PANAWAGAN PARA SA MGA PROPOSAL
CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Katawhan, Kaugnayan, Kailian:
AGHAMTAO NG MGA UGNAYANAN
ANTHROPOLOGY OF RELATIONALITIES
48th UGAT Annual International Conference
November 18-21, 2026
Mindanao State University - Iligan Institute of Technology
Iligan City, Lanao del Norte, Philippines
Tumatanggap na ang UGAT (Ugnayang Pang-AghamTao/The Anthropological Association of the Philippines) ng mga proposal para sa ika-48 nitong taunang kumperensiyang internasyonal. Ang tema ng kumperensya ay Katawhan, Kaugnayan, Kailian: Aghamtao ng mga Ugnayan. Gaganapin ang kumperensya sa Nobyembre 18-21, 2026 sa Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT) sa Iligan City. Ang MSU-IIT ang katuwang ng UGAT para sa kumperensiya ngayong taóng ito. Magsasara ang pagtanggap ng mga proposal sa Hunyo 26, 2026.
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Inaasahang maisusulong ng tema ang pagpapalalim sa mga pang-araw-araw na mga ugnayan sa iba’t ibang antas ng pagbubuo ng mga komunidad at mga gawaing nagsusulong ng katarungang panlipunan. Binibigyang-diin ng kumperensiya ang katangi-tanging karakter ng unlaping 'ka-' at ng mga varyant nito sa maraming wika ng Pilipinas na pinag-uugatan ng iba’t ibang kontexto ng pakikiisa at pakikisangkot sa mga paraang hindi napapansin sa araw-araw na búhay at madalas ay hindi nabibigyan ng kaukulang pansin sa iskolarship, dahil na rin sa pagiging pang-araw-araw ng pagsasabúhay ng 'ka-'.
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Ka-, unlapi ng maraming wika sa Pilipinas at wikang Austronesiano.
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Ka-, unlaping nag-uugnay, nagdurugtong, nagbibigay-diin.
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Ka-, unlaping nagbubuo ng mga salita, kaisipan, praktis, panahon, daloy, patutunguhan, saklaw, sipat.
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Ka-, unlaping idinidikit sa ugat ng mga salita na nagbibigay-saysay sa pagkabuo ng mga nagkakaisa at nagsasalungatang kahulugan at kabuluhan.
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Ka-, unlaping pinag-uugatan ng ugnayan ng tao sa lahat ng ginagalawan nitong espasyo at panahon: sarili, kapwa, pamilya, kabahayan, etnisidad, ili, paligid, bayan, kalikasan, sansinukob, kalibutan, kabilang-búhay, ibang-búhay, kamalayan.
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Ka-, unlapi ng mga ugat.
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Ang pag-aaghamtao sa 'ka-' ang tema ng ika-48 taunang kumperensya ng UGAT upang siyasatin, palalimin, at palawakin ang mga dalumat ng mga ugnayan. Halaw ang paksang ito sa sanaysay na pinamagatang “Katutubong Kaalaman at Kakayahan (KKK): Isang Ulat mula sa ‘Republika ng Kalibugan’,” na sinulat ni Propesor Ponciano Bennagen, pangulong tagapagtatag ng UGAT, na inilathala sa AghamTao noong 2015. Binanggit niya sa artikulong ito ang malawakang paggamit ng relasyonal na unlaping ‘ka-’ sa mga wika ng Pilipinas.
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Katawhan. Binisaya. Sumasaklaw sa tao (tau, taw, tawo, tawu; ‘humanidad’) at sa mga pagpapakahulugan sa pagkatao batay sa mga konseptong bernakular at katutubong kaalaman. Umiinog ang katawhan sa iba’t ibang uri ng lunan, lugar, at panahon ng pagiging tao.
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Kaugnayan. Tagalog. Tungkol sa pagpapangkat ng tao sa maraming uri ng relasyon, koneksiyon, hugpungan, network, katipunan, at kilusan na nagpapatibay ng mga pagkakaisa. Tinuturol rin nito ang mga kontradiksyon at salungatan, na mga uri rin ng ugnayan, bagamat binabalikwas ang pag-uugnay, tulad ng mga pagbubuwag at pagbabaklas.
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Kailian. Ilokano. Pagpapahayag ng tinubuang lupa o kinabibilangang pamayanan at mga itinatatag na komunidad ng mga tao. Nagsisilbi ito bilang kadluan ng kasaysayan at bukal ng identidad. Bukod sa katangiang heograpiko, ipinahihiwatig ng salitang ugat na ili ang mga komunidad ng mga interes, na nakasandig sa alinman sa etnisidad, uri, sektor, gender, at umuusbong na alyansa ng mga pakikisangkot at pakikipagtunggali.
