material and non-material things important to them

• Bagobos were known because of their traditions in terms of weaponry and other metal arts. They are also noted for their skill in producing brass articles through the ancient lost-wax process and they also weave abacca cloths of earth tones and make baskets that are trimmed with beads, fibers and horse's hair.
• They also have dances which make them unique from others.
  · Spanish missionaries and early ethnographers who studied them tended to identify the Bagobos as one group because they had common articles of material culture, such as dress and ornaments, tools, blades, and musical instruments.
  · The Bagobos believe in a supreme being who inhabits the sky world, as well as a deity who brings sickness and death to incestuous couples.
  · The Bagobo are among the most highly ornamented indigenous peoples, however, the Bagobo ornaments tend to exaggerate slightly.
  · The men are smiths and casters of copper and brass, crafting small metal bells to decorate their clothing, weapons, bracelets, and betel boxes.
  · Bagobo women are skilled weavers of reed baskets and hemp cloth. They also sew, embroider, appliqué and bead all the clothing of the family, and a few of them specialize in tie-dying the kerchiefs of warriors. Craftsmanship is important to them.
  · The "Divine man at the source of the waters" epitomizes goodness and purity as an artist, healer, lover and warrior. His gongs and antique jars signify his wealth, as do his fields of hemp and coconut groves. He possesses beads and gold necklaces, hair ornaments of dyed goat's hair and bird's down, finger-rings and leg bands of twisted wire hung with bells. His ear plugs of pure ivory gleam "like two big moons".
  · The Bagobo epic singer understood that an artist must be poised in quiet concentration, deriving inspiration from the colors of the Kawangkawang sky. Having set aside his finished leg lets, Tuwaang incises a ring, and then molds a kamahi chain or neckpiece, consisting of W-shaped pieces held together by a cord or string. The lozenge designs on the leg lets are like the eyes of the omen bird; their colors are like flowers of lightning, "buds of the stars." The neckpiece is like a singing housefly with colored wings. Bagobo myths also portray heroes as artists. Tuglay, who lived by a white lake, made kamahi necklaces from thin discs of gold, stamped and made brass finger rings.

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