page_title: Anito
section_title: Taotao figures
hierarchical_section_title: Anito / Religious objects and places / Taotao figures
caption_attribution_description: English: Balaua, the largest spirit house for anito among the Itneg people (1922, Philippines)
context_page_description: Anito, also spelled anitu, refers to ancestor spirits, nature spirits, and deities in the indigenous animistic religions of precolonial Philippines. It can also refer to carved humanoid figures, the taotao, made of wood, stone, or ivory, that represent these spirits. Anito is also sometimes known as diwata in certain ethnic groups.
  Pag-anito refers to a séance, often accompanied by other rituals or celebrations, in which a shaman acts as a medium to communicate directly with the spirits. When a nature spirit or deity is specifically involved, the ritual is called pagdiwata. The act of worship or a religious sacrifice to a spirit is also sometimes simply referred to as anito.
  The belief in anito are sometimes referred to as Anitism in scholarly literature.
context_section_description: Ancestor spirits were usually represented by carved figures. These were known as taotao ("little human", also taotaohan, latawo, tinatao, or  tatao), bata-bata ("little child"), ladaw ("image" or "likeness"; also laraw, ladawang, lagdong, or larawan), or likha ("creation"; also likhak) in most of the Philippines. Other names include bulul (also bulol or bul-ul) or tinagtaggu (also tinattaggu) among the Igorot; manaug among the Lumad; and tagno among Bicolanos.  Among Tagalogs, taotao were also sometimes referred to as lambana ("altar" or "sacred place"), after the location in which they are usually kept.
  Taotao were usually austere roughly-carved figures made from wood, stone, or ivory. Some taoatao encountered by the Spanish were made from precious metals or ornamented with gold and jewelry, but these were very rare. Taotao were almost always depicted in the squatting position with the arms crossed over the knees, which is reminiscent of the fetal position, the everyday conversing posture, and the position bodies are arranged during death among Ancient Filipinos. Some figures, however, are depicted standing or doing everyday activities like dancing, pounding rice, or nursing infants.
  Most taotao represent an actual deceased person, usually carved by the community upon their funeral. As such, there can be hundreds of taotao in a single village, some of them centuries old. 
  In very rare cases, diwata can be depicted as taotao in anthropomorphic form, as chimeras or legendary creatures, or as animals. These include a special class of figures called hipag among the Igorot which depict war deities, as well as kinabigat (carved houseposts) and hogang (carved tree fern posts used as boundary markers and as wards against harm). As a rule, however, diwata are not usually depicted as taotao or by any man-made representations.
  Taotao were not intrinsically sacred. They were representations of the spirits, not the actual spirits themselves. They only became sacred during their use in a pag-anito ritual. Without the spirit they represent, they are treated as mundane carved pieces of wood or sculpted stone. The anonymous author of the 1572 Relación de la conquista de la isla de Luzón describes pag-anito rituals of the Tagalog people as such:
  When any chief is ill, he invites his kindred and orders a great meal to be prepared, consisting of fish, meat, and wine. When the guests are all assembled and the feast set forth in a few plates on the ground inside the house, they seat themselves also on the ground to eat. In the midst of the feast (called manganito or baylán in their tongue), they put the idol called Batala and certain aged women who are considered as priestesses, and some aged Indians—neither more nor less. They offer the idol some of the food which they are eating, and call upon him in their tongue, praying to him for the health of the sick man for whom the feast is held. The natives of these islands have no altars nor temples whatsoever. This manganito, or drunken revel, to give it a better name, usually lasts seven or eight days; and when it is finished they take the idols and put them in the corners of the house, and keep them there without showing them any reverence.
  Regardless, very old taotao handed down through generations are prized as family heirlooms. Among the Igorot, pieces of taotao may also be chipped off and boiled into a medicinal tea.
  Taotao were commonly kept in corners or small shelves inside houses or granaries. Spanish missionaries recorded that taotao were present in every Filipino household, no matter how poor.
  When Spanish missionaries arrived in the Philippines, the word "anito" came to be associated with these physical representations of spirits that featured prominently in pag-anito rituals. During the American rule of the Philippines (1898–1946), the meaning of the Spanish word idolo ("a thing worshiped") was further conflated with the English word "idol". Thus in the modern Filipino language, anito has come to refer almost exclusively to the carved taotao figures, instead of the actual spirits th
caption: A balaua, a large spirit house used for community rituals to anito among the Itneg people (1922)[17]
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.8.14", "Image DateTime": "2018:05:22 10:18:10", "Image ExifOffset": "2218", "Image Padding": "[]", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0210", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF Padding": "[]"}