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Sinasaklaw ng interseksyon ng katawhan, kaugnayan, at kailian ang salimbayang pag-iral ng lahat ng nasa sansinukob, tulad ng mga di-tao, di-kawangis ng tao, bukod-sa-tao, at higit-pa-sa-tao. Umiinog sa magkakakawing na pagsasabuhay nito – sa salikop ng iba’t ibang yugto ng panahon – ang mga kontemporaneong dimensyon ng mundong hinanduraw, pisikal, virtwal, lapat sa danas, at diskursibo.
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Hindi lahat ng tungkol sa katawhan, kaugnayan, at kailian ay maaaring isalin sa ibang wika. O sadyang hindi maaaring tapatan ang mga ito ng pagsasalin.
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Ang katawhan, kaugnayan, at kailian ay mga ugat ng katuturan ng pag-iral.
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Ang katawhan, kaugnayan, at kailian ay pagtatatatag ng ili, banwa, vanua, pamayanan, bayan, nayon, rehiyon, lipunan, mundong virtual, at marami pang anyo, hugis, at mga artikulasyon ng kolektibong pamumuhay at pagkakakilanlan.
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Ang katawhan, kaugnayan, at kailian ay pakikibahagi sa pagbuhay ng makatuwirang pakikipagkapwa at mga posibilidad ng pagpapakatao sa kabila ng mga inhustisya at di-maayos na mga ugnayang panlipunan.
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Hindi bago o kakaiba ang 'ka-'. Noon pa man ay ginagawa na ang antropolohiya ng 'ka-'. Malalim na ang pagkakaugat nito sa ating araw-araw na buhay. Tila napakaordinaryo na nito sa pagiging pang-araw-araw nito, kaya marahil hindi ito napapansin. Kaya layunin ng kumperensya ng UGAT na maitampok ang tila nakakubling komplexidad ng araw-araw na iral at dalumat ng 'ka-', na ugat ng maraming uri ng masasalimuot na ugnayan.
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Kabilang sa mga anyo ng ugnayan ay ang malawak na saklaw ng pagtatakwil sa mga ugnayan, mula sa pagkalas sa mga koneksiyong personal hanggang sa kumplikadong pulitikal na paghiwalay sa mga proseso ng kinaanibang lugar – kabilang ang lahat ng paghahanap ng mga tunguhin sa pagitan ng mga di-tiyak na mga pagsimula at ng nagpapatuloy na mga pagwawakas. Tinatantsa rin ng mga ugnayan ang lahat ng mga bagay na lagpas sa mga hanggahan na tumutungo sa pagbuo ng mga alternatibong ugnayan at iba pang mga posibilidad. Sa lahat ng ito ay naroroon lagi ang 'ka-', madalas ay tahimik, halos di-gagáp, subalit lagi’t laging ginagawa at hindi maipagkakailang empirikó. Sa Lanao, kung saan gaganapin ang kumperensiya, mismong mababanaag ang pagbubuo at pagbabaklas ng mga ugnayan batay sa sali-salimuot na isyu ng mga tunggalian sa kalupaan at teritoryo, rido, pagbabakwit, mga hamon ng rehabilitasyon, pagsusulong ng awtonomiya at pagbubuo ng mga alyansa.​
UGAT (Ugnayang Pang-AghamTao/The Anthropological Association of the Philippines) opens its call for proposals for its 48th Annual International Conference. The theme for this year’s conference is Katawhan, Kaugnayan, Kailian: Anthropology of Relationalities. It will be held on November 18-21, 2026 at the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology in Iligan City. MSU-IIT is UGAT’s partner for this year’s conference. The deadline for the submission of proposals is on June 26, 2026.
The theme hopes to bring to the fore explorations about social relationships in multi-scalar practices of building communities and practices of social justice. The conference underscores the distinct character of the Filipino prefix 'ka-' and its variants in Philippine languages that prefigure multiple contexts of engagements and entanglements in ways that are unobtrusive in daily life and overlooked in the scholarship, ironically because of the dailiness of doing 'ka-'.
Ka-, a prefix in various Philippine and Austronesian languages.
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Ka-, a prefix that relates, connects, emphasizes.
Ka-, a prefix that forms words, thoughts, practices, temporalities, flows, directions, scopes, and foci.
Ka-, a prefix that is attached to a root word to form a modified single word carrying unitary or contrary meanings and values.
Ka-, a prefix from which germinates human relations in various spaces and temporalities: self, others, kin, household, ethnicity, ili, surrounding, bayan, environment, universe, lifeworld, on the other side, the otherworldly, consciousness.
Ka-, prefix for roots.
