Recent Change and Compromise

The leaders of Buguias Paganism by no means espouse an orthodoxy. As elsewhere in the Cordillera, they not uncommonly borrow new observances from neighboring peoples and they often accept innovations in practice. Most elders do argue, however, that change should be gradual and that honoring the ancestors should remain central.

Paganism's postwar history reflects the period's economic and social transformations. A simplified prestige feast ladder now allows young couples to establish themselves more easily. Before the war, a distinct ceremony occurred before the birth of the first child;

this has now been melded with the first pedit. In earlier days, only local sacrificial hogs would do; now, lowland and "mestizo" swine are acceptable, provided they are black. Children now return to school after the first few days of their families' celebrations, whereas before they were kept home for the full duration. The Pagan funeral is also being transformed as the death chair gradually loses favor. Many Pagans now choose to be displayed in an open coffin.

Most Buguias Pagans have also changed their views on the diagnosis and treatment of disease. For a number of years a dual theory has prevailed, holding that illness may result either from natural pathogens (requiring Western medicine) or supernatural agents (calling for ritual and prayers). As late as the 1960s, most Pagans opted first for the spiritual remedy. By the 1980s, however, most had reversed the procedure, consulting the medium only if not cured first by medicine. The Pagan religious leaders see little significance here, since curing-rituals have long occupied a peripheral place in their larger ideological scheme.

A few influential Pagans now seek to establish a deeper understanding with local Christians, particularly Catholics. One Pagan elder moderates the disputes between the two groups, and he counts among his advisees several Christian leaders. He has proposed a compromise through which Pagans would more fully respect Christians while Christians would compensate by holding their own feasts (whether as secular "blow-outs" or to consecrate their own religious occasions). Conciliatory Pagans also ask their Catholic neighbors to honor Buguias's ancestors on All Soul's Day. Indeed, many Pagans acknowledge the efficacy of Christian prayer, especially as demonstrated in the "EDSA Revolution" that overthrew Marcos in February 1986.

The Catholic community, not surprisingly, is divided over the issue of socioreligious compromise. While many Catholics have recently increased their own outlays for feasts, others argue that this would only sustain an unjust economic order and penalize those who cannot afford both schooling and ceremonies.

Catholics face a greater challenge, however, from a new group of charismatic Protestant sects that are aggressively proselytizing in the Cordillera. Foremost in the Buguias region is the "Jesus Is Alive" (JIA) organization, sometimes disparagingly called tumba

tumba , or "falling falling," in reference to its ecstatic prayers. Although much more successful in the eastern frontier zone, JIA missionaries have converted a few Buguias Catholics, a trend worrisome to church leaders. According to one concerned man, the young are more attracted to "jolly religions," like JIA, than to the more contemplative traditional Christian churches.