The lakay is supposed to be well versed in the customs of the ancestors, and all matters of dispute or questions of policy are brought to him. If the case is one of special importance he will summon the other old men, who will deliberate and decide the question at issue. They have no means of enforcing their decisions other than the force of public opinion, but since an offender is ostracised, until he has met the conditions imposed by the elders, their authority is actually very great. Should a lakay deal unjustly with the people, or attempt to alter long established customs, he would be removed from office and another be selected in his stead. No salary or fees are connected with this office, the holder receiving his reward solely through the esteem in which he is held by his people.
In former times two or three villages would occasionally unite to form a loose union, the better to resist a powerful enemy, but with the coming of more peaceful times such beginnings of confederacies have vanished. During the Spanish regime attempts were made to organize the pagan communities and to give titles to their officers, but these efforts met with little success. Under American rule local self government, accompanied by several elective offices, has been established in many towns. The contest for office and government recognition of the officials is tending to break down the old system and to concentrate the power in the presidente or mayor.
It is probable that the early Tinguian settlement consisted of one Page 358or more closely related groups. Even to-day the family ties are so strong that it was found possible, in compiling the genealogical tables, to trace back the family history five or six generations.
These families are not distinguished by any totems, guardian spirits, or stories of supernatural origin, but the right to conduct the more important ceremonies is hereditary. Descent is traced through both the male and female lines, and inheritance is likewise through both sexes. There are no distinguishing terms for relations on the father's or mother's side, nor are there other traces of matriarchal institutions.
Families of means attain a social standing above that of their less fortunate townsmen, but there is no sharp stratification of the community into noble and serf, such as was coming into vogue along many parts of the coast at the time of the Spanish conquest, neither has slavery ever gained a foothold with this people. The wealthy often loan rice to the poor, and exact usury of about fifty per cent. Payment is made in service during the period of planting and harvesting, so that the labor problem is, to a large extent, solved for the land-holders. However, they customarily join the workers in the fields and take their share in all kinds of labor.
The concubines, known as pota (cf. p. 283), are deprived of certain rights, and they are held somewhat in contempt by the other women, but they are in no sense slaves. They may possess property, and their children may become leaders in Tinguian society.
The only group which is sharply separated from the mass is composed of the mediums, and they are distinctive only during the ceremonial periods. At other times they are treated in all respects as other members of the community.
On three occasions the writer has found men dressing like women, doing women's work, and spending their time with members of that sex. Information concerning these individuals has always come by accident, the people seeming to be exceedingly reticent to talk about them. In Plate [XXXVI] is shown a man in woman's dress, who has become an expert potter. The explanation given for the disavowal of his sex is that he donned women's clothes during the Spanish regime to escape road work, and has since then retained their garb. Equally unsatisfactory and unlikely reasons were advanced for the other cases mentioned.
It should be noted that similar individuals have been described from Zambales, Panay, from the Subanun of Mindanao, and from Borneo.[2] It has been suggested, with considerable probability, that Page 359at least a part of these are hermaphrodites, but in Borneo, where they act as priests, Roth states that they are unsexed before assuming their roles.
Laws.—Law, government, and custom are synonymous. Whatever the ancestors did is right, and hence has religious sanction. The lakay and his advisors will give their decisions according to the decrees of the past, if that is possible, but when precedent is lacking, they will deliberate and decide on a course. The following may be taken as typical of the laws or customs which regulate the actions of the people, within a group, toward one another.