Hunting: tools, techniques and practice

Hi all, the bluetooth keyboard works great and my motivation is at best since France won the first match. Just kidding the actual reason being for once we have 3 relaxing days after about a month of non-stop work, so it feels great to write a bit here. Today let's speak about Hunting.

This activity is equally practice in the coastal and inland environment and people usually specialize in one type of it. The tools used here are firstly the traditional wooden Busog, bow, in conjonction with the panas,arrows. 

In fact, the latter have a special trait: the arrows head is not fixed to the body but instead clipeed on it and a rope of a few meters linked both parts. It help understand this by saying that the bow is used for hunting wild pigs which lives in a dense jungle environment. The idea is that the head of the arrows stick to the animal and the shaft gets stuck when the pig attempts escape through the vegetation. Then, the hunter would run and finish the job with it's Atak, knife. I say knife as the tool is also used to cut food and repair things but we are here speaking more of the dagger type with it's blade spanning a good 40cms.

After the traditional hunting, which we witnessed many attempts which produce no yield, comes guns. There are actually three disctinct types.

From the top of the image, the first one called bomba is actually the least powerful. Being an airgun, it shoots small metal pellet, the same you would in a funfaire. The main difference being that it is much more powerful. The mechanism allows to load  enough air for five shots before reloading making it a very efficient tool. It is used to hunt Ibungs, birds.

The second gun is soberly called 22 because of its caliber and the same sort of gun you would expect a farmer to own in england. Each cartrige costs the equivalent of a pound or about ten times more than for the bomba. The use of it is unclear as it did not seems to be selected during the differnet trips I witnessed.

The last type of guns are called Posphoro and actually modified shotguns. The cartridges are not available in the region so the people change the mecanism to add a side trigger. The gun is filled with three matchboxes worth of phosphorous matches heads, hence its name. Then 3 small rocks are added and the whole load is squeezed as far as possible into the cannon. The trigger is then a bent nail that, with the force of a taunt spring, which has such intensity as to make the phosphorous explode projecting the rock and matches at a great velocity. As curious as it seems it is the tool of choice for pig hunting. We witnessed many agtas walking in the forest with their guns but havent seen the formers in use.

In another category Agtas are the only people allowed to use traps it the national park; 30 maximum at one time per person. They are  clever bits of engineering where a bent wooden stick is released and tightly encompasses the animals leg to prevent it from escaping. Sadly I only got them explained to me but not seen or photographed. I have however an image of a funny little tool.

Being similarily made with a wood stick   and   a rubber band, it is   similar to a slingshot expect there is no Y-shape and the projectile clips on the rubber itself. The latter is made of a nail, sharpened at one end and fitted with lots of plastic bag pieces at the other. The former permits to pierce the occasional bird where the latter is for finding the projectile amonst the trees. It is ironically called an icepick, the shape suits the name but, but strange as the Agta don't know what ice or snow look like.

So what about the practice? We have been invited a few to partake a hunting trip and I have been to one with Nonoy, a cool guy from Cemento.

We headed early in the morning to the close-by jungle and followed some sort of trail, otherwise called a muddy torrent. After an hour of hard climb Nonoy started making noises, bird noises. He explained that the way was to speak and convince the birds to come and meet their end. With his voice and a bamboo tool he was indeed able to answer calls and soon enough we were crouching on the ground as a inquisite flyer was in the area. I am saying in the area because at this point it was impossible for me to spot any moving animal. Only the usual jungles noises and cracks. Nonoy aims, shoot, the bird fell like a stone.

He is not dead but still he goes directly into the bag, to stay fresh I presume. And the day goes on. Hours of hard walking through the jungle and a few birds later I start to be more aware of the surroundings and see the birds despite their grey and green camouflage. In fact, the shooting seemed to be the easiest part with target being between 7 to 10 meters away. In fact, the birds were so unaware that even after Nonoy shot a bird on a branch it's two companions didn't budge and met the same fate a minute later. One shot, one bird is Nonoy's mantra and that day he did not fail.

We came back late afternoon, and boy I was tired. Nonoy may not be fast in the action, but his stamina seems to be without limits. This was a great day out.

We will head to another camp with bird hunters in a couple of days and I am bringing cartridges this time with the hope to have a go at shooting. I tried in the camp and manage to hit the target OK. Maybe I can get a bird too.

With love,

Wasabi.

Change

Palanan Isabela, Philippines, 22 of June 2014.

Today, I am 27 and I have just, or will soon, reach a mileage of one billion heartbeats. This number makes my head spins and awakens in me the urge to share some reflections with you.

Before the 17^th of last September I was following the path. No, not the spiritual one, simply that which spans from the exit door of my engineering school to a nice comfortable life. A person in a bubble among bubbles, not too happy nor too sad. Not to scared, nor too confident; just in the middle. But then, as the yes man I sometimes am, I had to quit my job for that new project.

Following my love all the way to the Philippines for 9 months of anthropological fieldwork, I have ended up sharing this segment of my life with a population of Hunter-gatherers. And today, we are half way. Four shorts months since the departure from London and who am I? I am not quite sure of the answer, all I of know is that I have changed. This is simple to know because when one changes, he does not remember who he was before. I have souvenirs of course. The first day at work, and the last (where all the secrets are shared at the pub). But yet, this is not the me of today. I have seen more, experienced more, and had a good glimpse into some other bubbles. This changed my perspective on life.

