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Ref ID: 22576
Ref Type: Book Section
Authors: CadeliƱa, Rowe V.
Title: A comparison of Batak and Ata subsistence styles in two different social and physical environments
Date: 1988
Source: Ethnic diversity and the control of natural resources in Southeast Asia
Place of Publication: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Publisher: Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan
Abstract: In the Philippines, lowland farmers are migrating to the uplands in increasing numbers, placing themselves in a situation of potential competition with upland tribal populations for natural resources in the area. How do the tribal populations whose subsistence strategies are affected by this situation adjust? This question bears directly on the tribal populations' subsistence styles, especially their utilization and management of increasingly scarce resources. In addition, how does this lead to ethnic differentiation, or the dissolution of ethnic markers? This concerns the process of maintaining or eliminating ethnic boundaries that may help groups preserve control over, or increase access to, various resources. These are questions that interest Philippine anthropologists today. In this chapter, I will compare two Philippine Negrito groups, the Ata and the Batak, who live in different social and physical environments. Both groups were originally nomadic forest foragers, but they have evolved very different subsistence styles in recent years. Taking into account their existing environments, the differences in their subsistence styles in adjusting to migration of lowlanders to the uplands will be explained, and the theoretical implications of the findings for ethnic diversity examined.
Date Created: 4/27/2015
Editors: Rambo, A. Terry
Hutterer, Karl L.
Gillogly, Kathleen
Volume: 32
Page Start: 59
Page End: 81
Series Title: Michigan Papers on South and Southeast Asia Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, The University of Michigan