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Anthropologizing 'ka-' explores, deepens, and broadens the conceptualization of relationalities. The idea is derived from an essay, titled “Katutubong Kaalaman at Kakayahan (KKK): Isang Ulat mula sa ‘Republika ng Kalibugan’,” by Professor Ponciano Bennagen, the founding president of UGAT. Published in AghamTao in 2015, the essay articulates the extensive use of the relational prefix 'ka-' in the languages of the Philippines.
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Katawhan. Binisaya. Encompasses everything about humans and what it means to be a human being based on vernacular concepts and local knowledge. The ontology of humanity is accentuated in varied spaces, places, and temporalities of being and becoming.
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Kaugnayan. Tagalog. Refers to a collective of peoples navigating relations, entanglement, connections, unions, networks, organizations, and movements that fortify coalitions. It likewise connotes contradictions and negations, which are relations as well, although about the repudiation of ties, like subversions and disruptions.
Kailian. Ilokano. Articulation of one’s place of origin, or a settlement or community in which one establishes connections. It is a repository of histories and a wellspring of identities. Other than its geographic character, the root word ili connotes communities of interests founded on ethnicity, class, sector, gender, and emerging alliances of engagements and struggles.
The intersection of katawhan, kaugnayan, and kailian traverses the simultaneous ontologies of everything that is in the universe, i.e., the nonhumans, the humans yet are unlike humans, the other-than-humans, and the more-than-humans. The entanglements that animate these worlds – in the intricacies of moments – circulate in the contemporary dimensions of imagined, physical, virtual, affective, and discursive worlds.
Not everything about katawhan, kaugnayan, and kailian can be translated into other languages. The concepts, indeed, elide translation.
Katawhan, kaugnayan, and kailian are roots of the ontologies of being and becoming.
Katawhan, kaugnayan, and kailian are acts of constructing the ili, banwa, vanua, settlements, bayan, the village, region, society, the virtual world, and many more forms, morphologies, and articulations of collective life and identities.
Katawhan, kaugnayan, and kailian are engagements in the evocation of just human relationships and the possibilities of what it means to be humane in the midst of injustices and asymmetrical social relations.
'Ka-' is neither new nor exotic. Anthropologizing 'ka-' has long been a historic and customary practice. 'Ka-' and the act of doing 'ka-' have been deeply embedded in our everyday lives. Anthropologizing 'ka-' is too quotidian in its dailiness that it has evaded our critical attention. Thus, UGAT’s conference this year aims to call attention to the seemingly impervious complexity of the everyday ontologies and epistemologies of 'ka-' upon which multiple dynamic relationalities are founded.
Relationalities also include a wide range of intricate negations of ties, from deeply reflexive unknotting of personal connections to complex political deterritorialization processes and all the rerouting of relations in between ellipses of beginnings and closures. Relationalities likewise calibrate the beyond to configure alternatives and possibilities. In all these settings, the 'ka-' is present, often silent, almost transcendent, yet ubiquitously customary and unequivocally empirical. In Lanao, where the conference will be held, we can witness the emergence and unravelling of relations based on entangled issues of land and territorial disputes, rido, displacement, challenges of rehabilitation, advancement of autonomy, and forging of alliances.
CONFERENCE CONVENORS
Janine Ochoa and Eulalio R. Guieb III
TOPICS
Submissions can be related to any of the topics below and other allied inquiries. We list topics and sub-themes in various Philippine languages, alongside related concepts in English. These topics are not exhaustive, but they signify the extent of anthropologising ka-. We welcome other ka- words across their usage in Austronesian languages, which articulate, challenge, and nuance myriad forms of relationalities.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
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The conference welcomes proposals for panels, papers, and multimodal exhibits of many forms of anthropological inquiry on any of the topics related to the theme.
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Abstracts and proposals must not be more than 250 words.
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Submission of abstracts and presentation of papers, panels, and exhibits can be in Ilokano, Tagalog, Binisaya or English in any of their variants. This is UGAT’s engagement in contributing to Filipino as a national language in different contexts of the region. For purposes of expedience, at least for now, submissions other than these four languages are, however, advised to have a translation in either Filipino or English.
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All submissions must be sent to https://bit.ly/Submit48thUGATConference on or before June 26, 2026.
For further information, please visit the official conference website at
https://www.ugat-aghamtao.org/48th-conference-2026
and follow our UGAT Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ugataghamtao for updates.
