What is "chiva" you might ask. Jimmy B. Fong, the book's editor, writes in his Preface that "chiva is an Ibaloy term referring to all sorts of storytelling and sharing of narratives such as stories, genealogies, traditions, and legends". It's an appropriate title for this collection of articles/essays about the Ibaloys.
What I loved about some of the pieces in this book is how they described and made sense of how Ibaloys navigated the waves of colonization and other outside forces that tried to mangle or take away their cultural identity.
The articles in this book cover just a small portion of Ibaloy culture and history. Just the tip of the iceberg. But it's a good place to start for anyone in want of studying the Ibaloys. It's a book that will get your foot through the door.
Most of the articles end with notes and references which you can use/follow for further study and investigation.
If you want a copy of the book, you can check out the Shopee/Lazada shops of the Cordillera Studies Center. You can also get a copy at the Museo Kordilyera at the University of the Philippines Baguio. I'm not sure if they have copies at the Mt. Cloud Bookshop but it's worth checking out with them.
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| The book cover for Chiva: A Reader on Ibaloy History and Culture. |
