Reciprocal Obligations of Parents and Their Children

30. Duties of parents to children.—The Ifugao family exists principally for the child members of it. The parents are supposed to love, and do love their children more than the children love them. The parents are under the obligation to provide food and clothing for their children, and to impart to them the tribal knowledge that is necessary to a respectable and well regulated Ifugao life. The child may be forced to assist, according to his ability, in the matter of household tasks, work in the fields, and the like.

Corporal punishment may be, but very rarely is, administered. It is the mothers, strange to say, rather than the fathers, who use this form of punishment. I never saw or heard of a father whipping his child. Such a thing as a right of life and death over a child is as unthought of, as it would be abhorrent, to the Ifugao if mentioned.

The Ifugao child, even at the age of ten or twelve, begins to look upon his parents’ property as his own, or at least that portion of it that will fall to his share. A little later, he becomes independent—he does not obey his parents unless he wants to do so. He is fully as likely to command them as to obey them. And the parent is under the obligation early to allow the children to displace him from his possession. He must turn over all his property to them as soon as they are able to marry or care for themselves. Should there be but a single field, he assigns it to his eldest. From the time that the fields are turned over, the father’s offices are those of priest and counselor; the mother’s offices are those of priestess (sometimes) and of household drudge (always).

31. Obligations of children to parents.—The obligations of children to their parents are:

(a) To provide animals and other things requisite to religious feasts that are thought necessary to keep them in good health and to restore them when sick. This obligation is by far the most burdensome one, usually.

(b) To provide food and clothing for them, and to care for them when sick or helpless.

In case the child has not yet obtained possession of his allotment, these obligations do not rest upon the child, but are a charge upon the property allotted him. If the child has obtained possession of his share in the family estate, the obligation rests upon the child himself.

The law of primogeniture holds with respect to these obligations. Civil obligations rest more heavily upon the older children and as nearly as possible in proportion to the amounts of property received from the parents. Children who receive no family property contribute very little.

One might ask how compliance with these obligations is enforced. Compliance with them is really not enforced. They are the most sacred of all duties. Not to meet them would bring upon one’s self such universal reproach as to render life unbearable.

[1] When the Ifugao sacrifices a chicken or pig, he always consults the omen of the bile sac. A full distended bile sac normally placed is a good omen. An empty one, or one abnormally placed is a bad omen. Needless to say, most omens are good.

[2] There is a feeling on the part of the social consciousness that marriages ought to be permanent—that it is better when such is the case. Inasmuch, however, as all the uncles and aunts consider themselves, and, in the scheme of the reckoning of Ifugao relationships are considered, in loco parentis with respect to their nephews and nieces, and almost equally bound with the parents themselves to impart instruction and give training, the removal of one parent is of little detriment to the mental and moral phase of the rearing of children.

[3] I prefer using the term contract marriage to using antenuptial agreement. The latter is an occidental institution of which the reader has a definite notion. The contract marriage is different in motive and nature.

[4] Stumbling is not merely a prognostication; it is also a cause. It would tend to bring about that he who stumbled would die or be unfortunate if he went ahead with the marriage.

[5] Family property: for definition see [sec. 33].

[6] For an explanation of the Ifugao’s method of making payments and of reckoning fines and indemnities, see [sec. 75].

[7] The fact that an Ifugao spouse remains always a member of the family of his blood kindred, and that the ties binding him to his conjugal partner are light indeed is shown by the fact that, at his death, funeral expenses fall mainly on his father and mother and brothers and sisters.

[8] The Ifugao reckons kinship by generations. Those of a contemporaneous generation are tulang, brothers and sisters, children of the preceding generation of blood relatives, grandchildren of the generation of ascendants twice removed, fathers of the succeeding generation, and so on (see [appendix 1]).

[9] It is a Malay’s pride never to be caught without an explanation or excuse. However flimsy or absurd this may be, or perhaps in proportion to its absurdity, he advances it boldly and brazenly.