A Pilot Site Approach for Built Heritage Diagnosis: The Preservation and Conservation of Egongot Ethnic Minority

John Cedierick P Abarca,John Dence S Suizo,Ar Jocelyn A Rivera-Lutap,Raydett Kelly C Ronquillo

doi:10.13189/cea.2022.100209

Abstract

In the Philippines, some ethnic minority-built heritages are frequently misunderstood, and most are not given adequate attention in assessing their cultural significance. Consequently, people often lack adequate knowledge in the proper conservation and preservation of remaining cultural treasures. This may further result in the degradation, if not the oblivion, of key Filipino cultural values. It is with the use of the Pilot site procedure that we approached the architectural practice of Heritage conservation as we diagnosed the traditional dwellings of Egongot people of Aurora province in giving light to their traditional architecture as a vital built heritage in the country. The pilot site approach made use of historical documentation and surveys as well as present architectural condition assessment through observation. The first phase of the pilot site is the historic data collection which provided the traditional construction process and the use of vernacular materials. The second phase which is the architectural assessment provided observational information of its current state after the intervention of conservation treatment. The last phase of the pilot site approach which is the diagnosis of conservation treatment, is the consequent analysis of both past and present. These two factors are utilized to formulate a comparative analysis of ‘how it used to be' and ‘how its current state is'. The results showed various manipulations of construction methods and integration of modern building materials that threaten both the identity and structural integrity of the built heritage. As a result, appropriate preservation and maintenance guidelines are formulated to better appreciate the heritage architecture's historic and cultural value.

Highlights

The ethnic tribes of the Cordillera Region of Luzon who were referred to as “savages,” “treacherous murderers,” and “cannibals” because of their horrifying tradition of headhunting is commonly associated with the Igorot people
This ethnic group is composed of many other ethnic minorities which traditionally practice taking human heads, neither the Igorot people nor other ethnic groups in the Cordillera mountains are as wild as the people who emerged from the Sierra Madre range with the Caraballo Sur
Researches have consistently shown how the Indigenous People worked with the environment and have adapted to nature

Summary

Introduction

The ethnic tribes of the Cordillera Region of Luzon who were referred to as “savages,” “treacherous murderers,” and “cannibals” because of their horrifying tradition of headhunting is commonly associated with the Igorot people This ethnic group is composed of many other ethnic minorities which traditionally practice taking human heads, neither the Igorot people nor other ethnic groups in the Cordillera mountains are as wild as the people who emerged from the Sierra Madre range with the Caraballo Sur. this ethnic group is composed of many other ethnic minorities which traditionally practice taking human heads, neither the Igorot people nor other ethnic groups in the Cordillera mountains are as wild as the people who emerged from the Sierra Madre range with the Caraballo Sur These groups of indigenous people are wild and inhabitants of forests from which people living adjacent to them on the north, west, and south have referred to them as "Italon," "Ibilao,"

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