Abstract:
Tayaw Shi Ke 'dot is a sacred lbaloy ritual that summons ancestral spirits through prayer,
dance, and animal offering. This study examines the cultural and symbolic significance of pig
offerings in Ibaloy ritual practice in Loakan, Baguio, situating the ritual within ongoing processes
of cultural continuity amid modernization.
The study employs ethnographic methods, including participant observation and semi-structured
interviews with elders and ritual specialists (mambunong), to analyze how pig offerings
are performed, interpreted, and transmitted across generations.
Findings indicate that pig offerings function as central ritual mediators that reinforce lbaloy
identity, ancestral reciprocity, and communal cohesion. The offering facilitates socialization and
the intergenerational transmission of ritual knowledge. Ritual efficacy is signaled through the pig's
vocalization, while the animal's accessibility enables broad community participation. Gendered
roles in caring for, sacrificing, and distributing the pig reflect and reproduce culturally defined
social order. Beyond their material value, pigs operate as symbolic vessels linking the living, the
ancestors, and Kabunian.
This study contributes to symbolic anthropology and Indigenous ritual studies by
demonstrating how animal offerings operate as multivocal symbols that sustain cultural continuity,
social relations, and cosmological balance within an Indigenous community navigating modern
change.
