Kankanaey people

The Kankanaey people are an Indigenous peoples of the Northern Philippines. They are part of the collective group of indigenous people known as the Igorot people.

The Kankanaey live in western Mountain Province, northern Benguet and southeastern Ilocos Sur. They speak Kankanaey and Ilocano. The Kankanaey of western Mountain Province from the municipalities of Sagada and Besao, Mountain Province identify themselves as part of a tribe called Applai or Aplai.

Recent DNA studies show that the Kankanaey along with the Atayal people of Taiwan, were most probably among the original ancestors of the Lapita people and modern Polynesians. They might even reflect a better genetic match to the original Austronesian mariners than the aboriginal Taiwanese, as the latter were influenced by more recent migrations to Taiwan, whereas the Kankanaey are thought to have remained an isolated relict population.

Like most Igorot ethnic groups, the Kankanaey built sloping terraces to maximize farm space in the rugged terrain of the Cordillera Administrative Region Cordillera.

Two famous institutions of the Kankanaey of Mountain Province are the dap-ay, the men's dormitory and civic center, and the ebgan, the girls' dormitory where courtship between young men and women took place. The Bontoc Igorot in Sagada and some nearby pueblos, as Takong and Agawa, the o′-lâg is said to be called Ĭf-gan′.

The Kankanaey differ in the way they dress. The women soft-speaking Kankanaey's dress has a color combination of black, white and red. The design of the upper attire is a criss-crossed style of black, white and red colors. The skirt or tapis is a combination of stripes of black, white and red.

The women hard-speaking Kankanaey's dress is composed of mainly red and black with a little white styles, as for the skirt or tapis which is mostly called bakget and gateng. The men wore a G-string as it is called but it is mainly known as wanes for the Kanakaneys of Besao and Sagada. The design of the wanes may vary according to social status or municipality.

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Wikipedia