Ilongot

  • AKA: Ilonggot, Ibilao, Ibilaw, Ilungot, Ligones, Bugkalot, Quirungut, Ilyonout, Egonut, Ipagi, Engogot, Italon, Abaka, Ibilao.
  • Location: E Luzon higlands: juncture of Sierra Madre and the Caraballo mountains. Towns of A. Castaneda and Dupax Sur. Also diasorically spread throughout the islands.
  • Languages: Thirteen dialect groups:Abaka, Aymuyu, Belansi, Benabe, Beqnad, Dekran, Kebinanan, Payupay, Pugu, Rumyad, Sinebran, Taan, and Tamsi.
  • Subgroups: Italon (headwaters of Cagayan River); Engongot (Ipagi) (NW of Baler coast); Abaka (Ibilao)
  • Subsistence: Swidden root crops, rice along tributaries; hunting, fishing, gathering.
  • Population: 50,017 (1990)

The Ilongot are notable for their extreme aggressiveness and cultural conservatism; their continual warfare has resulted in an egress of population from the home area to the extent that more Ilongot currently live in provinces as far south as Zamboangas than in their traditional lands. The people live in dispersed, fortified houses with families grouped in non-kin bands called alipan, but there is no traditional leadership structure, and the society is essentially egalitarian. Temporary leadership is based on powers of persuasion and oratory skills, called puron. Though it has little function in society, kinship is figured bilaterally, as it is with all other Filipino groups.

Ilongot resting after hunting