Sacrifice and Sharing in the Philippine Highlands: Religion and Society Among the Buid of Mindoro

This book is about the relationship between the Buid value system and their history of resistance to the lowland world. The Buid of Mindoro value the equality, autonomy and solidarity of all humans, male or female, young or old. The Buid also maintain social relationships with many different kinds of spirits through the practice of animal sacrifice and spirit mediumship. These relationships range from hostility toward the predatory spirits, who regard humans as their and prey, to profound intimacy with the spirits of the earth, who ensure the fertility, health and well-being of the human community. With the passage of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997, peoples like the Buid must provide Free and Prior Informed Consent to any exploration, development, exploitation or utilization of the natural resources found within their ancestral domains. Activists and civil servants who support these rights need to understand the social and religious processes by which the consensus of the whole community is achieved in egalitarian societies like that of the Buid. This edition of the book contains an extensive new introduction that reviews the social, economic and political history of the indigenous peoples of Mindoro from the time when the first edition was published in 1986 through 2014.

Originally published in 1996. Revised edition 2015.