Tribute, tax, and “rake off”
There is no true systematic tribute, tax, or “rake off” among the Bontoc Igorot, nor am I aware that such occurs at all commonly sporadically. However, tribute, tax, and “rake off” are all found in pure Malayan culture in the Archipelago, as among the Moros of the southern islands.
Tribute may be paid more or less regularly by one group of people to a stronger, or to one in a position to harass and annoy—for the protection of the stronger, or in acknowledgment of submission, or to avoid harassment or annoyance. Nothing of the sort exists in Bontoc. The nearest approach to it is the exchange of property, as carabaos or hogs, between two pueblos at the time a peace is made between them—at which time the one sueing for peace makes by far the larger payment, the other payment being mere form. This transaction, as it occurs in Bontoc, is a recognition of submission and of inferiority, and is, as well, a guarantee of a certain amount of protection. However, such payments are not made at all regularly and do not stand as true tributes, though in time they might grow to be such.
Nothing in the nature of a tax for the purpose of supporting a government exists in Bontoc. The nearest approach to it is in a practice which grew up in Spanish time but is of Igorot origin. When to-day cargadors are required by Americans, as when Government supplies must be brought in, the members of each cargador’s ato furnish him food for the journey, though the cargador personally receives and keeps the wage for the trip. The furnishing of food seems to spring from the feeling that the man who goes on the journey is the public servant of those who remain—he is doing an unpleasant duty for his ato fellows. If this were carried one step further, if the rice were raised and paid for carrying on some regular function of the Igorot pueblo, it would be a true tax. It may be true, and probably is, in pure Igorot society that if men were sent by an ato on some mission for that ato they would receive support while gone. This would readily develop into a true tax if those public duties were to be performed continually, or even frequently with regularity.
“Rake off,” or, as it is known in the Orient, “squeeze,” is so common that every one—Malay, Chino, Japanese, European, and American—expects his money to be “squeezed” if it passes through another’s hands or another is instrumental in making a bargain for him. In much of the Igorot territory surrounding the Bontoc area “rake off” occurs—it follows the advent of the “headman.” It is one of the direct causes why, in Igorot society, the headman is almost always a rich man. During the hunting stage of human development no “rich man” can come up, as is illustrated by the primitive hunter folk of North America. As soon, however, as there are productions which may be traded in, there is a chance for one man to take advantage of his fellows and accumulate a part of their productions—this opportunity occurs among primitive agricultural people. The Bontoc area, however, has no “headman,” no “rich man,” and, consequently, no “rake off.”
[1] No true cats are known to be indigenous to the Philippines, but the one shown in the plate was a wild mountain animal and was a true cat, not a civet. Its ancestors may have been domestic.
[2] This estimate was obtained by a primitive surveying outfit as follows:
A rifle, with a bottle attached used for a liquid level, was sighted from a camera tripod. A measuring tape attached to the tripod showed the distance of the rifle above the surface of the water. A surveyor’s tape measured the distance between the tripod and the leveling rod, which also had an attached tape to show the distance of the point sighted above the surface of the water.
I am indebted to Mr. W. F. Smith, American teacher in Bontoc, for assisting me in obtaining these measurements.
The strength of the scaffolding supporting the troughs is suggested by the statement that the troughs were brimming full of swift-running water, while our “surveying” party of four adults, accompanied by half a dozen juvenile Igorot sightseers, weighed about 900 pounds, and was often distributed along in the troughs, which we waded, within a space of 30 feet.
[3] Munia jagori (Martens).
[4] Mr. Elmer D. Merrill.
[5] Mr. F. A. Thanisch.
[6] Igorrotes, Estudio Geográfico y Etnográfico sobre algunos Distritos del Norte de Luzon, by R. P. Fr. Angel Pérez (Manila), 1902.
[7] This typical Malayan bellows is also found in Siam, and is shown in a half tone from a photograph facing page 186 of Maxwell Somerville’s Siam on the Meinam from the Gulf to Aynthia (London, Sampson Low, Marston & Co., 1897).
There is also a crude woodcut of this bellows printed as fig. 2, Pl. XIV, in The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. XXII. With the illustration is the information that the bellows is found in Assam, Salwin, Sumatra, Java, Philippines, and Madagascar.
