited blending of the two traditions, the indigenous and the Christian, that bears largely upon their sense of communal identity that have been both consciously and unconsciously incorporated into their family and kin network.The main sources of data come primarily from the responses of the family respondents and key informants as well as from the limited participant-observation in the community itself. Other background and context-building data were gathered from the local libraries and from the Office of Northern Cultural Communities in Bangued, Abra.The findings reveal that the present Inlaod Tinguian tribe of Caupasan, Danglas, Abra, has a very rich funerary tradition drawn from both indigenous and Christian traditions. Essentially, the funerary practices of the Tinguians start at the time of serious sickness of an Inlaod Tinguian until the time of a grand celebration commemoating his or her death. The Inlaod Tinguians do not immediately find meaning and values in the funerary practices they faithfully observe as a family and a community. It is merely upon reflection that they are awakened with pride about such practices since they have been able to find values in the traditions that have been handed down to them by their ancestors. The values gained by the Inlaod Tinguians from their funerary practices are consciously and unconsciously integrated into their family and kin network.The study provides many implications in different areas such as: (1) Religious Education and Values Education with its vision-mission and goals (2) Religious and Values educator (3) Religious and Values Education curriculum (4) Local Church and (5) Tinguian family and community.The study concludes that the Tinguian funerary practices are meant to be a celebration of life by the family and the whole community. Furthermore, the Tinguians although now converted to Christianity, still find the indigenous culture most meaningful in their lives. The distinction between what is Christian and what is indigenous in the Tinguian funerary practices is not clearly delineated since some indigenous practices are compatible with the Christian tradition.