The People That Dwell on the Heights: The Pantaron Highlands of Southern Mindanao from the Nineteenth to the Early Twentieth Centuries

This study reconstructs life in the southern Mindanao highlands from the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century from historical accounts and contemporary ethnographic observations. It explores the evolving relationships among highland groups, referred to as “atas,” “ata-as,” or “ataas,” and other communities in the region. Such terms, later recognized officially as “Ata,” were used by non-highlanders to denote highland communities based on their geographical location, while they self-identified according to upland river configurations.