Chapter I: Part 1

In American Archaeology and Ethnology
Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 1-186, plates 1-33

February 15, 1919

IFUGAO LAW

By R. F. BARTON

"We are likely to think of the savage as a freakish creature,
all moods--at one moment a friend, at the next moment a fiend. So
he might be were it not for the social drill imposed by his
customs. So he is, if you destroy his customs, and expect him
nevertheless to behave as an educated and reasonable being. Given,
then, a primitive society in a healthy and uncontaminated
condition, its members will invariably be found to be on the
average more law-abiding, as judged from the stand-point of their
own law, than is the case in any civilized state.

"Of course, if we have to do with a primitive society on the
down-grade--and very few that have been 'civilizaded,' as John
Stuart Mill terms it, at the hands of the white man are not on
the down-grade--its disorganized and debased custom no longer
serves a vital function. But a healthy society is bound, in a
wholesale way, to have a healthy custom."

R. R. Marrett, in Anthropology.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Page

The Ifugaos

Sources of Ifugao law and its present status of development

1. Relation of taboo to law
2. Scope of customary law
3. Connection of law and religion
4. General principles of the Ifugao legal system
5. Stage of development of Ifugao law

The Family Law

Marriage

6. Polygamy
7. Nature of marriage
8. Eligibility to marriage
9. The two ways in which marriage may be brought about
10. Contract marriage
11. Marriage ceremonials
12. Gifts to the kin of the bride: hakba
13. Obligations incurred by those who enter into a marriage
contract
14. The binawit relation
15. Property rights acquired by marriage

Remarriage of the widowed

16. The gibu payment to terminate marriage

Divorce

17. Divorce because of necessity
18. Divorce for mutual benefit
19. Divorce which may be demanded by either party
20. Cases where divorce may be demanded by one party or the other
21. The hudhud, or payment for mental anguish
22. Divorce ceremonies
23. Property settlements in case of divorce

Dependents in relation to family law

24. Adopted children
25. Servants
26. Slaves

Illegitimate children

27. Definition of illegitimacy; its frequency
28. Obligations of father to bastard child
29. Determination of parentage

Reciprocal obligation of parents and their children

30. Duties of parents to children
31. Obligations of children to parents

The Property Law

The kinds of property

32. The Ifugao's classification of properties

Family property

33. The Ifugao attitude toward family property
34. Rice lands
35. Forest lands
36. Heirlooms
37. Sale of family property

Personal property

38. Definition
39. Houses
40. Valuable trees

Perpetual tenure

41. Rice and forest lands
42. "Homesteading"
43. Paghok, or landmarks
44. Right of way through property owned by others

Transient tenure

45. Tenure of sweet potato fields

Transfers of property for a consideration

46. The balal
47. Sales of family property
48. Responsibility of seller after property has left his hands

Transfers of property arising from family relationships

49. Methods of transfer
50. Assignment and transfer of property during the lifetime of
the owner
51. Inheritance
52. The passing of property between relatives because of
relationship
53. The law of primogeniture
54. The passing of property to legitimate sons and daughters
by assignment or inheritance
55. The passing of property to other relatives
56. Property rights of bastards
57. Transfers of property to adopted children
58. Servants and slaves as inheritors
59. Wills and testaments

Settlements of debts of the aged and deceased

60. When the debtor has children
61. When the debtor is childless but leaves a spouse
62. Debts for which the kin of the deceased are held
63. Attitude toward debts

Borrowing and lending

64. Lupe, or interest
65. Patang, or interest paid in advance
66. Another form of patang

Go-betweens

67. The go-between
68. Responsibility of go-betweens
69. Conditions relieving a go-between of responsibility
70. Payment due those who find the body of one dead by violence

Contracts for the sale of property

71. On whom binding

Irrigation law

72. The law as to new fields
73. The law as to water
74. The law as to irrigation ditches

Penal Law

Penalties

75. Nature and reckoning of fines

Circumstances which affect penalty

76. Moral turpitude not a factor

Penal responsibility

77. The nungolat, or principal
78. The tombok, or "thrower"
79. Iba'n di nungolat, "the companions of the one who was strong"
80. The montudol, "shower," or informer
81. Servants who commit crimes at the bidding of their masters
82. Likelihood to punishment
83. Drunkenness and insanity in relation to criminal responsibility
84. The relation of intent to criminal responsibility

Other factors affecting liability

85. Alienship
86. Confession
87. Kinship
88. Rank and standing in the community
89. Importance of influential position and personality
89a. Cripples and unfortunates

The principal crimes and their frequency

90. List of offenses

Sorcery

91. The ayah or soul-stealing
92. Other forms of sorcery
93. Punishment of sorcery

Adultery

94. Forms of adultery 95. Punishment of adultery 96. Sex in relation to punishment for adultery

The taking of life

97. General considerations
98. Executions justifiable by Ifugao law
99. Feuds
100. War
101. Head-taking
102. Hibul, or homicide
103. Attempts to murder
104. Wounding
105. Special liability of the givers of certain feasts
106. The labod, fine assessed for homicide
107. Accidental killing of animals
108. Malicious killing of animals

