The Wild Tribes of Davao District, Mindanao: The R. F. Cummings Philippine ExpeditionCole, Fay-Cooper
History
The Wild Tribes of Davao District, Mindanao: The R. F. Cummings Philippine Expedition
Cole, Fay-Cooper
Ethnology -- Philippines -- Mindanao Island
From these figures it appears that there is considerable variation
between individuals, but a closer study of the charts shows that the
majority of those measured come closer to the averages than do the
members of any other group here mentioned (Plates LXIV-LXIX).
Both sexes wear the hair long and comb it to a knot at the back of the
head. The women generally bang the hair over the forehead, while the men
allow a lock to fall in front of each ear. The hair is brown-black and
generally slightly wavy, although four individuals with straight hair
were seen.
The forehead is high, and in about half the persons observed somewhat
retreating; however, full, vaulted foreheads are by no means uncommon.
The distance from the vertex to the tragus is uniformly great.
The cheek bones are quite prominent, while the whole face tapers from
above so as to be somewhat angular. In twenty per cent of the men the
root of the nose seemed to be continuous with the supra-orbital ridge,
which, in such cases, was strongly marked. In general the root of the
nose is broad, low, and depressed, and there is a tendency for the ridge
to be somewhat concave. The lips are thick and bowed, but there is
little or no prognathism.
The skin of the body is not tattooed or mutilated in any other way, but
the eyebrows are often shaved to a thin line, and the teeth are filed
and blackened. Filing was formerly done with small stones but imported
files are now used for this purpose. The coloring is effected by chewing
the roots of the _anmon_ vine and applying to the teeth the "sweat"
caught on a steel blade, held above burning bark of the _magawan_ tree.
This practice seems to have no significance other than that of
beautifying the person and saving the youth from the ridicule of his
fellows. To keep the teeth black, tobacco treated with lemon juice which
has stood on rusty iron is chewed frequently.
Despite constant statements to the effect that the members of this tribe
are light-colored and the assertion of one writer[99] that at least one
division is white, observations made with the V. Luschan color table on
more than fifty individuals showed that while certain persons are
somewhat lighter than their fellows, as was also the case in other
tribes, there is not an appreciable difference in color between this
tribe and the others of the Gulf region.
[99] LANDOR, The Gems of the East. It should be noted that the district
from which the white tribe was reported is now fairly well known and
there seems to be no reason to believe that the people residing there
differ materially in color from the other natives of the island.
CLOTHING.
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