Part 1

# Ifugao Law: (In American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 15, No. 1) ### By Barton, Roy Franklin

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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]