Putting another in the position of an accomplice

109. The tokom, or fine for compromising another

Theft

110. Of theft in general
111. Theft of rice from a granary
112. Theft of unharvested rice
113. Illegal confiscation

Arson

114. Fines assessed for goba or arson

Kidnapping

115. Circumstances under which kidnapping may occur

Incest

116. Rarity of such offenses

Rape

117. Both parties being unmarried
118. Rape of a married woman by an unmarried man
119. Rape of a married woman by a married man

Ma-hailyu, or minor offenses

120. False accusation
121. Baag or slander
122. Threats of violence
123. Insult

Procedure

The family in relation to procedure

124. Family unity and coöperation

The monkalun or go-between

125. Nature of his duties

Testimony

126. Litigants do not confront each other

Ordeals

127. Cases in which employed
128. The hot water ordeal
129. The hot-bolo ordeal
130. Alao, or duel
131. Trial by bultong or wrestling
132. The umpire and the decision

Execution of justice

133. Retaliation
134. Seizure of chattels
135. Seizure of rice fields
136. Enforced hospitality
137. Kidnapping or seizure of persons
138. Cases illustrating seizure and kidnapping

The paowa or truce

139. The usual sense of the term "paowa"
140. Another sense of the term "paowa"

Termination of controversies: peace-making

141. The hidit or religious aspects of peace-making

An inter-village law

142. Neutrality

Appendices

I. Ifugao reckoning of relationship
II. Connection of religion with procedure
III. Parricide
IV. Concubinage among the Kalingas

Glossary 122

Explanation of plates 130

PREFACE

There is no law so strong as custom. How much more universal, willing, and spontaneous is obedience to the customary law that a necktie shall be worn with a stiff collar than is obedience to the ordained law against expectoration on sidewalks; notwithstanding that the latter has more basis in consideration of the public weal and even in aesthetics.

This little paper shows how a people having no vestige of constituted authority or government, and therefore living in literal anarchy, dwell in comparative peace and security of life and property. This is owing to the fact of their homogeneity and to the fact that their law is based entirely on custom and taboo.

The Ifugaos are a tribe of barbarian head-hunters. Nevertheless, after living among them for a period of eight years, I am fully satisfied that never, even before our government was established over them, was the loss of life from violence of all descriptions nearly so great among them as it is among ourselves. I do not, however, wish to be understood as advocating their state of society as ideal, or as in any way affording more than a few suggestions possibly to our own law-makers. Given dentists and physicians, however, I doubt gravely if any society in existence could afford so much advantage in the way of happiness and true freedom as does that of the Ifugaos.

But we must realize that probably neither security of the individual life nor even happiness are the chief ends of existence. The progress and evolution of our people are much more important in all probability, and this seems to demand the sacrifice of ease and freedom and of much happiness on the part of the individuals composing our society.

Acknowledgments are due first to my teacher and friend, Professor Frederick Starr, for his encouragement and assistance, and, above all, for his inculcation of respect for and tolerance toward customs other than our own.

Captain Jeff D. Gallman, whose work among the Ifugaos stands to the credit of our government of the Philippines second to that of no other man in the archipelago, assisted me in many ways. He is a man learned in the "lore of men,"

"Who ha' dealt with men
In the new and naked lands."

Dr. David P. Barrows, now Major Barrows, also rendered me indispensable aid and encouragement. Dr. A. L. Kroeber of the chair of anthropology, University of California, and his associates, Dr. T. T. Waterman and Mr. E. W. Gifford, have read the manuscript and proofs and have made valuable suggestions which are incorporated in the paper as finally published. These gentlemen have been unstintedly generous in welcoming a newcomer in the field in which they are so preëminent.

Dr. George W. Simonton has kindly assisted in preparing the manuscript for the printer.

The photographs, with one exception, were taken by myself.

San Francisco, California, January 14, 1918.

INTRODUCTION

The Ifugaos

Philippine ethnologists generally agree to the hypothesis that the Negritos, a race of little blacks, remnants of which now inhabit mountain regions of many of the larger islands, were the original inhabitants of the Philippine Archipelago. They advance the hypothesis that these little blacks were driven by Malay immigrants from their former homes in the fertile plains to the mountains; and that these first Malay invaders were driven from the lowlands into the mountain regions by succeeding immigrations of Malays superior to them in organization and weapons. [1] By and by, no one cares to hazard how long afterward, the Spaniards came. They christianized the lowlanders, except the Mohammedan populations of Mindanao and Sulu. But at the time of the American occupation the mountaineer descendants of the first immigration, for the most part, had not received the spiritual ministrations of Her Most Catholic Majesty's missionaries, on account of the inaccessible character of their habitat. True, garrisons and missions had been established in a few localities among them; but owing to the scattered character of the population, the independent spirit of the people, their natural conservatism, and the lack of tact and consideration on the part of the Spanish officials and missionaries, practically no progress had been made in christianizing or civilizing them.

The great majority of the non-Mohammedan, non-Christian Malays inhabit the island of Luzon. The Luzon non-Christian tribes and their estimated numbers are: Apayaos, 16,000; Benguet Igorots, 25,000; Bontoc Igorots, 50,000; Wild Gaddanes, 4000; Ifugaos, 120,000; Ilongots, 6000; Kalingas, 60,000; Tingianes, 30,000; Lepanto Igorots, 35,000; total, nearly a quarter million. All these tribes inhabit the mountain ranges of the northern third of the island.

