LoudBITs

Introduction

In 1789, a Dominican missionary, Fray Francisco Antolin, was stationed in the Cordillera region of the Philippines. He wrote Noticia de los infieles Igorrotes (Notices of the Pagan Igorots) which is his own primary account of the Igorot people that is based on his observations, interviews, as well as earlier Spanish records.

He often called the Igorots “savages” or “idolaters,” which implies that his perspective was clearly colonial. Despite this, his work still contains valuable information about their economy, settlements, trade routes, and resistance strategies. More than just an ethnography, his work also reads like a proto-map. It is full of place names, river systems, mine locations, and movement patterns.

In 1790, William Henry Scott, also a historian, translated Antolin's work. Scott recognized that Antolin’s work is rare, that it is unlike most colonial reports that dismissed the highland peoples as “backward.” It appeared to him that Antolin documented the Igorots differently, even if he missed certain contexts. Later Scholars, including Grace de la Peña, would build on this by showing how Indigenous groups like the Igorots used geography as a means to resistance. Based on this fact, this paper views Antolin’s account as a recoverable spatial data rather than an absolute or a finished truth.

This paper argues, then, that despite Antolin’s biases, his work still offers usable historical data that can be digitized today using modern tools like GIS (Geographic Information Systems) or 3D modeling. With this in mind, we can construct how the Igorots organized themselves, that they are not easy to become subjects to foreign empires, but rather as people who were able to control trade, guard their territory, and maintained their own autonomy through selective contact with lowland communities.

Mining & Economy

The economy of the Igorots at that time was rather strategic than primitive. Their economy can be characterized with gold, which, contrary to popular culture, was used as a medium for exchange or trade, and not as hoarded treasure. Antolin mentions that the Igorots always carried their weights and scales when they went to buy daily needs like camote, rice, or chicken. They kept weighing everything and measured out small grains of gold to pay for their needs. Although sometimes, they bought things worth a nickel with the gold they brought with them. This shows that they had a precise and localized monetary system, which made them engage with Christian markets on their own terms.

Their main mining zone was called Pancutcutan which was located near Mount Pulog. The mine had three important sites, namely: Acupan, Apayao, and Locjo. The name Acupan in itself means “to get gold with both hands," which, as Antolin explained, refers to the rainy season when the sands rich in gold were flooded and washed down from the mountains, thereby making extraction easier and more abundant. During these scenarios when rivers swelled, more Igorots would come down to the lowland towns like Asingan or Agoo to sell gold and buy livestock, blankets, or metal tools.

Gold, however, was not their only valuable resource. They also produced salt from the Salinas springs near Ituy (now called as Nueva Vizcaya). Antolin described how they boiled brine in jars to make fine white salt like the salt from Pangasinan, or used earthenware trays in the sun to create coarse salt similar to that of Pampanga’s. Aside from using salt on food, it was also used in rituals, especially in preserving the dead.

They also traded carnelian beads, which had a deep red color and were translucent stones worn as necklaces. They bought these beads from lowland merchants who acquired them from India or Borneo via ancient trade routes. These beads were so prized that just one bead could even be exchanged for a full gold peso. Aside from this, the Igorots also collected eagle-stones (hollow iron concretions that rattle when shaken) near Caranglan and Pantabangan. Accordingly, these stones held supernatural powers, however, Antolin dismissed it as simply superstition. Although that is the case, it also shows that these stones had some sort of symbolic or ritual value.

It can be seen, therefore, that the Igorots did not depend on the colonial economy. As Antolin himself admits, they “only seek free trade in blankets, G-strings, and animals for their gold.” They refused to pay taxes, they avoided forced labor, and used their advantage which was their control over highland resources to stay independent. Their wealth was not measured in literal economical wealth, but rather in their feasts, livestock, and the freedom to live without Spanish intervention.

