18/09/2026
๐๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ก๐ ๐๐ก๐ง๐ฆ
The Agtas of Aurora and Isabela traditionally adorn their bodies with a variety of accessories made from materials available in their surroundings. These include plant fibers, beads, bark, cloth, shells, and materials obtained from hunted animals. Accessories made of beads and fashioned into necklaces, bracelets, or armlets are collectively called ๐ข๐๐ฃ๐๐
Women commonly wear pinanas, bracelets made from abaka fibers or plastic beads; ๐จ๐ช๐๐๐ฃ๐, earplugs made from processed bark or cotton cloth, often scented with the fragrant leaf they call anugo; and ๐๐ฃ๐๐ ๐๐ฉ, a long, layered beaded necklace wrapped into multiple strands around the neck, particularly on special occasions. Menโs adornments include ๐๐๐จ๐ ๐๐ก, which may be elaborated as ๐๐ช๐ก๐๐ฃ๐๐ฎ๐๐ฌโan armlet decorated with dangling shellsโand ๐ฅ๐๐ฃ๐๐ฃ๐๐จ made from abaka fibers or plastic beads.
Agta adornments may also incorporate materials from animals that are commonly hunted. Wild boar fur, for example, may be attached to a biskal as decoration, while the tail of a captured monkey may be deboned and fashioned into a biskal.
Beyond their decorative function, some adornments are embedded in Agta practices of healing and protection. Wearing multiple ๐ข๐๐ฃ๐๐ beyond the customary number may signal that a person is a ๐๐ช๐ฃ๐ค๐๐๐ฃ (traditional healer). These manik are understood to embody the healing and protective capacities of the bunogen, and are believed to help protect the wearer from malevolent spirits thought to cause illness.
When a sick person is unable to personally visit a bunogen, the healer may send a manik together with chewed amman (betel). The patient wears the necklace as part of the healing process, allowing the manik to serve as a material extension of the healerโs presence and healing power.
Adornments may also communicate skills and practical knowledge. A woman without a pinanas may be regarded as lacking skill in gathering root crops, while a man without one may be perceived as incapable of hunting. The pinanas also has a practical function during hunting, helping stabilize the hunterโs aim while protecting the arm from injury.
Agta adornments are more than objects of personal decoration; they embody knowledge of local materials and resources, hunting and gathering practices, healing traditions, and social relationships. Worn on the body, they may express a personโs skills and social identity. Agta adornments are therefore not merely decorative objects but material expressions of cultural knowledge and lived relationships with the environment.
๐๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ด๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐ป๐ฑ ๐ฃ๐ต๐ผ๐๐ผ ๐ฆ๐ผ๐๐ฟ๐ฐ๐ฒ: Minter, T. (2009). Contemporary relations between Agta and their farming neighbours in the northern Sierra Madre of the Philippines. Senri Ethnological Studies, 73, 205โ228. https://doi.org/10.15021/00002592
๐ก๐ผ๐๐ฒ: This article draws on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Aurora and Isabela from September 2025 to March 2026 by researchers from the Ethnology Division and NMP-Baler of the National Museum of the Philippines.
