Abstract

This paper examines two knowledge systems found in Sitio Lamut of La Trinidad, Benguet. One is the knowledge system held by the Kankana-ey mambunong (village priest-elders) and the other is that which is found in formal schooling. In “Anthropology of Knowledge,” Barth (2002) critiqued the academic prototype of “knowledge” that is detached from its context, history, and knowers. He wrote that the task is to examine how knowledge is configured, variously reproduced and changed. This study responds to that challenge by examining the nature and context of changes in the two knowledge systems in terms of the dimensions proposed by Barth — content, mediation and social relations. The study traces the establishment of the local public school, which was facilitated by the elders and the first professional teacher, Mrs. Beatriz Baguio. It also looks into the changes in the public school brought about by the K-12 Curriculum. The study finds that in the mambunong knowledge system, transmission is mediated by apprenticeship between the senior mambunong (led by Mr. Tolentino Wacnisen and later by Mr. Ludo Apolonio) and a group of novices (sumarsaruno). Storage and retrieval of knowledge has been facilitated by the introduction of literacy and recently, the cellphone. Socio-economic factors like the shift from vegetable to flower farming has also brought about modifications in the system. The author finds that though the schooling and the mambunong system diverge in many ways, they are parallel and complementary in the ways in which they provide meaning, health and wellness, and prestige to their knowers. Both systems are strongly mediated by unseen powers and teachers who are considered the most knowledgeable. The knowers of Lamut do not strictly adhere to a single knowledge system but freely “change lanes,” depending on perceived cost and benefits and possible compromises afforded by a given system.