Settlements and Communities

Igorot villages were strategically built based on access to resources, defense, and trade. Kabayan, Bokod, Kiangan, Buguias, and other places of the sort, were very much important in larger highland networks. Some, like Kabayan and Bokod, were located near gold mines and relied almost entirely on trade for food. Others, like Kiangan, had rather fertile rice fields and did not mine gold at all. They traded rice and beans instead.

It can be read in Antolin’s notes that most houses were small, smoky, and built low to the ground. They were so low that one often had to duck in order to enter. Wealthier families, on the other hand, owned slightly larger wooden houses with more rooms, but even those lacked in furniture. However, it is worth noting that back then, what mattered more was not the size of one’s house, but how many animals one owned and what kind, what and how many feasts one hosted, and whether one controlled a mine or a trade route.

Most often, it was women who took care of farming, as well as taking care of the house. Men, on the other hand, focused on hunting, trading, and mining. In places like Bokod, Antolin observed that people barely grew enough crops to eat, so they often had to depend on carabaos and pigs that they bought from the Christians. Hunger hit hard however, during times when rains blocked the trails or when crops failed. Yet despite this fragility, these communities held together because they were not merely trying to copy lowland life, instead, they were building something that worked for them.

Instead of colonial laws, the Igorots maintained their social order through elders and chiefs. During that time, what one village actually meant, most often than not, was one family, and that included relatives. In a village, the oldest person would be the chief of that village, and they would not let go of their chief until they pass. The chief played the role of a leader, host, judge, and sponsor for rituals. The status of a chief was shown through small but meaningful ways: a black blanket with gold trim, gold-plated teeth (removed only when eating), and the ability to host multiple feasts in just one day where dozens of animals were butchered. It may seem like happy parties for some, but behind, it displayed wealth, obligation, and community cohesion.

Slavery also existed during that period. Slaves usually came from enemy villages or those in punishment for crimes. They worked in mines or household, married only other slaves, and their children inherited that status. There were also cases that Antolin noted, where Igorots from Poliang and Tococan sold women for two carabaos each in Bayombong. It may be disturbing indeed, but this practice also reveals that their society was structured. Even in social exclusion, there were rules clearly followed.

Importantly, Antolin’s documentation on thematic categories of the different places he identified during his mission can be treated as early spatial data. If plotted through GIS mapping, these details could help visualize an organized view of how the Igorot lifestyles were during that time. With that framework, his work will no longer be merely focused on colonial observation, but a tool for indigenous spatial recovery.

Sacred Landscapes & Cosmology

For the Igorots, geography did not simply mean where they farmed, mined, or traveled, but also more about who they believed they were. Antolin recorded an origin story where a certain mountain is believed to be where all the Igorots descended from. This mountain is called Mount Pulog, which the Igorots also call it Pola or Polac. The modern-day equivalent of this name is Mount Pulag which is located on the border of the provinces of Benguet, Ifugao, and Nueva Vizcaya. It is also the highest peak in Luzon and the third highest in the country. The story tells that a great flood once occurred in olden times and only one man and one woman survived by climbing to its peak, and so, these two survivors birthed the Igorots. Although it may be treated as folklore, one must not forget that it is a claim of belonging. This is important to recognize because some Spanish people assumed that the Igorots’ ancestry is rooted in China. Clearly, the Igorots asserted their own history and that it is distinct from colonial narratives.

Mount Pulog was also known as the hydrological center of northern Luzon. Antolin comments: "The three most important rivers of the Igorots are born in it... to the west, that of Tagudin in Ilocos; to the south, the Agno in Pangasinan; and to the east, the missions of Ituy." Because these three rivers that would become the lifelines of agriculture, trade, and settlement in Ilocos, Pangasinan, and Cagayan Valley had their source in one place, Mount Pulog was loaded with life-giving and cleansing powers. By its waters, which were the most direct link between the highlands and the lowlands, it was a sacred source of fertility and of life continuity.

