In an opinion piece, Stephen B. Acabado examines how 'traditional' weddings in the Philippines' Cordillera region often incorporate Indigenous practices without proper context or community involvement. The article draws parallels to colonial-era cultural displays and advocates for accountability to communities over mere superficial authenticity.
In 1904, at the St. Louis World’s Fair, Indigenous Filipinos, including those from the Cordillera, were displayed in staged weddings, rituals, and daily life activities scheduled by organizers, detached from the social relationships that provided their original meaning. This presentation served to justify United States colonial rule in the Philippines, framed as 'benevolent assimilation' to guide the 'little brown brothers' toward civilization.
Today, in the Cordillera region, Indigenous practices are increasingly incorporated into 'traditional' weddings as packaged services. Elements from various groups are combined to appear culturally appropriate, but decisions are often made by wedding coordinators, markets, and consumers without community input. For instance, in Ifugao communities, marriage is a process of family negotiations involving the butchering of pigs to mark social ties and rice fields to reshape labor and inheritance.
However, when relocated to wedding contexts, these rituals become performances for photographs and social media, losing their original social obligations. Stephen B. Acabado, a professor of anthropology at the University of California-Los Angeles who directs the Ifugao and Bicol Archaeological Projects, notes that this shift stems from tourism and social media influences but has roots in past forms of cultural display.
There are calls for cultural sensitivity training for wedding coordinators to go beyond surface-level rules, including recognizing limits and obtaining community consent. The goal is not authenticity for presentation but accountability to communities and history, to prevent culture from being treated as a commodity.