Marlon Martin reflects on Ifugao spirituality as a recognition of human limits and the need to entrust what cannot be controlled to the gods. He explains that this worldview—while often described as fatalistic—has enabled communities to endure and thrive in a challenging environment by fostering hope and resilience. From a ritual perspective, he notes that rice gods are essential to survival and agricultural abundance, even though bululs themselves occupy a relatively minor place within the broader pantheon. Their prominence, Martin explains, comes from the fact that they are the only rice deities given a physical form; more powerful rice gods remain purely spiritual and are considered too potent to manifest materially.