The habitat of the Ifugaos is situated in about the center of the area inhabited by the non-Christian tribes. In point of travel-time, as we say in the Philippines, for one equipped with the usual amount of baggage, Ifugao-land is about as far from Manila as New York from Constantinople. To the northeast are the Wild Gaddan, to the north the Bontoc Igorot, to the northwest, west, and southwest the Lepanto and Benguet Igorots; to the east, across the wide uninhabited river basin of the Cagayan, are the Ilongots. This geographic isolation has tended to keep the Ifugao culture relatively pure and uninfluenced by contact with the outside world. Two or three military posts were fitfully maintained in Ifugao by the Spaniards during the last half century of their sovereignty; but the lives of the natives were little affected thereby.

Ifugao men wear clouts and Ifugao women loin cloths, or short skirts, reaching from the waist to the knees. Wherever they go the men carry spears. Both sexes ornament their persons with gold ornaments, beads, agates, mother of pearl, brass ornaments, and so forth. Ifugao houses, while small, are substantially built, of excellent materials, and endure through many generations.

It may safely be said that the Ifugaos have constructed the most extensive and the most admirable terraces for rice culture to be found anywhere in the world. The Japanese terraces, which excite the admiration of tens of thousands of tourists every year, are not to be compared with them. On these steep mountains that rise from sea-level to heights of six to eight thousand feet--mountains as steep probably as any in the world--there have been carved out, with wooden spades and wooden crowbars, terraces that run like the crude but picturesque "stairsteps" of a race of giants, from the bases almost to the summits. Some of these terrace walls are fifty feet high. More than half are walled with stone. Water to flood these terraces is retained by a little rim of earth at the outer margin. The soil is turned in preparation for planting with a wooden spade. No mountain is too steep to be terraced, if it affords an unfailing supply of water for irrigation. The Ifugao, too, makes clearings on his mountains in which he plants sweet potatoes, and numerous less important vegetables. Without his knowing it, he bases his agriculture on scientific principles (to an extent that astounds the white man) and he tends his crops so skillfully and artistically that he probably has no peer as a mountain husbandman.

Of political organization the Ifugao has nothing--not even a suggestion. Notwithstanding, he has a well-developed system of laws. This absolute lack of political government has brought it about that the Ifugao is a consummate diplomat. After an eight years' residence among them, I am convinced that the Ifugaos got along very well in the days before a foreign government was established among them. Through countless generations the Ifugao who has survived and prospered has been the one who has carried his point, indeed, but has carried it without involving himself in serious trouble with his fellows.

The Ifugao's religion is a mixture of an exceedingly complex polytheism, ancestor worship, and a mythology that is used as an instrument of magic. His religion seems to be far more highly developed than that of the other non-Christian tribes.

Attempts made by Spain to colonize the Ifugao in the lowlands invariably met with failure. The Ifugao is a hillman, and loves his hills. He is of an independent nature and cannot stand confinement. A great many prisoners jailed by American officials have courted death rather than endure incarceration.

While there are well defined tribal divisions that mark off the various mountain-Malay populations of northern Luzon, the cultures of all of the tribes are basically similar. Numerous parallelisms, too, are found with the lowland Filipinos, even now, in features of daily life, religion, taboo, law, and marital relation. The dialects of all the tribes inhabiting the islands are branches of the great family of Malay languages--languages spoken over more than half the circumference of the globe. The linguistic differences that exist between the mountain and the lowland tribes seem to be not much greater than the linguistic differences between the various mountain tribes themselves.

Many things lead us to believe that the culture of the Ifugaos is very old. We have to do with a people who possess both as individuals and collectively a most remarkable memory. Ifugao rich men lend to considerable numbers of clients and others every year during the "hungry time"--to these, varying numbers of bundles of rice, to this one a skein of yarn, to that one a pig, and to another again a chicken. All these bargains and their amounts and their varying terms, our wealthy Ifugao remembers, unaided by any system of writing or other artificial means. Many Ifugaos know their ancestors back to the tenth or even the fourteenth generation, and, in addition, the brothers and sisters of these ancestors. If we consider the racial or tribal memory of these people, we find a mythology fully as voluminous as that of the Greeks. But the Ifugaos have no recollections of having ever migrated. Unless they have lived for many centuries in their present habitat, it seems certain that they would have retained at least in mythical form the memory of their migration.

Another consideration that is significant lies in a comparison of the rate of rice-field building in these peaceful times, when such work is not hindered but instead vigorously stimulated by the government, with the amount of such work accomplished by past generations. One who stands on some jutting spur of the mountain-side in Asin, Sapao, or Benaue can scarcely help being impressed with the feeling that he is looking upon a work of tens of centuries. Any calculation must be based on vague and hazardous figures of course, but, without having any theories to prove, and making due allowance for increased rate of building during peaceful times and for the pressure of the needs of increased population, from a comparison of the estimated area of voluntary rice-field building with the areas already constructed, I come to the conclusion that the Ifugaos must have lived in their present habitat for at least two thousand years, and I believe that these figures are too small.

SOURCES OF IFUGAO LAW AND ITS PRESENT STATUS OF DEVELOPMENT

The Ifugaos have no form of writing: there is, consequently, no written law. They have no form of political government: there is, therefore, no constitutional or statutory law. Inasmuch as they have no courts or judges, there is no law based on judicial decisions.