I remember reading with interest about this blogger who decided to live with only 100 types of objects and made a book out of it. People here can do so with 30, 20, 10 distinct objects and live a good life. I remember I was feeling quite good about doing half an hour of exercise per day and being outside for 10 minutes after my lunch. Here inside does not exist as the Agta house consists of a banana leaf roof and a bamboo floor one metre from the ground. Even the richer farmer’s houses do not have windows and often large opening on their sides. As for exercise, this is not a thing here as everyone is active most of a day and often very strong indeed. Lastly, I was quite proud, upon arriving in a new place to always make the time to invite my neighbours to a welcoming drink or two. Here the Agta are the closest, tightly knit group of people I ever encountered. You want some novelty? Why not pack your stuff, walk 5 hours and spend a week in another camp. No reasons are needed: you walk, you arrive there, you live there. As simple as it gets.

This radical experience made me reconsider the way I lead my life. What is work and how much of it is needed? Why should I sit eight or more hour a day on the same chair over again? Communities or Societies? All of these subjects will be discussed in the next post: Reflexions.

One more thing: my hair. For roughly a year I let it be free and grow as organic and unconstraint as possible, waiting for an event to give it a good shape. That’s it; today I put words on my state of mind. And to be honest I am glad it happens, as I was slowly getting blinded by this volume on my head.

Love to all,

Wasabi.

By the way

Palanan Isabela, Philippines, 19 of August 2014.

We are now into our last leg of our fieldwork (argh where has time gone!) and our time in Palanan. We have been busy written articles for the blog, however we haven’t quite managed to get them posted as the web has been just beyond our reach. 
The good news is that we have now caught up with the internet (thanks again Flow!), and will publish all the articles we have created in the last months, over the forthcoming weeks.

Oh and here is a random snapshot to keep your eyes amused. Yea that's right, there is such a thing as an Agta doll.  

Love to all,

Wasabi.

Anthropology Corner: Agta fashion

Norma sporting subang, long maniqec and pinanas

When anyone starts talking about foraging peoples an image of isolated, untouched tribes comes to mind. People who are at one with nature, high from various jungle plants and creepy crawlies, and adorned with face paints, multiple bamboo piercings topped off with large head dresses only matched by accompanying tiny grass skirts or loincloths.  Yet, this is just a stereotype, one which foraging populations from the South America conform a lot better to. For the Agta, it may be better to say they dominate nature (but more on this later), they don’t lick any frogs (that I have noticed…) and are more often seen in baggy basketball shorts then loincloths.  I am not the type of anthropologist that studies material culture (i.e. the visual representation of a culture demonstrated in clothes, jewellery, art and so forth), yet with some beautiful photography from Wallace I think it important to demonstrate how the modern day Agta looks like, and how they actually beautify themselves.

Close up of pinanas

The most common piece of jewellery of any Agta, be it man, woman or child is an maniqec. Maniqec  are necklaces made of plastic nylon which various brightly clothed beads are threaded on to. Most often the maniqec is made very long and coiled around a women’s neck. For men, it is normally only one layer of beads, so not to interfere with fishing or hunting activities.  Most often, the Agta tell you the maniqec is simply for beauty. But there are many different explanations. Some will tell you it is for curing sickness, as an unseen spirit is best treated with a very beautiful and colourful maniqec.  Single girls are also meant to wear brighter beads, but really this seems to be a personal choice.  Like most aspects of Agta life they may all think differently but always correctly; you have the freedom to think of any explanation.

Little Erik with biscal

Similarly the importance of the thickness of pinanas, or bracelets made from twisted thread, varies.These small pinanas are impressively made by simply twisting and twisting the string until it makes a loop which is then stretched over the hand to fit tightly with 50 or so others of varies different colours. The thickness, say some, may be a sign of morning; black pinanas are worn when a family member has died, the thicker they are the recent the event.  

When these twisted threads are made into a neckless they are called Ulay. They can contain a wonderful array of colours and black threads often indicate death, or that someone just likes black, or that was the colour available in a resource poor world (no easy assumptions here).

When a pinanas is worn on the upper arm it is called a biscal, which shows that the man or boy is handsome (or very cute as is the case for young boys). Some special ones have little balls or fabric, like pompoms! All these items are still relatively common among the Agta of all ages. 

However, some fashions like g-strings, subang (or stretched ears stuffed with flowers, leaves, or thread) and padit (scarification) are now only now evident among the older generation.

 Roger in traditional attire

Really this is an effect of coming into contact with non-Agta populations and the Born Again or 7-day Adventist (I know, a random sect to find in the middle of nowhere) churches who have a strong influence over some Agta communities. So now the younger generation can be ashamed of the old ways, so the girls wear normal earrings, and the men wear same clothes as any other Filipino (but the older ones do profess that a g-string is good for keeping cool!). 

Unok with biscal

Maybe it is because these displays have little, if any, ritual function, that they have started to disappear as the population itself is under pressure to conform to local farming norms. However, everyone will tell you one thing: all these things show you are a strong, beautiful Agta, so I think there is no risk of the cultural identity of Agta dying out just yet.  

My collection of piananas and ring gifts

Love to all,

Wasabi