Abstract

This phenomenological study attempts to describe and understand the many roles of Inayan in the lived experiences and indigenous beliefs and practices of the Kankanaeys. The mode of the study is field research through personal interviews with some elders of the Kankanaey community. The interviews reveal a wealth of indigenous epistemologies, rhetoric, aesthetic criteria, and sensibilities. The overarching aim of this paper is to reclaim the authentic episteme of Inayan as understood in the Cordilleran tradition.