Ifugao law has two sources of origin: taboo (which is essentially religious) and custom. The customary law is the more important from the greater frequency of its application.

1. Relation of taboo to law.--The Ifugao word for taboo is paniyu. The root, which appears under the varying forms iyu, iho, iyao, and ihao, means in general "evil" or "bad." The prefix pan denotes instrumentality or manner. The word paniyu means both by derivation and in use, "bad way of doing," or "evil way." By far the greater number of taboos have their origin in magic. A very large number of them concern the individual, or those closely related to him by blood ties, and for this reason have no place in a discussion of law. Thus a pregnant woman may not wear a string of beads, since the beads form a closed circle and so have a magic tendency to close her body and cause difficult childbirth. This, however, is not a matter that concerns anybody else, and so could be of no interest at law. It is taboo for brothers to defecate near each other, but only they are harmed thereby, and the matter is consequently not of legal interest.

The breaking of a taboo that concerns the person or possessions of an individual of another family is a crime. The following instances will illustrate:

In nearly all districts [2] of Ifugao it is taboo for persons of
other districts2 to pass through a rice field when it is being
harvested. It is also taboo for foreigners to enter a village
when that village is observing its ceremonial idleness, tungul,
at the close of harvest time. One who broke this taboo would be
subject to fine. In case it were believed that the fine could
not be collected, he would be in danger of the lance.

It is taboo to blackguard, to use certain language, and to do
certain things in the presence of one's own kin of the opposite
sex that are of the degrees of kinship within which marriage
is forbidden or in the presence of another and such kindred
of his, or to make any except the most delicately concealed
references to matters connected with sex, sexual intercourse,
and reproduction. Even these delicately concealed references are
permissible only in cases of real necessity. The breaking of this
taboo is a serious offense. One who broke the taboo in the presence
of his own female kin would not be punished except in so far as
the contempt of his fellows is a punishment. In Kiangan, before
the establishment of foreign government, breaking the taboo in the
presence of another and his female kin of the forbidden degrees is
said to have been sometimes punished by the lance (see sec. 123).

It is taboo for one who knows of a man's death to ask a relative
of the dead man if the man is dead. The breaking of this taboo
is punishable by fine.

If asked, Ifugaos say that it is taboo to steal; to burn or destroy the property of another; to insult, or ruin the good name of another; to cause the death or injury of another by sorcery or witchcraft; in short, to commit any of those acts which among most peoples constitute a crime.

The word taboo as understood among ourselves, and as most often used among the Ifugaos, denotes a thing rather arbitrarily forbidden. It seems likely that moral laws--from which most criminal laws are an outgrowth--originate thus: the social conscience, learning that some act is antisocial, prohibits it (often in conjunction with religion) or some feature of it, or some semblance of it, arbitrarily, harshly, and sometimes unreasonably. Thus the first taboo set forth above has the semblance of being aimed against interruption in the business or serious occupation of another, or against his worship. The mere passing near a rice field when it is being harvested or the mere entrance into a village during the period of ceremonial idleness are arbitrarily seized upon as acts constituting such interruptions. The second taboo arose from the purpose of the social consciousness to prevent marriage or sexual intercourse between near kin. [3] It is most sweeping and unreasonable in its prohibitions. A third person may make no remark in the presence of kin of the opposite sex as to the fit of the girl's clothing; as to her beauty; nor may he refer to her lover, nor play the lover's harp. Many ordinary things must be called by other than their ordinary names. Even the aged priests who officiate at a birth feast must refer in their prayers to the foetus about to be born as "the friend" and to the placenta as "his blanket." A great number of things are forbidden in the presence of kindred of opposite sex that would not shock even the most prudish of our own people. The third taboo seems to be aimed against the bandying or the taking in vain of the name of the dead.

It would seem that a primitive society, once it has decided a thing to be wrong, swings like a pendulum to the very opposite extreme, adds taboo upon taboo, and hedges with taboo most illogically. With the ardor of the neophyte, it goes to the other limit, becoming squeamish in the extreme of all that can in the remotest conception be connected with the forbidden thing. [4]

Ultimately reason and logic tend to triumph and eliminate the illogical, impertinent and immaterial taboos, remove the prohibitions contained in the useful taboos from their pedestal of magic, and set them upon a firmer base of intelligence, or at least practical empiricism.

A small part of Ifugao law consists even yet of taboos that are arbitrary and, except in essence, unreasonable. But the greater part has advanced far beyond this stage and is on a firm and reasonable basis of justice. Much of it originated from taboo--even yet the taboos are remembered and frequently applied to acts that constitute crimes among ourselves--but the immaterial and arbitrary taboos have been eliminated. Although the Ifugaos say that adultery and theft and arson are tabooed, nevertheless their attitude of mind is not the same as that toward things that are merely tabooed. It is the attitude of the human mind toward things that are prohibited by law and by conscience.

2. Scope of customary law.--The customary law embraces that which pertains to property, inheritance, water rights, and to a great extent, family law and procedure. There is a certain amount of variation in customs and taboos throughout Ifugao land. This accounts to a certain extent, perhaps, for the reserved behavior of visitors to a district distant from their own. Visitors are afraid of unwittingly breaking some taboo. In general, however, it may be said that laws are very nearly uniform throughout the Ifugao country.

