1465 71.00 85
1501 71.65 93
1530 74.00 95
1534 76.50 97
1556 76.90 100
1567 77.26 100
1579 77.80 106
1581 79.60 106
1600 80.40 118
1606 83.50 119
The mean height and the amount of variation are almost exactly the
same as those found in Benguet. All but two are of "short" stature,
while one approaches that of a Negrito. The head index is generally
mesaticephalic, but three are dolichocephalic and two brachycephalic,
the amount of variation being surprising. All are platyrhinian, most
of them excessively so. Their color was a dirty brown, with saffron
undertone. The hair was black, abundant, and in every case wavy. The
nose was flat, "bulbous," with a very rounding end, and deeply indented
at root. The lips were full and prominent, the chin retreating, and
eye-arches rather heavy. As these men sat together with their dark
faces and abundant heads of wavy hair they had a suggestively Papuan
appearance. Another peculiarity was their singularly depressed temples,
which gave the face a very narrow diameter across the brow.
In the foregoing series we have altogether 53 Igorot, 8 of them women,
whose physical characters may now be summarized. While this may seem a
small number upon which to base conclusions, a few general statements
may, with propriety, be made. [4]
Arranging serially the statures of the forty-five men, it is found
that two of them are below 1450 mm., nine are between 1451 and 1500,
fourteen between 1501 and 1550, thirteen between 1551 and 1600, five
between 1501 and 1650, and two are above 1650 and below 1700. I believe
that these figures are representative of all the Igorot stock. From a
personal experience extending over a good many years I think it may
be asserted that the Igorot in all parts of the cordillera present
about the same statures as those which I have here given. Belasco
and Akop would be recognized as very tall Igorot in any part of the
mountains. Two of the above are pygmy and all but seven are below 1600,
and correspond to Topinard's "below medium" statures. We may say,
then, with positiveness that the Igorot is one of the exceptionally
short races of mankind. With three or four exceptions the arm-reach
is greater than the height, usually by 40 to 50 mm. Thus, the short
stature is somewhat compensated for by long arms, heavy, robust bodies,
and short, muscular legs.
The cephalic index of both men and women ranges from 70 to 96.3, a very
surprising range. Ten are dolichocephalic, 71 to 74.6; twenty-nine are
mesaticephalic, 75.2 to 79.7; twelve are brachycephalic, 80.4 to 84.8,
and two are hyperbrachycephalic, 85 and 96.3. Thus the vast majority
of heads are mesaticephalic with more tendency toward brachycephaly
than to dolichocephaly.
The nose represents on the other hand surprising uniformity. Only
three noses are mesorhinian, 75, 79.1, and 79.4, thirty-nine are full
platyrhinian, while twenty-two have an index of 100 or more. The mean
index is 95.
From this comparison I think we may assert that in the mountain people
of the southern half of the cordillera of Luzon we have a very short,
long-armed, muscular race of dark brown color varying to saffron, with
coarse black hair that is usually straight but in Bontok is sometimes
wavy, and in Kiangan regularly so, full lips, retreating chin, flat,
broad noses rounding at the end and deeply depressed at the root,
with an extraordinarily high nasal index, and heads that have great
variation in shape but are usually mesaticephalic or brachycephalic.
May we then draw a few conclusions? Obviously this is not a typical
Malay type. To a possible basis of primitive Malayan stock some
other racial element or elements have been added and thoroughly
incorporated. The wide range in shape of head may be taken, I think, as
probable evidence of such mingling of types. The color, the straight
or slightly wavy black hair, and the temperament (the "psyche")
of the Igorot show the Malay or Oceanic Mongol derivation. The short
stature and limbs, the long arms, the shape and index of the nose, the
occasional heads of hair that are too wavy for the Malay and would be
unheard of in the Mongol--these things are Negrito, or at least they
are characteristic of the black race of Oceanica. The variability in
shape of head would be puzzling were it not for the fact that both
the Malayan and the black races of the Indian archipelago show a
wide variability in this character of the head. These reflections
have already suggested the theory that I have to propose for the
origin of the Igorot, that he is an old, thoroughly fused mixture
of the aboriginal Negritos, who still survive in a few spots of
the cordillera, and an intrusive, Malayan race, who, by preference
or by press of foes behind them, scaled the high mountains and on
their bleak and cold summits and canyon slopes laboriously built
themselves rock-walled fields and homes, in which they have long been
acclimated. The culture of the Igorot has been greatly modified and
advanced by the rigors of his habitat, but it is Malayan at base,
as are the languages which he speaks. Except in one or two localities
where there has been recent mixture with the still existing Negrito he
does not make use of the bow and arrow, which are Negrito weapons, but
uses the shield and spear for close fighting and the jungle knife or
an interesting modification, the "headax," for both fighting and work.
While the above expressed hypothesis of the origin of the Igorot
appears to me to have much probability, for a similar theory
to explain the Malay type of the Ilongot or Ibilao I feel even
stronger confidence. This curious people occupies a very broken
mountain area formed by the junction of the Sierra Madre with the
Caraballo Sur. This is the headwaters of the Kagayan river and to a
less degree of the Pampanga. Besides being wholly mountainous it is
covered with thick and well nigh impenetrable jungle, in which the
scattered homes of these wild people are hidden and protected. They
have long had the worst of reputations as head hunters and marauders,
and little information about them has circulated except wild rumors
of their strange appearance and treacherous ferocity.
They have been described as "very tall," "heavily bearded,"
"light in color," "white," and of a type elsewhere unknown in the
Philippines. For most of these reports there is no foundation. My
experience with this people is limited to two visits to two different
communities, in 1902 to a group in the jurisdiction of Nueva Vizcaya
and in 1909 to a community in the mountains back of Pantabangan,
Nueva Ecija. On the first visit measurements and notes were made of
four men and three women. Their stature was found to be as follows: