Living by the Day: A Study of the Badjaos in Tawi-Tawi, Southwest Philippines

Abstract

Abstract

This study examines the impacts of sedentarization processes to the Badjaos in Tawi-Tawi, southwest of the Philippines. The study focuses on the means of sedentarizing the Badjaos, which are; the housing program and conditional cash transfer fund system. This study looks into the conditionalities, perceptions and experiences of the Badjaos who are beneficiaries of the mentioned programs. To realize this objective, this study draws on six qualitative interviews matching with participant-observation in three different localities in Tawi-Tawi. Furthermore, as a conceptual tool of analysis, the study uses sedentarization, social change, human development and ethnic identity.

The study findings reveal the variety of outcomes and perceptions of each program among the informants. The housing project has made little impact to the welfare of the natives of the region. Furthermore, the housing project failed to provide security and consideration of cultural needs of the supposedly beneficiaries; Badjaos. On the other hand, cash transfer fund, though mired by irregularities, to some extent, helped in the subsistence of the Badjaos. Furthermore, contentment, as an antithesis to poverty, was being highlighted in the process of sedentarization as an expression of ethnic identity.

Analytically, this study brings substantiation on the impacts of assimilation policies to indigenous groups, such as the Badjaos. Furthermore, this study serves as a springboard for the upcoming researchers in the noticeably lack of literature in the study of social change brought by sedentarization and development policies to ethnic groups in the Philippines.

Key words: sedentarization, nomadism, Badjao, social change, development, housing program, cash transfer, ethnic identity.