[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.
The Property Law
The Kinds of Property
32. The Ifugao’s classification of properties.—The Ifugao clearly distinguishes between two classes of property. His language, and indeed his thought, is very poor in abstractions, however, and he bases his classification upon the difference in the method of transferring property by sale. The one class he calls ma-ibuy, “that for whose transfer by sale an ibuy ceremony is necessary”; and the other, adi ma-ibuy, “that for whose transfer by sale an ibuy ceremony is not necessary.” Classifying them upon their essential differences in status in Ifugao law and culture, I term the former family property and the latter personal property.
Family Property
33. The Ifugao attitude toward family property.—Family properties consist of rice lands, forest lands, and heirlooms. The Ifugao attitude is that lands and articles of value that have been handed down from generation to generation cannot be the property of any individual. Present holders possess only a transient and fleeting possession, or better, occupation, insignificant in duration in comparison with the decades and perhaps centuries that have usually elapsed since the field or heirloom came into the possession of the family. Their possession is more of the nature of a trust than an absolute ownership—a holding in trust for future generations.