Ifugao Law / (In American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 15, No. 1)

by Roy Franklin Barton

(3) To the cousins in order, first of degree, and second of primogeniture.

If the deceased were married, in the the inheritance of his property there are the following rules:

(1) The living spouse inherits the sole right in, and possession of, half the property jointly acquired by the spouses subsequent to their marriage. It is not, properly speaking, the property that is inherited: it is the sole right in what was a joint possession before.

(2) That half of the property jointly acquired by the spouses which is the share of the deceased, goes to his heirs, being divided (if his heirs be not his brothers and sisters or their descendants) equally between the heirs on the father’s side, and those on the mother’s side.

(3) The property that the deceased brought to the marriage and that which he acquired subsequently owing to and by virtue of his relationship to his family, goes to the deceased’s family.

Personal property acquired by the deceased and his spouse is not, however, taken from the surviving spouse. The above applies only to family property.

56. Property rights of bastards.—Bastards usually inherit approximately half the property of a father who dies without legitimate children, the other half going to those who would be the sole heirs had the father died childless. But if there be only one field, the bastard takes it.

Should a parent have only one legitimate child, the bastard inherits usually as if he were a younger legitimate child.

A bastard is entitled to a rice field from his father if the father has a rice field that is unassigned to a legitimate child. He is not entitled to any special value of fields, and as a rule, receives less than his legitimate brothers and sisters if there be such.

The above paragraphs apply equally to the bastard’s right in the property of his mother. He has, however, no kin to enforce his rights against his mother. Since he is of illegitimate birth, the kin of the father are not in a position to enforce his rights against her; while his mother’s kin would not take issue in any matter for him against their nearer kin, his mother. If the mother marries after the birth of the bastard, she usually makes a settlement on her bastard child before marrying. Not infrequently he who marries a woman having a bastard child recognizes that child as his own, and even assigns him a portion of his property. The following are examples: