
CHAPTER IV 
SOCIETY 
HE basic plan of Filipino society is one that 
a: dispenses wholly with constituted authority. 
Men of course differ in influence according to 
wealth, bravery, and wisdom; and the station in 
life they acquire tends strongly to be passed on 
to their sons by inheritance, particularly so far 
as it rests on the important factor of property. 
Authority over other men, however, is not trans- 
mitted, because such authority does not exist. In 
short, the primitive Filipino lacks totally the concept 
of the state which is so fundamental in all our thought 
about social groups. This does not mean that the 
Filipino lacks a system of law; in fact, as shown in a 
following section, he possesses a rather elaborate law 
and lives up to its theoretical justice to about the same 
degree as do we. These may seem contradictory state- 
ments. But they are so only from the point of view of 
our own civilization, which derives law from the state; 
whereas it is clear from the history of human culture 
that definitely regulatory law codes are in general far 
more ancient than definitely organized states. In fact, 
it would seem that the Filipino’s law is intricate and 
refined just in proportion as he has remained primi- 
tively non-political. His beginnings in the direction of 
state organization were made through the channel of 
kingship; and it is plain that autocracy, although it 
may coincide with law, can get along with a minimum 
thereof, whereas when every man is every man’s equal, 
some generally accepted system of right and wrong must 
prevail or chaos ensue. The difference, then, between 
the primitive Filipino and ourselves is not at all in the 
respective absence and presence of law, nor even so 
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