3. Connection of law and religion.--Religion and law appear conjointly in (a) transferals of family property; (b) ordeals; (c) certain taboos; (d) payments of the larger fines; (e) peace-making. The Ifugaos state that a large part of their customary law and procedure was given them by Lidum, their great teacher, a deity of the Skyworld, and an uncle of their hero-ancestor, Balitok.

4. General principles of the Ifugao legal system.--Its personal character. Society does not punish injuries to itself except as the censure of public opinion is a punishment. This follows naturally from the fact that there is no organized society. It is only when an injury committed by a person or family falls on another person or family that the injury is punished formally.

Collective responsibility. Not only the individual who commits an act but his kin, in proportion to the nearness of their kinship, are responsible for the act. Their responsibility is slightly less than his. This applies not only to crimes but to debts and civil injuries.

Collective procedure. Legal procedure is by and between families; therefore a family should be "strong to demand and strong to resist demands." A member of an Ifugao family assists in the punishment of offenders against any other member of his family, and resists the punishment of members of his family by other families. A number of circumstances affect the ardor with which he enters into procedures in which a relative is concerned and the extent to which he will go into them. Among these are: (a) the nearness or remoteness of his relationship to the relative concerned in the action; (b) relationship to the other principal in the action; (c) the loyalty to the family group of the relative principally concerned in the procedure and the extent to which this relative discharges his duty to it; (d) evidence in the case bearing on the correctness of the relative's position in the controversy.

A corollary of the above principle. Since legal procedure is between families, and never between individuals, nor between a family and an individual, crimes of brother or sister against brother or sister go unpunished. The family of the two individuals is identical. A family cannot proceed against itself. But in the case of incest between a father and a daughter the father might be punished by the girl's mother's family on the ground that he had committed a crime against a member of that family. It is true that just as great an injury would have been committed against the family of the father, since the relationship of the daughter to that family is the same as to her mother's family. But the father, the perpetrator of the crime, being a nearer relative of his own family than his daughter, his family certainly would not take active steps against him. Were the crime a less disgraceful one, the father's kin would probably contest his penalty.

The family unity must at all hazards be preserved. Clemency is shown the remoter kin in order to secure their loyalty to the family group. A large unified family group is in the ideal position of being "strong to demand and strong to resist demands." The family is the only thing of the nature of an organization that the Ifugao has, and he cherishes it accordingly.

Collective recipiency of punishment. Just as the family group is collectively responsible for the delinquencies of its members, but in less degree than the delinquent himself, so may punishment be meted out to individuals of the group other than the actual culprit, although naturally it is preferred to punish the actual culprit; and so may debts or indemnities be collected from them. But only those individuals that are of the nearest degree of kinship may be held responsible; cousins may not legally be punished if there be brothers or sisters.

Ifugao law is very personal in its character. For the different classes of society there are in the Mampolia-Kababuyan area five grades of fines in punishment of a given crime, four in the Hapao-Hunduan area, and three in the Kiangan area.

Might is right to a very great extent in the administration of justice. For a given crime, one family, on account of superior war footing, or superior diplomacy, or on account of being better bluffers, will be able to exact much more severe penalties than another. Especially is Ifugao administration of justice likely to be unfair when persons of different classes are parties to a controversy. I doubt very much, however, whether this characteristic of Ifugao administration of justice be more pronounced than it is in our own.

5. Stage of development of Ifugao law.--Reasons have already been given for believing the Ifugao's culture to be very old. His legal system must also be old. Yet it is in the first stage of the development of law. It is, however, an example of a very well developed first-stage legal system. It ranks fairly with Hebrew law, or even with the Mohammedan law of a century ago. R. R. Cherry in his lectures on the Growth of Criminal Law in Ancient Communities demonstrates these stages of legal development: First, a stage of simple retaliation--"an eve for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life." Second, a stage in which vengeance may be bought off "either by the individual who has inflicted the injury or by his tribe." Third, a stage in which the tribe or its chiefs or elders intervene to fix penalty-payments and to pronounce sentence of outlawry on those who refuse to pay proper fines. Fourth, a stage in which offenses come to be clearly recognized as crimes against the peace and welfare of the king or the state.

No Ifugao would dream of taking a payment for the deliberate or intentional murder of a kinsman. He would be universally condemned if he did so. However, he would usually accept a payment for an accidental taking of life. There is still, however, an element of doubt as to whether even in such a case payment would be accepted. For nearly all other offenses payments are accepted in extenuation. Ifugao law, then, may be said to be in the latter part of the first stage of legal development.

