Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
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Pantheons

Igorot

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Kabunian, the supreme sky deity, and the anito, ancestral and nature spirits, of the Igorot peoples of the Cordillera mountains of northern Luzon in the Philippines, among them the Ifugao, Bontoc, Kankanaey and Ibaloi. Practice centres on the mumbaki, ritual priests who mediate offerings and chants at planting, harvest and funerary rites tied to the region's terraced rice agriculture. Christianity, and in some communities Islam, have spread widely, but indigenous ritual continues alongside them in many highland villages.

Facts
Structure
Structure of the Pantheon
A supreme creator above a working order of intermediary powers 1
Divine Headship
A supreme creator who withdrew from active rule and receives little direct cult 1
Succession Between Divine Generations
One divine generation; no succession between generations is recorded 1
The Creator and the Ruling Gods
The creator withdrew after making the world and is seldom addressed in cult 1
Attestation
Era of Attestation
Held from the beginning in the traditions' own terms; documented in the outside record from the Spanish colonial period 1
Veneration Today
Actively venerated in a living tradition 1
Cult
Principal Cult Centre
No single centre. Observance is held at the household and the village, at the canao feasts 1
Organisation
Membership of the Pantheon
Every place, clan and lineage adds its own 1
How Mortals Enter the Pantheon
Ancestors and founders become objects of cult 1
Sources
Primary Source
Oral tradition recited by mambunong and other ritual specialists, with published ethnography 1
Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Luzon, Regions
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Philippines, Countries

This source names Philippines directly: "mountains of northern Luzon in the Philippines, among them the Ifugao, Bontoc, Kankanaey and Ibaloi."

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Sources
1. Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005View the Source
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