Power and Religion Reconsidered

Political power in prewar Buguias rested largely on wealth legitimated by ritual performance. If any baknang couple had tried to shirk their ritual responsibility (an unthinkable occurrence), their position would have faltered, for it depended critically on popular

support. The elite had few real means of coercion in the indigenous system; even in exercising political power they worked with, not against, the public. The commoners accepted elite domination in part because the wealthy, by feasting the entire village, proved themselves worthy of respect, and, by honoring the ancestors, helped ensure the prosperity of all Buguias people.

Most Buguias residents considered the differentiation of human society into rich and poor, powerful and weak, to be the natural order of things. Social stratification pervaded their universe, being marked just as strongly in heaven as on earth. The gods of Benguet were noted above all else for their wealth, as is evident in Sacla's (1987:53–56) masterful translations of ritual chants:

It is said, Pati came down;
The progenitor of the wealth and mighty;
He came down with pigs, your pigs . . .
It is said, Balitoc came down
Whose gold scales balance perfectly;
A precious scale used in Suyoc;
Yes, because he is wealthy and mighty;
He came with pigs, your pigs . . .
It is said Kabigat came down;
With precious coins in the amount of twelve and a half;
He used to purchase pigs for pedit;
Yes, because he is wealthy and mighty;
He came down with pigs, your pigs . . .
It is said Lumawig came down;
He has power to cast out evil;
Yes, because he is wealthy and mighty;
He came down with pigs, your pigs . . .
It is said, Bangan came down,
Bangan from Langilangan;
Wearing an alad-dang blanket;
She wore such garment because
she is rich and mighty . . .

Even nature spirits in Buguias were class-divided. The wealthy timungao, of course, could cause much greater harm or bestow much better fortune than their more modest colleagues. If a human were to break an (invisible) porcelain jar of a baknang ni timungao , serious consequences could be avoided only through a very expensive ritual.

But individual class positions, whether in human or ancestral society, were never regarded as ordained; it was rather the economic interactions between these two spheres that allowed mobility in both. As everyone hoped to prosper, the luck-bestowing ancestors lay at the focus of religious life. Although individuals competed for material gain, their relations with their forebears ultimately hinged on communal engagements. The centrifugal tendencies of a commercial and competitive society were partly balanced by the centripetal forces inherent in common worship and food sharing.

In more immediate material terms, however, the resources necessary both for upward mobility and for the wealthy to maintain their positions were derived largely from interregional trade. It is this mercantile sphere, which also formed the essential preconditions for Buguias's later commercial transformation, that we shall now examine.