HRAF Global Scholar: Karminn C.D. Daytec Yañgot
Title: Teaching Fellow in Anthropology
University Affiliation: University of the Philippines Baguio
Research Topic: Indigenous peoples in the Philippines

Karminn C.D. Daytec Yañgot is a Teaching Fellow in Anthropology at the University of the Philippines Baguio, where she is concurrently earning her Ph.D. in Indigenous Studies. Her
research and development work focuses on indigenous peoples and claims-making in the Philippines, as well as political constructions and (re)presentations of indigeneity. She is also
interested in human rights issues and transitional justice, collective flourishing, and storytelling as a research method.

Karminn has worked for and with government and non-government bodies for the past decade.
During that time, she was exposed to issues confronting minorities, which shaped her position in academia and advocacy. Her backgrounds in anthropology and development studies fuel her
interest in the anthropology of law. She sees law as a form of power that may be wielded by
indigenous peoples in the furtherance of their self-determination. An Igorot herself, she is
curious about how, as a collective resource, native title is deployed by indigenous peoples to
advance their rights and claims.

Karminn is using the eHRAF World Cultures database for her dissertation on native title in the
Philippines. Native title presents a peculiarity for indigenous peoples in the Philippines because of
the legislation and codification of indigeneity. Collective land tenure systems are imposed by law
where there are none, as well as places land tenure systems already existed. In turn,
Indigenous peoples (re)configure(d) their lifeways for in order for their land rights to be recognized. This
reciprocal relationship between law and culture, and how it has changed over time and space,
opens an avenue for anthropological research.

Through her eHRAF research, Karminn would like to see the legal trends or patterns in land dispossession and reclamation in different Indigenous communities all over the world. She would like to develop a precedent for examining the same in the Philippines through an anthropological lens.
Like many other imported concepts to the legal system, native title could be understood better
if placed within both domestic and international contexts under which it emerged. To this end,
Karminn believes that the HRAF Global Scholars Program offers a space for co-learning and
growth minus the burden of travel costs to access various repositories of knowledge.

HRAF is honored to feature Karminn C.D. Daytec Yañgot as one of our HRAF Global Scholars for 2024. We wish her continued success with her research.

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