360 \ The Tinguian 



or 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 com- 

 munity 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. Pay- 

 ment 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 com- 

 posed of the mediums, and they are distinctive only during the cere- 

 monial 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. 1 It has been suggested, with considerable probability, that 



1 Combes, Historia de las islas de Mindanao (Madrid, 1667), translated by 

 Blair and Robertson, Vol. XL, p. 160; Vol. XLVII, p. 300. Ling Roth, Natives 

 of Sarawak and British North Borneo, Vol. II, p. 270, et seq. (London, 1896). 