[8] It is believed to be either a Porcelain (Porcelana) or a Spider (Maioidea) crab.
[9] Analysis made for this study by Bureau of Government Laboratories, Manila, P.I., February 21, 1903.
[10] Charles A. Goessmann in Universal Cyclopædia, vol. X (1900), p. 274.
Chapter V
Political Life and Control
It is impossible to put one’s hand on any one man or any one group of men in Bontoc pueblo of whom it may be said, “Here is the control element of the pueblo.”
Nowhere has the Malayan attained national organization. He is known in the Philippines as a “provincial,” but in most districts he is not even that. The Bontoc Igorot has not even a clan organization, to say nothing of a tribal organization. I fail to find a trace of matriarchy or patriarchy, or any mark of a kinship group which traces relationship farther than first cousins.
The Spaniard created a “presidente” and a “vice-presidente” for the various pueblos he sought to control, but these men, as often Ilokano as Igorot, were the avenue of Spanish approach to the natives—they were almost never the natives’ mouthpiece. The influence of such officials was not at all of the nature to create or foster the feeling of political unity.
Aside from these two pueblo officers the government and control of the pueblo is purely aboriginal. Each ato, of which, as has been noted, there are seventeen, has its group of old men called “ĭn-tug-tu′-kan.” This ĭn-tug-tu′-kan is not an organization, except that it is intended to be perpetual, and, in a measure, self-perpetuating. It is a thoroughly democratic group of men, since it is composed of all the old men in the ato, no matter how wise or foolish, rich or poor—no matter what the man’s social standing may be. Again, it is democratic—the simplest democracy—in that is has no elective organization, no headmen, no superiors or inferiors whose status in the ĭn-tug-tu′-kan is determined by the members of the group. The feature of self-perpetuation displays itself in that it decides when the various men of the ato become am-a′-ma, “old men,” and therefore members of the ĭn-tug-tu′-kan. A person is told some day to come and counsel with the ĭn-tug-tu′-kan, and thenceforth he is a member of the group.
In all matters with which the ĭn-tug-tu′-kan deals it is supreme in its ato, but in the ato only; hence the opening statement of the chapter that no man or group of men holds the control of the pueblo. The life of the several ato has been so similar for such a number of generations that, in matters of general interest, the thoughts of one ĭn-tug-tu′-kan will be practically those of all others. For instance, there are eight ceremonial occasions on which the entire pueblo rests from agricultural labors, simply because each ato observes the same ceremonials on identical days. In one of these ceremonials, all the men of the entire pueblo have a rock contest with all the men of Samoki. Again, when a person of the pueblo has been killed by another pueblo treacherously or in ambush, or in any way except by fair fight, the pueblo as a unit hastens to avenge the death on the pueblo of the slayer.
In such matters as these—matters of common defense and offense, matters of religion wherein food supply is concerned—custom has long since crystallized into an act of democratic unity what may once have been the result of the councils of all the ĭn-tug-tu′-kan of the pueblo. It is customary for an ato to rest from agricultural labor on the funeral day of any adult man, but the entire pueblo thus seeks to honor at his death the man who was old and influential.
There is little differentiation of the functions of the ĭn-tug-tu′-kan. It hears, reviews, and judges the individual disagreements of the members of the ato and makes laws by determining custom. It also executes its judgments or sees that they are executed. It makes treaties of peace, sends and accepts or rejects challenges of war for its ato. In case of interato disagreements of individuals the two ĭn-tug-tu′-kan meet and counsel together, representing the interests of the persons of their ato. In other words, the pueblo is a federation made up of seventeen geographical and political units, in each of which the members recognize that their sanest, ripest wisdom dwells with the men who have had the longest experience in life; and the group of old men—sometimes only one man and sometimes a dozen—is known as ĭn-tug-tu′-kan, and its wisdom is respected to the degree that it is regularly sought and is accepted as final judgment, being seldom ignored or dishonored. In matters of a common interest the pueblo customarily acts as a unit. Probably could it not so act, factions would result causing separation from the federation. This state of things is hinted as one of the causes why the ancestors of present Samoki separated from the pueblo of Bontoc. The fact that they did separate is common knowledge, and a cause frequently assigned is lack of space to develop. However, there may have been disagreement.