In the area of burial rites, Antolin noted that even the dead were important in daily life. The presence of ancestors was believed to influence harvests, health, and luck. Moreover, when someone dies, they did not bury their corpse right away. Instead, the Igorots first removed the intestines, salted the body, and kept it seated near the fire for weeks or even months and sometimes, they also wrapped the body in dozens of blankets. They also held feasts in their honor where they butchered animals as offerings and also for food.

Their beliefs shaped how they controlled access to their territories. The Igorots refused to let missionaries get near burial or ritual sites. To them, revealing burial cave or ceremonial ground was rude and dangerous. For this reason, when the missionaries interviewed the Igorots, they either gave false information or stayed silent. This was to protect their knowledge and defend their identity. Aside from that reason, the Igorots were cunning. Although they were trying to protect their culture, they also had another goal in mind. In the interviews, the missionaries granted prizes to the participants and reasonably, the Igorots were aware of it. So, they not only protected their culture, but also gained these prizes despite providing inaccurate answers.

If we treat Antolin’s work as spatial data points, we could map not just there the Igorots lived, but also how they lived their lives. In that sense, even biased accounts can help recover an indigenous worldview as long as we read it critically and rebuild it creatively.

Trade & Contact Zones

Mount Pulog served as a geographic and cultural landmark in the Igorot lands. In the surrounding regions of the mountain were active trade and contact zones between Igorots and lowland Christians. Goods were traded in and out of the highlands in these exchanges. In Antolin’s work, there were four trade and contact zones identified positioned in four directions relative to Mount Pulog: west, southwest, south, and east.

To the west, routes led to Ilocos (Tagudin, Agoo), where Igorots exported gold, which was in dust or cast pieces and often alloyed, and carnelian beads which were highly prized - both of which were used to exchange for cotton blankets (de bandala and colored), G-strings woven on Ilocano looms, livestocks which were often bought in whole herds, metal goods (knives, spears, broken plows for recycling), and nipa wine carried in bamboo sections.

To the southwest, trails descended into Pangasinan along the Agno River where Igorots traded gold, which came from the mines of Acupan, Apayao, and Locjo, and crude copper pots for livestock, dried fish, clothes, molasses cakes, cleaned rice, and nipa wine.

To the south, routes reached Pampanga’s upper towns, which were mainly Caranglan and Pantabangan. Igorots brought eagle-stones (piedras de águila), which are hollow limonite concretions believed to possess powers, for salt from Pampanga’s salt-making centers and livestock.

To the east, routes extended into the Cagayan Valley (Ituy: Aritao and Dupax; Bagabag, Bayombong), where Igorots traded gold, copperware, and slaves (from interior tribes like Tinok) for livestock which were usually for feasts and rituals, blankets, and G-strings.

Colonial Frontiers & Resistance

Evidently, the Igorot were quite clever as they did not just resist the Spanish colonial expansion but they also selectively cooperated, especially in the border areas where the mission towns (Aritao, Dupax, Bagabag, Bayombong, Tuao) and the disputed places such as Ajanas and the villages lying between the Igorot and Ilongot had influence.

The missions under the Dominican administration: Aritao, Dupax, Bagabag, Bayombong, and Tuao (in Cagayan) - were Spain’s military outposts that existed on the border of the Igorot territory. Antolin, who was first at Buhay near Aritao and later at Dupax, noted that the purpose of building these missions was to be close to the Igorot trails thereby making the conversion and control easier. However, the Igorots still refused to be fully assimilated. They descended for trade but turned down religious instruction and quite often the missionaries were informed: “You ought not to talk to them about prayers or Baptism in the first years as they say that their heads are still too hard for learning…” They only interacted on their own terms: “They only request free trade of blankets, G-strings, and animals for their gold, and with this they alone keep themselves quite happy in their mountains.”

