The Bontoc Igorot eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 387 pages of information about The Bontoc Igorot.

The Bontoc Igorot eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 387 pages of information about The Bontoc Igorot.
did not include Chakong; it was discovered only when the pueblo was platted, and at that time my informants sought to pass it over by saying “It is Chakong, but it has no pa-ba-fu’-nan.”  The explanation of the obscurity of Chakong in the minds of the Igorot seems to be that the a’-to ceremonial is more important than the a’-to council —­ that the emotional and not the mental is held uppermost, that the people of Bontoc flow together through feeling better than they drive together through cold force or control.

The a’-to ceremonials of Chakong are held in the pa-ba-fu’-nan of neighboring a’-to, as in Sigichan, Pudpudchog, or Filig, and this seems partially to destroy the esprit de corps of the unfortunate a’-to.

Each a’-to has a fa’-wi building —­ a structure greatly resembling to the pa-ba-fu’-nan, and impossible to be distinguished from it by one looking at the structure from the outside.  The fa’-wi and pa-ba-fu’-nan are shown in Pls.  XXX, XXXI, and XXXII.  Pl.  XXIX shows a section of Sipaat a’-to with its fa’-wi and pa-ba-fu’-nan.  The fa’-wi is the a’-to council house; as such it is more frequented by the old men than by the younger.  The fa’-wi also shelters the skulls of human heads taken by the a’-to.  Outside the pueblo, along certain trails, there are simple structures also called “fa’-wi,” shelters where parties halt for feasts, etc., while on various ceremonial journeys.

The fa’-wi and pa-ba-fu’-nan of each a’-to are near together, and in five they are under the same roof, though there is no doorway for intercommunication.  What was said of the pa-ba-fu’-nan as a social center is equally true of the fa’-wi; each is the lounging place of men and boys, and the dormitory of unmarried males.

In Samoki each of the eight a’-to has only one public building, and that is known simply as “a’-to.”

One is further convinced of an extensive early movement of the primitive Malayan from its pristine nest by the presence of institutions similar to the pa-ba-fu’-nan and fa’-wi over a vast territory of the Asiatic mainland as well as the Asiatic Islands and Oceania.  That these widespread institutions sprang from the same source will be seen clearly in the quotations appearing in the footnote below.[11] The visible exponent of the institutions is a building forbidden to women, the functions of which are several; it is a dormitory for men —­ generally unmarried men —­ a council house, a guardhouse, a guest house for men, a center for ceremonials of the group, and a resting place for the trophies of the chase and war —­ a “head house.”

Olag

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The Bontoc Igorot from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.