THE FAMILY LAW

MARRIAGE

6. Polygamy.--The extent to which personality affects what an Ifugao may or may not do without being considered an offender is illustrated in the matter of polygamy. Any Ifugao, except one of the most powerful, who might try to take a plural wife would only bring upon himself heavy punishment--punishment that would be administered by the kin of the first wife. But men who are very wealthy and who are also gifted with a considerable amount of force of character sometimes take a second or even a third wife, and compel the kin of the first wife to recognize her and her children. In other words, they make polygamy legal for themselves. The first wife is of higher class than succeeding wives. Her children have inheritance rights to all the property their father had at the time of the taking of the plural wife. The following is a typical instance of the taking of a plural wife:

Guade of Maggok, an extremely wealthy man, after marrying and
having a number of children by his first wife, began habitually
to have illicit intercourse with another woman. The kin of the
first wife demanded a heavy indemnity. Such was their bungot
(ferocity) that they succeeded in making Guade think that he was
in imminent peril of losing his life, and in collecting double
the amount usual in such cases. But having paid the fine, Guade
rallied to his support all his kin and kept up the relations with
the woman, taking her as a second wife. Nor did the kin of the
first wife attempt to prohibit this, well knowing that they had
gone far enough. The second wife is recognized, and her children
are recognized, as legitimate. Guade informed me recently that
he was thinking seriously of taking a third. Guade is admired
and envied by every one in the community apparently; whereas a
man of less force would be condemned by public opinion.

When a plural wife is taken a heavy payment must be made the first wife and her kin. This may amount to about 500 pesos.

7. Nature of marriage.--Marriage among the Ifugaos is a civil contract of undefined duration. It may last a month, a year, a decade, or until the death of one of the parties to it. It has no essential connection with the tribal religion. True, at almost every step in its consummation the family ancestral spirits and the other deities are besought to bless the union in a material way in the matter of children and wealth and by giving the two parties long life. But this is a matter of self interest, and not of hallowing or consecrating the union. Should the omens be bad, the two people do not marry because they are afraid that in the shape of sickness or death or childlessness, ill fortune may overtake them if they do so. And even after the marriage has been fully consummated should it happen that at any one of three certain feasts performed by the parents of the couple during the year in connection with their rice crop, the omen of the bile sac [5] should promise ill, the marriage is dissolved. No promises are made by the contracting parties to each other or to anybody else. Nor do the contracting parties take any part in any religious ceremonials or in any marriage ceremonials of any kind. Marriage may be terminated at any time by mutual agreement. But that marriage is considered a contract is shown by the fact that if either party terminates the marriage against the will of the other the injured party has the right to assess and collect damages.

The theory that marriage should be permanent in order to provide the better for the training and rearing of children has no legal embodiment. [6] It is, however, established by custom that in case of divorce a property settlement according to the wealth of the family must be made on the children.

8. Eligibility to marriage.--Any person of any age may marry. The consent of the parents is not necessary. But there is taboo on the marriage of cousins within the third degree. This taboo may be rendered inoperative, except in the case of full cousins, by an exchange of animals ranging from two pigs in the case of the nearer relationships to one small pig or a chicken in the case of the remoter. The girl's kin in all cases receive the more valuable animals in this exchange. But the marriage of first cousins is absolutely tabooed and never occurs. It is said that children are sometimes coerced into marriage against their will; but I have heard of only one case in which physical force was used, and even in this case the attempt ended in failure.

9. The two ways in which marriage may be brought about.--Those children that will inherit a great deal of property are married usually, but by no means always, by a contract [7] marriage; those who will inherit no property, or but a small amount, and those who, married by the preceding method, have lost their spouses, or who on reaching a maturer age, do not find themselves compatible with their spouses, and consequently remarry, are married by a trial marriage. However, it should be said that even a contract marriage is a trial marriage to a great degree. In fact, one inclined to be prudent in his speech would never pronounce an Ifugao marriage a permanent one until the death of one of the parties to it.

The trial marriage is merely a primitive sexual mating in the dormitories of the unmarried. It might be called a courtship, it being understood that, except in its very incipiency, Ifugao courtship postulates an accompaniment of sexual intercourse. It is very reprehensible, but not punishable, for a girl to enter into two such unions contemporaneously. The moral code is hardly so strict with respect to the male.

In case the two individuals are satisfied with each other, that is, in case they find themselves compatible, and nearly always in case the girl becomes pregnant and the youth has no reason for misgivings as to the parentage of the child, the youth, after consultation with his parents, sends a distant relative or friend, who is not related to the girl, with betels for a ceremonial conference in which the hand of the girl is asked in marriage. Generally it requires two or more trial marriages to select for a person his more permanent mate.

10. Contract marriage.--The contract marriage is usually arranged for, and its first ceremonies at least performed while the children are quite small. Its purpose is to guard against the commission of such a folly on the part of the child who will be wealthy as marriage to a less wealthy spouse. The danger is that such a child, sleeping in the common dormitory, will give way to the ardor of youth and temporarily mate with one below him in station, and that the union so begun prove permanent.

As a rule the couple married by a contract marriage while yet children are elevated by the uyauwe feast to the category of the kadangyang (upper class). The uyauwe feast is not an essential part of the marriage ceremonials, but is an addition to them.

The following is the history of a typical marriage of this kind:

Dulinayan of Ambabag, when his son was about two years old,
sent a go-between to Likyayu, also of Ambabag, whose daughter
was somewhat younger than Dulinayan's son, with betels for a
ceremonial conference looking toward a marriage between the two
children. He stated that he would contract to give his son his
fields at Takadang, and wished to know what fields Likyayu would
give his daughter. The go-between returned, stating that Likyayu's
people did not consider Dulinayan's fields at Takadang seriously,
and asked that he assign the boy his fields at Banggo and Dayukong
in order that they might consider the union of their daughter
with his son. The go-between stated that Likyayu was considering
bestowing on his daughter his field at Takadang.