Ajanas (the pre-colonial Igorot stronghold that became the site of the Spanish fort at Aritao) was the symbol of the disputed nature of the frontier. The Spanish, after being raided several times by Igorots who had burnt churches and taken livestock, decided to set up a permanent garrison in 1746. Later, a second fortress was constructed in Bagabag (1752) with the sole aim of opposing the unconquered Igorots of Kiangan who “have remained unconquered because they are many and in fertile land, causing frightful injury and deaths among the Christians.”

Igorots, however, still kept their advantage of knowledge of the area and through secrecy. Antolin writes that they went as far as hiding the trails, killing the informers, and refusing permission to the missionaries unless a guard accompanied them. At the time Father Cristóbal Rodríguez tried a non-violent way through in 1755, the Awa Igorots prevented his passage and declared: "Their god did not want them to pass because they would all die if they allowed them to pass."

The Igorots were controlling information in a very systematic way. Only the most trusted men - not women, youngsters, and slaves - were allowed to go down to the missions. When they were questioned about mines or settlements, they "pretend to be dumb or inarticulate" and gave "all lies or inconsequential" answers. Antolin confesses: "I have never dealt with people who were more frauds, wiles, deceits, self-interest, and illogic." This was not simply cleverness but an organized resistance: they murdered one of their own for revealing a trail, and moved entire villages when roads were opened.

While the Igorots were fighting against political and religious oppression, they were still very much engaged in commerce. They exchanged gold for livestock, clothes, and metal tools in mission towns, but on the other hand, they refused to pay tribute, avoided resettlement, and kept their own governance. Even in times of peace, for instance, the 'surprising' peaceful visit of 90 Kiangan Igorots to Bagabag, they only came to exchange rice and mongos for animals, not to convert.

Their economy was independent from the outside world: gold was used to pay for feasts and social prestige, not for colonial integration. As Antolin admits, they “have no one to order them to row, to act as porters, or to cut wood; they work and drink as they please.”

Villages situated at the Igorot–Ilongot border (such as Dangatan, Panipuyes) were the volatile buffer zones that, for example, in 1773, the Ilongots raided the Igorot village of Dangatan during a drunken feast, killed the people and took heads. These fights among tribes only added to the problem of the Spanish trying to calm down the area, as both groups did not cooperate with the colonizers' forces.

Conclusion

Fray Francisco Antolin’s 1789 account of the Igorots was never meant to celebrate the indigenous lives of the Igorots. As a Spanish missionary, he only saw the Igorots as “pagans” who needed conversion, and he often described them with frustration and condescension. Yet despite all his bias, he unintentionally preserved something more powerful, that is, the ability of the Igorots to resist the forceful missions of the Spaniards.

This paper has argued that Antolin’s work functions more like that of a proto-map than simply ethnography. His work is rather fragmented but still very much a usable spatial record that shows how the Igorots lived and controlled their lives through selective trade, geographic and cultural secrecy, and autonomy. They cannot be dismissed, then, as isolated or “primitive.” Evidently, they ran sophisticated economy based on gold, salt, and ritual goods; and engaged with lowland markets on their own terms. They maintained social order with clear leadership and social roles. They also protected landscapes especially Mount Pulog, not just as where they believed to have descended from, but also as a hydrological and spiritual center.

Most importantly, they defended knowledge like it is a physical territory. They sent only trusted men to trade, gave misleading information, and even killed one of their own for revealing a trail. It appears that to them, their security, identity, and survival, heavily depended on geography.

Today, this colonial document can be repurposed. Antolin’s work contains, arguably significant historical points. Modern tools like GIS, 3D terrain modeling, or digital archives, can be used to reconstruct how the Igorots moved, traded, and lived.

In doing so, we can recover an indigenous spatial record that was overlooked but was never lost. Antolin thought he was documenting the Igorots to be pacified. Instead, he left behind a fuel yet to be ignited.

We, BSIT-2B of Benguet State University, in the academic year 2025-2026, therefore, attempt to recreate Antolin’s documentation of the Igorots through GIS mapping.