To learn more about the conference host and venue, please visit the website of MSU-IIT at
For queries, please contact the head of the conference secretariat
Karminn Daytec Yañgot at ugat.aghamtao@gmail.com​​
Kaalaman, Kaaram, Kahibalo, Kamalayan, Karunungan, Kina-aeam, Kapanunutan
knowledge, epistemology, consciousness
Kalibutan, Kamarikutan, Kaluluwa, Kararua, Kawanangan, Kaafuan
universe, cosmos, spiritualities, cosmology, ancestry
Kapaligiran, Kalikasan, Kalupaan, Kabundukan
environment, nature(s), resource management, ancestral domain
Karagatan, Kapuluan, Kabaybayunan, Kahiladman
maritime, island, and coastal lifeways
Kaalam, Katutubong kaalaman at kakayahan, Katutubong agham, Kaannadawan, Kasigudan
indigenous studies, indigenous knowledge, indigenous sciences, customary practices
Kaagi, Kasaysayan, Kaghapon, Kabilin, Kabihasnan
histories, past, heritage
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Katilingban, Kasimanwa, Kababayan, Kalibugan, Kaaruba, Katatao, Kambakwit
settlement, community, land, home, belonging, identity, diaspora, displacement
Kaunlaran, Kauswagan, Kakayahang ipagpatuloy, Kabuhayan, Kapanatilian
development, sustainability, livelihood, climate justice
Katarungan, Katalaruan,, Kaugalingnan, Karbengan, Katuwiran,
Karapatan, Katungod, Kalintegan, Katengdanan
social justice, transitional justice, rights, duty
Kapayapaan, Kalinaw, Kagubot, Karahasan
peace, violence, conflict, crime
Kapangyarihan, Kapendayan, Kagamhanan, Kakayahan
power, authority, governance, agency
Kapamilya, Kaparyente, Kadugo, Kaputol, Kapatid, Ka-ising,
Kakabsat, Kadara, Kabagis, Kabagyan, Kadumahan
kinship, blood ties, siblingship
Kapikas, Kalaguyo, Kabiyak
marriage, cohabitation, affairs
Kabutihan, Kabuotan, Kamaayo, Katotohanan, Kamatuoran, Kasalanan
morality/immorality, good, truth, sin, ethics
Kasamaan, Kasinungalingan, Kabokegan, Katiwalian, Kawatan, Katrayduran
disinformation and misinformation, corruption, betrayal
Kahulugan, Katuturan, Kahalagahan, Kabuluhan, Kapuslanan
meaning, values, worth
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Kahadluk, Kakuyaw, Kapait, Kaguol, Kakapusan, Kasawian, Kasakit, Kasubo
insecurity, fear, misery, deprivation, precarity, frustration, heartbreak
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Katalagman, Kapanganiban, Kapigaduhon, Kawalan, Kadimalas
calamity, disaster, poverty, hopelessness
Kabuhi, Kabilang-búhay, Kamatayan, Kamatayon, Katapusan, Kanibusanan, Katawtaw-an
life, afterlife, death, mortuary practices
Kasarian, Kababaihan, Kabekihan, Kasuko sa bayot
gender, women studies, LGBTQIA+, homophobia
Kamusmusan, Kabataan, Katandaan, Katigulangon, Kaubingan
child and youth studies, generation cohorts, ageing and old age
Kalipay, Kasadya, Kalami, Kalibugan, Kaligayahan, Kalikaguman
happiness, pleasure, desire
Katatawanan, Kalokohan, Kasabad, Kabulastugan
comedy, humor, foolishness
Kahimsug, Kaginhawahan, Kaagapay
care, well-being, wellness
Katawan, Kalusugan, Karamdaman
bodies, health, sickness, suffering, health
Kapansanan, Kakayahan
disability, capacity
Kasama, Kadwa, Kauban, Kapanalig, Kabalikat, Kakampi,
Kakosa, Karamay, Kaisa, Kaupod, Kaibigan
solidarity, partnership, ally, camaraderie
Kapartido, Kaapinan, Ka-DDS, Kakampink
coalition, alliance, network, association
Kahirapan, Kawad-on, Kasalatan, Kagutuman
poverty, scarcity, hunger
Kakaiba, Kalain, Kaasig, Katunggali, Kalaban, Kaaway
“not like us,” “other,” cancel culture
Kapanahunan, Kabagayan, Karanasan
temporalities, materialities, objects, experience
Kasarinlan, Kagawasan, Kebangsaan, Kabanwahan
sovereignty, freedom, nationhood
Kadasig, Kaagapay, Katuwang
activism, solidarity, interdependence
Kasiningan, Kaartehan
arts, performance
Ka-chat, Ka-fandom, Kaibigan, Kausap
virtual identities, communities and entanglements
Kawalan, Kamingaw, Kabalintunaan, Kalikasan ng pag-iral, Katagoan
emptiness, vastness, paradox, ontology, existence, being