Dulinayan returned the go-between to state that he did not take as
being very serious Likyayu's statement that he intended to give
his daughter only the field at Takadang. He made the proposal
that Likyayu add to the field at Takadang the one at Danok,
and stated that if Likyayu would do so he would give his son
the fields at Banggo and Dayukong, as Likyayu suggested. Likyayu
accepted this proposal.

After two or three more conferences, it was agreed that Dulinayan
was to assign his son the following movable family property:
1 rice-wine jar, 1 gansa, 1 gold ornament. Likyayu was to assign
his daughter 1 rice-wine jar, 1 gold ornament, and 1 pango (string
of ancient beads). Besides the above, Likyayu would give, at the
proper time, a house for the young couple. Each of the two men
would present his child a granary.

The above agreement made, Dulinayan sent a pig called tokop di
mommon and a pig called imbango. These pigs were sacrificed
by Likyayu and his kin. The omens of the bile sacs promised
well. Likyayu returned 1 natauwinan (4 spears), as the mangdad
of the imbango.

About three years elapsed before anything further was done toward
the completion of the marriage. During this period Dulinayan on
behalf of his son furnished Likyayu's household with what firewood
was needed and kept his granaries in repair. Whenever his son's
betrothed fell ill, or whenever her parents or grandparents
fell ill, Dulinayan furnished a pig for sacrifice. And whenever
Dulinayan's son or his son's parents or grandparents fell ill
Likyayu furnished a pig. Likewise when one of the direct ascendants
of either of the young couple died the other family furnished a
pig for the funeral and a death blanket as one of the burial robes.

In the year 1912--that is, three years after the contract was
made--Dulinayan sent a man to propose an uyauwe. Each family
performed a granary feast to determine whether the time was
propitious. The omens being good, each family notified the other of
the fact. Dulinayan then sent a large pig as the hingot. Likyayu's
people returned a small pig as hulul di hingot. Then Dulinayan
furnished a large pig for the bubun, and the two families met
for the first time during the period of the negotiations and
sacrificed and prayed together.

A short time afterward the children were made kadangyang by the
giving of an uyauwe feast. At this feast Dulinayan gave hakba
(marriage presents) to Likyayu and his kin.

In a contract marriage there is always an assignment to the children of the property that they will inherit. The amount of property settled upon either of them is equal or very nearly equal to that settled on the other. Nor may the parent of one of the children sell any of this property except for the purpose of providing animals for sacrifice in case of the illness or death of the child or one of his direct ascendants, or in case of the illness or death of the child's betrothed, or one of his direct ascendants (see sec. 13).

11. Marriage ceremonials.--The following are the steps taken to consummate a typical marriage in the Kiangan-Maggok area:

(a) The boy's kin send the girl's kin a pig. This pig is sacrificed by the girl's kin. The omen of the bile sac is consulted. The pig is eaten. This feast is called mommon.

(b) The boy's kin send another pig to the girl's kin. The girl's kin sacrifice this pig. The omen of the bile sac is consulted. This feast is called imbango.

A non-essential part of the ceremonials, but an important matter in some contingencies, is the return by the girl's kin of a gift to the boy's kin in exchange of the pig sent for this feast. This return gift is called mangdad. Its effect is to nullify any right on the part of the boy's kin to demand a repayment of the pig sent for this ceremony in case the marriage should for any reason whatever fail to be effected. Even though the failure to complete or effect the marriage be the girl's fault, if the mangdad has been sent, the boy's kin have no right to ask a return of the imbango. The return gift is of much less value than that made by the boy's parents.

(c) The boy's kin send the girl's kin a pig, which pig is sacrificed by the girl's kin. The omen of the bile sac is consulted. This feast is called hingot.

A non-essential part of the ceremonials, but one important in the same way as in the preceding ceremony, is the return by the girl's kin of a small pig, called the hulul di hingot (exchange of the hingot).

(d) The kin of both the contracting principals meet at the girl's house and sacrifice a large pig furnished by the boy's kin. This feast is called bubun, and has for its especial purpose to obtain from the gods of animal fertility long life, health, and many children for the young couple. It is attended by a giving of gifts by the kin of the boy to the kin of the girl, except that in the case of a contract marriage between kadangyang (the upper class) the giving of these gifts is often deferred till the uyauwe ceremony, which, while not part of the marriage ceremonials, often follows immediately after them.

The programme of marriage ceremonials among the northern Ifugao is somewhat different.

(a) Same as (a) above. This ceremonial is omitted except in marriages between the wealthy.

(b) The boy's kin sacrifice a pig at his home, sending half of it, if the omen of the bile sac promises well, to the kin of the girl in a back basket, called bango, whence originates the term imbango, meaning "carried in a bango."

(c) The boy's kin take a pig to the girl's home. The girl's kin furnish another and smaller pig. Both families participate in a religious feast. This feast is called tanig, and seems to include both the bubun and the hingot of the Kiangan people.

(d) Ceremonial idleness for the boy and the girl is required during a period of five days. On the third day the couple go to one of their fields, it being taboo for either of them to stumble on the way. The trip is in one respect somewhat like the time-honored cutting of the cakes in one of our own marriage feasts to secure a prognostication as to which of the two spouses will die first. Stumbling on the part of one of the couple, however, would indicate that that one would die not only first but soon, and would probably lead to a refusal on his or her part to go ahead with the marriage. [8] Arrived at the field, the girl weeds a part of it, and the boy gathers some wood from a near-by forest. Then they go home, the boy carrying the bundle of wood.

