Ifugao Law

“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.

6. Polygamy 17
7. Nature of marriage 17
8. Eligibility to marriage 18
9. The two ways in which marriage may be brought about 18
10. Contract marriage 19
11. Marriage ceremonials 21
12. Gifts to the kin of the bride: hakba 22
13. Obligations incurred by those who enter into a marriage contract 24
14. The binawit relation 25
15. Property rights acquired by marriage 26

Remarriage of the widowed 27

16. The gibu payment to terminate marriage 27

Divorce 30

17. Divorce because of necessity 30
18. Divorce for mutual benefit 30
19. Divorce which may be demanded by either party 30
20. Cases where divorce may be demanded by one party or the other 31
21. The hudhud, or payment for mental anguish 32
22. Divorce ceremonies 33
23. Property settlements in case of divorce 33

Dependents in relation to family law 34

24. Adopted children 34
25. Servants 34
26. Slaves 35

Illegitimate children 36

27. Definition of illegitimacy; its frequency 36
28. Obligations of father to bastard child 36
29. Determination of parentage 37

Reciprocal obligation of parents and their children 37

30. Duties of parents to children 37
31. Obligations of children to parents 38

The Property Law

The kinds of property 39

32. The Ifugao’s classification of properties 39

Family property 39

33. The Ifugao attitude toward family property 39
34. Rice lands 40
35. Forest lands 40
36. Heirlooms 40
37. Sale of family property 41

Personal property 41

38. Definition 41
39. Houses 41
40. Valuable trees 41

Perpetual tenure 42

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

Transient tenure 43

45. Tenure of sweet potato fields 43

Transfers of property for a consideration 44

46. The balal 44
47. Sales of family property 45
48. Responsibility of seller after property has left his hands 49

Transfers of property arising from family relationships 50

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

Settlements of debts of the aged and deceased 55

60. When the debtor has children 55
61. When the debtor is childless but leaves a spouse 55
62. Debts for which the kin of the deceased are held 55
63. Attitude toward debts 56

Borrowing and lending 56

64. Lupe, or interest 56
65. Patang, or interest paid in advance 56
66. Another form of patang 57

Go-betweens 57

67. The go-between 57
68. Responsibility of go-betweens 57
69. Conditions relieving a go-between of responsibility 58
70. Payment due those who find the body of one dead by violence 58

Contracts for the sale of property 59

71. On whom binding 59

Irrigation law 59

Penal Law

Penalties 61

75. Nature and reckoning of fines 61

Circumstances which affect penalty 63

76. Moral turpitude not a factor 63

Penal responsibility 63

77. The nungolat, or principal 63
78. The tombok, or “thrower” 64
79. Iba’n di nungolat, “the companions of the one who was strong” 64
80. The montudol, “shower,” or informer 64
81. Servants who commit crimes at the bidding of their masters 64
82. Likelihood to punishment 65
83. Drunkenness and insanity in relation to criminal responsibility 65
84. The relation of intent to criminal responsibility 65

Other factors affecting liability 66

85. Alienship 66
86. Confession 66
87. Kinship 67
88. Rank and standing in the community 67
89. Importance of influential position and personality 68
89a. Cripples and unfortunates 68

The principal crimes and their frequency 69

90. List of offenses 69

Sorcery 70

Adultery 72

94. Forms of adultery 72
95. Punishment of adultery 73
96. Sex in relation to punishment for adultery 74

The taking of life 75

97. General considerations 75
98. Executions justifiable by Ifugao law 76
99. Feuds 77
100. War 77
101. Head-taking 78
102. Hibul, or homicide 78
103. Attempts to murder 79
104. Wounding 79
105. Special liability of the givers of certain feasts 79
106. The labod, fine assessed for homicide 81
107. Accidental killing of animals 82
108. Malicious killing of animals 83

Putting another in the position of an accomplice 83

109. The tokom, or fine for compromising another 83

Theft 85

Arson 87

114. Fines assessed for goba or arson 87

Kidnapping 87

115. Circumstances under which kidnapping may occur 87

Incest 88

116. Rarity of such offenses 88

Rape 88

117. Both parties being unmarried 88
118. Rape of a married woman by an unmarried man 89
119. Rape of a married woman by a married man 89

Ma-hailyu, or minor offenses 89

120. False accusation 89
121. Baag or slander 90
122. Threats of violence 90
123. Insult 90

Procedure

The family in relation to procedure 92

124. Family unity and coöperation 92

The monkalun or go-between 94

125. Nature of his duties 94

Testimony 95

126. Litigants do not confront each other 95

Ordeals 96

Execution of justice 99

133. Retaliation 99
134. Seizure of chattels 100
135. Seizure of rice fields 102
136. Enforced hospitality 103
137. Kidnapping or seizure of persons 104
138. Cases illustrating seizure and kidnapping 104

The paowa or truce 107

139. The usual sense of the term “paowa” 107
140. Another sense of the term “paowa” 107

Termination of controversies: peace-making 108

141. The hidit or religious aspects of peace-making 108

An inter-village law 109

142. Neutrality 109

Appendices

I. Ifugao reckoning of relationship 110
II. Connection of religion with procedure 110
III. Parricide 120
IV. Concubinage among the Kalingas 121

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.

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Ifugao Law

Contents

Preface