Answer:
For many in the the lowlands, the mountain people are generically referred to as "igorot," from 'y-golot,' meaning 'from the mountains.' A pejorative term from the colonized past, 'igorot' has become accepted as a collective catchword that groups together the Cordillera cultures: Bontok, Gaddang, Ibaloy, Ifugao, Ilongot, Isneg, Kalinga, Kankana-ey, Ikalahan, I'wak and Tinguian. Although separate cultures, some groups share deities and rituals, with overlaps and intermingling at their cultural fringes.
Of the colonizers, the Americans were better accepted than the Spaniards, gaining deeper inroads and effecting greater influences and more lasting changes, particularly in education. Although their healing beliefs are steeped in rituals and deities, in general, the tribes access western medicine earlier than the Tagalog and Visayan cultures. English as a second language has survived the assault by nationalistic fervor. The healers, collectively referred to by the acculturated as "shamans" are distinct by culture and rituals. Although modernization, Christianity and education have gained inroads and effected changes in Cordillera traditions and cultures, a system of religious beliefs and rituals with a profusion of deities and spirits, continue to affect many facets of their day-to-day lives. Unlike the lowlands, medicinal herbs do not figure heavily in ther healing modalities. In contrast, rituals and the use of sacrificial animals are dominant in the culture of their healing and beliefs.