In case a bad omen of the bile sac is encountered in any of these ceremonies, the marriage is not proceeded with, since the belief is that misfortune would surely attend it.

In the case of the poor, some of the above ceremonies may be omitted; or chickens or smaller pigs may be substituted for any or all the pigs. The above programme is simply that which is to be followed out if the groom be financially able to do the "right thing."

In case the spouses are related, two pigs--a male and a female--are sacrificed, and the ceremony called ponga is performed. The larger pig is furnished by the boy. The nearer the kinship the larger the pigs necessary for this ceremony.

At no time are any vows or promises made by the principals. At no time, except in the fourth ceremony among the Northern Ifugao, do the principals have any active part in the ceremonies. Indeed, they may not eat the meat of the pigs or chickens killed at their own wedding, for it is taboo to them.

12. Gifts to the kin of the bride: hakba.--In the Kiangan area, but in no other, expensive gifts are made to the kin of the bride. These gifts are called hakba. Only in the case of the very poorest are gifts foregone. The gifts are distributed to the girl's kin, the nearer kin receiving the more valuable and the remote kin the less valuable articles. But the elder of a line of cousins by a single uncle, for example, receives a more valuable present, the next in age a less valuable one, the next in age a still less valuable one, and so on, the youngest getting nothing if he have many brothers and sisters. No distinction is made between male and female kin. The gifts may range from two death blankets, worth 16 pesos, to a spearhead worth 0.20 peso.

Except in the case of the poverty-stricken, there is nothing for it but to pay these presents. If they be not forthcoming, the kin of the woman seize the pig provided for the bubun ceremony, carry it home and guard it well till such time as the groom comes forward with the hakba gifts, when they return it for the ceremonial.

The following is a list of the hakba given by Dulinayan of Ambabag to Likyayu's family of the same village on the occasion of the marriage of the son of the former to the daughter of the latter.

12 clouts at P1 P12
10 woman's skirts at P2 20
42 death blankets at P8 336
10 woman's girdles at P2 20
10 war knives at P1 10
3 iron pots at P5 15
1 bayaó (blanket) at P5 5
1 rice-wine jar at P8 8
2 gansas at P8 16
620 "irons" (spears, knives,
axes, etc., at an average
value of P .50 each) 310
====
Total P752

Dulinayan stated at the time these notes were taken that there were a number of things omitted from the above list that he had forgotten; that he counted up the amount of all the hakba immediately after the feast, and that it totaled over 800 pesos.

A groom whose property placed him in the upper rank of the middle class would spend about 128 pesos as follows on hakba:

8 death blankets at P8 P64
128 "irons" at P.50 64
====
Total P128

A member of the lower middle class would spend about 92 pesos, and a member of the poorer class would spend about 36 pesos.

13. Obligations incurred by those who enter into a marriage contract.--First. The initial ceremony, the mommon, puts upon the principals in a marriage contract the obligation to abstain from sexual relations with any other persons. Sexual intercourse with any other person constitutes the crime of adultery. The degree of guilt for lapses in this respect depends on the progress that has been made toward the completion of the marriage, the culpability growing progressively with the performance of each succeeding marriage ceremonial.

Second. The obligation rests on the boy and his kin to furnish the immediate family of the girl with firewood from the time at which the first ceremony is performed until the young couple separate to live in a house by themselves.

Third. For the same period of time as that embraced in the preceding paragraph, the obligation rests on the boy and his kin to keep the granaries of the family of the girl in repair, and to reroof them whenever needful.

Fourth. Each family helps the other in all that pertains to rice culture throughout the first year following the bubun ceremony. Each family furnishes the other with the pig necessary for the sacrifice at each of the three important rice-culture feasts: the kulpe (growth feast), the kolating (harvest feast), and the tuldag (granary feast).

Fifth. From the time at which the first ceremony is performed until the dissolution of the marriage, it is the duty of either spouse to furnish a pig to the other in the event of the sickness of the other or of any of his or her lineal ascendants.

Sixth. For the same period as that embraced in the preceding paragraph it is the duty of either spouse to furnish the other in the event of the death of any of the lineal ascendants of the other, a pig and a death blanket.

If the spouses be too young to attend to any of their respective obligations to each other or to the families concerned, it is the duty of their parents to attend to the discharge of the obligations.

The non-fulfilment or the non-discharge of any of the above obligations is sufficient cause for a demand for a divorce on the part of the injured spouse. The Ifugao does not consider it to be the duty of any person to leave his father and mother and cling to his wife or husband. Rather does he consider the opposite to be the duty. A good many marriages are undone between children because of the non-fulfilment of one of these obligations on the part of one of the families involved. It matters not that the spouse be so young as to be of necessity innocent.

The husband has a right to have sexual intercourse with his wife. If she does not accede to his desires, he has the right to force her if he can, but he must not strike or injure her in his attempt. If he cannot force her, he may demand a divorce. Ordinarily no man can have sexual intercourse with an Ifugao woman possessed of her reason and of normal strength, against that woman's will.