Nomads of the 21st century

Survival and food system among the Ati people of the Philippines

Abstract

This paper describes the selected food-getting strategies by one of the marginal indigenous groups in the Philippines, the Ati people in Guimaras province. As a nomadic group in transition, it is of interest to identify their traditional way of collecting food in order to find ways how to offer meaningful intervention to them as people rightful to their own cultural identity. By assessing the viability of their basic support mechanisms to their food-getting activity, it becomes apparent the importance of land, access to rivers and streams, along the necessary legal recognitions and provisions to their lifeways.