Social

Datu

datu - head of the Visayan community, principal, chief or a lord of vassals kadatoan - datus regarded as autonomous.

The right to rule depended on direct descent from former rules, so members of the datu class jealousy guarded their lineage: a man who became a datu by simply marrying one was called sabali.

tumao - lesser order of nobility, children of datus with their secondary wives

Datu

There was no word for a primary datu or paramount chief but those recognized as primus inter pares (first among equals) were known as pangulo, head or leader kaponoan, most sovereign or makaporos nga datu, a unifying chief A datus authority arose from his lineage, but his power depended upon his wealth, the number of his slaves and subjects, and his reputation for physical prowess. Some were autocratic and oppressive.

Timawa

freemen or freedmen originally the offspring or descendants of a datus commoner wives or concubines ginoo - all persons liberated by their own master (freedmen) buhis or handug - trubute paid by timawa to the datu timawa were theoretically free to transfer their allegiance to some other datu but those attached to their lord as personal vassals paid no tribute and rendered no agricultural labor

Timawa

Timawa were therefore men of consequence in the community. But they were not often men of substance; If they were wealthy enough to behave like a datu, they were belittled as timindok, a big banana. They had no right to booty beyond what their datu can gave them , and they were held accountable for wounding or killing any captives.

Oripun / Olipun

(etymology) appears to be a transitive form of an archaic root udip meaning to let live. Individual status within the oripun class depended on birthright, inherited or acquired debt. bihag - outright captives ; marketed by dealers in along or botong as expensive merchandise like bahandi procelain and gongs, or ships and houses hayohay [hayahay?] or ayuey - Oripun who lived in their masters house gintubo children of hayohay; sibin or ginogotan favorite gintubo of their masters mamahay or tulay olipuns with their own house bulan or pikas half-slaves tinubos redeemed or ransomed olipun horohan higher class of olipun

Debt and dependence

Visayan social fabric was thus woven of debt and dependence-that is, relationships in which one person was dependent on the decisions of another, the one exercising choice, the other not. The slave did not choose work for his master, bit his master might choose to grant him a favor. tagolaling - days given a slave to work for himself.

Debt

sulit a debt without interest, a sale without profit, or a crop without increase gaon a kind of involuntary collateral seized until the debt was paid tokot to make sure was to collect a debt from somebody other than the debtor who thus effectively acquired a new creditor who then had to collect as best he could

Community

A datus following was his haop or dolohan bongto or lungsod - villages and towns where one or more haop lived gamuro - hamlets or neighborhoods a cluster of houses required datu concensus, and so did alliances between settlements members of haop were usually related a parentela or kindred

Kinship Terms

Parents brothers and sisters were differentiated by sex

uncles - yoyo, oyo-an or bata, aunts - iyaan or dada

anak - sons and daughters, offspring igaanak, igsoon, igmanhod, igtotood or atod brothers , sisters and cousins of either sex patod or ig-agaw - cousins igkampor - second cousins in Kiniray-a bogto or boggong tinay, gut brothers, children of the same parents

Law

part of the customs and traditions handed down from one generation to another not considered products of legislation but part of the natural order of things A datu acted as judge (hukom) in both civil clams and criminal cases, sometimes in consultation with an expert in custom law, by hearing testimony of sworn witnesses Penalties were fines set in accord with the litigants standing

crimes against upper-class persons were fined more heavily, and an oripun who murdered a datu was simply killed outright

Marriage

Weddings between people without property to share by request were simple ceremonies in which the couple partook of the same cup or plate hayohay were simply married off by their masters and given a few pots. datu weddings were the most important social events in a Visayan community since they were contracts between families rather than individuals; they were also political events creating new alliances marriage was forbidden between first-degree kin, but a niece could marry her uncle

Inheritance

Children of both sexes inherited equally unless their parents specified preference in a will (bilin) A man and wife might bequeath to each conjugal property which they had accumulated together, but not what they had inherited

Property

The property mentioned in bride-price exchanges or inheritance disputes was always slaves and bahandi imported porcelains and gongs and gold, especially ornate gold ornaments whose value greatly exceeded their gold content Slaves were readily transferable, but bahandi was alienated only in case of dire family emergency, though it was sometimes loaned out in exchange for servitude

Labor

Labor was itself a commodity that could be bought and sold

namomoo - to work in somebody elses house, most frequently weaving lihog - hired hands compensated only with meals and with a feast when project was completed himakdul - compensation given an agent or messenger for difficult service hinguli - a kind of hazardous duty pay on expeditions like those called moro-moro after the Spaniards introduced the concept