KAIL (SECOND BURIAL) AND ITS BONE-CLEANING PRACTICE

Abstract

Benguet, located in the Northern Philippines, has five ethnolinguistic groups: Ibaloy, Iowak, Karao, Kankana-ey, and Kalanguya. They are among the many ethnolinguistic groups in the country able to maintain a majority of their traditions/rituals. Two of these rituals maintained are kail (second burial) and the bone-cleaning practice that immediately follows. Kail is the Ibaloy, Iowak, and Karao term but the other ethnolinguistic groups use other lexicons. These are performed when an ancestor needs clothing, blanket, or other material things for the afterlife. In some instances, kail is performed when the ancestor communicates through dreams the dissatisfaction with the current burial location/condition. The relatives who interpret these dreams perform the rituals (exhumation of the deceased, bone-cleaning, and second burial). This paper utilized anthropological linguistics (language and culture) and lexicography (simple word listing) to compare the lexicons and present a simple worldview. The data are synchronic since they are collected from four specific Benguet communities (2014 to 2017). Ten community elders were interviewed. The researcher was a participant observer who attended the actual rituals and strictly followed ethical standards of interview, observation, and documentation. For easy comparison, the other lexicons used to describe the kail are listed and defined for each ethnolinguistic group.