While most indigenous peoples' culture worldwide have succumbed to modern day's creeping globalization, eroding important cultural values, the Igorot peoples' adherence to a centuries-old principle, called "inayan", has allowed them to respect nature, live sustainably with their ecosystem and live peacefully with their neighbors.

According to the International Journal of Advanced Research Management and Social Sciences. "Inayan" is a lexicon in the Philippine indigenous language, which is spoken mainly by the ethnology groups inhabiting the western part of the Mountain Province covering the municipalities of Bauko, Besao, Sagada, and Tadian and the central part Bontoc and Sabangan of the Philippines.

"Inayan" means to hold back or to prevent an individual from doing something unpleasant towards others or things, living and non-living. A deeper investigation of the word in language culture indicates the word connotes "fear of a Supreme Deity called Kabunian (God) who forewarns or dissuades one from doing anything harmful to others and things."

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