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134 PEOPLES OF THE PHILIPPINES 
much in his lesser development thereof, as in the fact 
that the channels through which his law operates are 
distinctly non-political. | 
The Barangay Community. The Filipino thus 
follows in his community life a social grouping which we 
have largely replaced by a political one. Wherever he 
has remained primitive, the structural basis of his 
society is either the family of blood relatives or the 
barangay. In the main, these two plans coincide. The 
barangay is a group of people living in one locality and 
following one leader; they are either his kinsmen, his 
slaves, or his economic dependents. The basis of this 
unit seems to be the kin group, subsequently expanded 
by the inclusion of those who voluntarily or involun- 
tarily have come into more or less permanent relation 
with it. The barangay was the plan on which the 
majority of the coast dwellers who are now Christian 
were organized at the time of discovery. 
In the mountains of Luzon, the barangay is not so 
clearly defined, but actual conditions are not very 
different. As direct slavery is little developed, all in- 
dividuals in the community are nearly on a single level, 
adhering among one another largely in virtue of their 
degree of kinship. Inasmuch as relationship is reckoned 
equally in the male and female line, it is obvious that 
every person is a member, through his father and 
mother, of two kin groups; and of course of a larger 
number as he traces his descent farther back. If one of 
the several groups with which he is thus connected has 
its interests affected, he immediately acts with it. 
When the occasion has passed, he may the next time be 
called upon to join another group. If two groups clash 
with which he is about equally affiliated, he is likely to 
serve as intermediary, to use every effort to bring about 
a reconcilement, and in this way to preserve to a con- 

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