Ideological Incorporation and Rank Competition within the Aristocracy

In precolonial Magindanaon society, a close correspondence obtained between datu status and political and economic predominance. As detailed in the chapter that follows, the Magindanaon nobility composed a ruling class that extracted tribute in various forms from ordinary Muslims and other subject peoples. Many aristocrats also invested the wealth so obtained in trading or raiding expeditions and further enriched themselves. Ideological instruments existed that promoted ruling class closure and authorized existing social arrangements. The foremost of these were the tarsilas themselves. With the single exception of the tarsila of the descendants of Tabunaway (which does not trace descent from Sarip Kabungsuwan), the Magindanaon tarsilas provide a charter for an aristocratic ruling class. They provide "proofs of legitimacy" (Majul 1973, 3) for a tribute-taking elite, most importantly by asserting descent from the Prophet Muhammad through a sharif line and thus justifying the role of datus as political and religious leaders.

In addition to the written genealogical accounts, there were formal and informal oral traditions that advanced an ideology of aristocracy. Taritib (from the Arabic "tartib," meaning "order" or "sequence") refers to a body of oral guidelines or regulations concerning the proper criteria for the choice of a sultan and the procedure for his installation and, generally, to the protocol governing relations between the sultan, datus, and subordinate classes. Taritib may still occasionally be heard in Cotabato orated by elder members of the royal houses on Magindanaon radio programs.

Aside from taritib, there were a number of anecdotes, adages, and precepts concerning the Magindanaon nobility that circulated within the ruling class. The highest-ranking members of the aristocracy were perceived to have "Arab" features, that is, relatively light skin and aquiline noses. Datu Kasim told me that the phrase "Watu na Ulu" (head of stone) referred to the conviction that every Magindanaon community required a strong leader identified with the nobility. The precedence of highborn status over acquired wealth was affirmed in various narratives (compare Gullick 1958, 65). Hadji Abbas related one such narrative told to him by his parents. It concerns a welldressed young man of modest rank who attended a celebration at the house of the datu and sat in a prominent place. An elder relative of the datu could only afford poor clothes and so sat far from the datu. When

the datu noticed this, he had his armed retainers remove the well-dressed man and seat the datu's poor relation in his place. A proverb accompanied the story: "You wear a rich garment and I only a poor one; but when we arrive at the court of the datu, there we shall see which of us shines with the golden radiance of nobility."^[19]

Other cautionary proverbs were sung by bayuk performers—praise singers who performed at special ceremonial occasions of the nobility. The familiar metaphor used in these proverbs was that of the small bird who endeavors to fly very high but in the end falls back to his old nest. The admonition was to young men of questionable status who wished to marry high-ranking women but lacked proper genealogical qualifications.

The principal impulse for the status-related behavior of individual members of the traditional Magindanaon ruling class was rank competition. Gullick's observation for the Malay states, that "the concept of differential status was one of the main interests and values of the ruling class" (1958, 66), is equally accurate for the Cotabato sultanates. The sultan was the apex of the ruling class in each state and the point of reference by which members of the aristocracy determined their relative status. Sultans, ideally, were distinguished by their pulna status; those individuals designated as pulna were able to trace direct ancestry from Sarip Kabungsuwan through both parents.^[20]

Within the datu estate as a whole, claims to status rank were predicated upon the quality and quantity of descent lines linking an individual to Sarip Kabungsuwan. The quality of a descent line was determined by its association with an inherited, ranked title. These titles originally corresponded with specific offices conferred by a sultan upon particular individuals. Such titles were inherited and often lost any direct connection with a functional administrative position while remaining significant status markers.^[21]

Judicious marriages were vital for maintaining or increasing family status among the Magindanaon nobility. The rule of hypergamy—mandating that a woman could only be given in marriage to a man of equal or higher rank—ensured, for instance, that the offspring of a woman of pulna status would always remain pulna. However, it also meant that women flowed up through the ranking system as parents endeavored to contract marriages for their daughters that would increase the status of their grandchildren's line. Because tribute-takers were also wife-takers, the rule of hypergamy also encouraged particular forms of class exogamy as datus obtained junior wives from among

their non-elite followers. With descent figured cognatically, so that kinship links through females mattered, a formally straightforward status system was, in practice, quite complex.^[22]

Because of the rule of hypergamy and the practice of polygyny, a sultan or other titleholder would likely have numerous recognized offspring whose status ranks ranged from pulna to the lowest status levels of the datu estate (through unions with endatuan or ulipun wives). This was advantageous for a ruler, who was thus possessed of a number of daughters of differing ranks whom he could bestow on various datu allies without violating the rule of hypergamy (Beckett 1982).^[23] Because the Cotabato sultanates lacked a rule of primogeniture, succession to a title was open to competition. Potential conflict was limited, however, by taking into account the status of the mother as well as the father of the claimant. In this way, the inheritance rights of rival claimants—half brothers, for instance—might be decided on the basis of fine distinctions in their relative maratabat, or rank (Beckett 1982).

The effect of the combination of rank gradations within the datu estate, cognatic descent reckoning, and status group exogamy was to render the ideal of discrete valuations of maratabat based on social categories impractical and largely irrelevant. With the children of differently ranked parents allocated to a rank intermediate between those of their parents, the system of prestige stratification generated an "intergraded spectrum of rank" (Stewart 1977, 290) rather than sharply defined status groups. Just as marriage was the major vehicle for rank enhancement, bridewealth determination was the primary occasion for the public evaluation of a family's maratabat. Bridewealth negotiations were complex and delicate affairs necessitated by the status refinements produced by almost every marriage union (compare W. H. Scott 1982).

As instruments for the determination of relative status, tarsilas were considered private warrants rather than public documents. Although they served to define and delimit the aristocracy, their principal purpose was to assign rank within it. A tarsila, in other words, was possessed primarily to substantiate the rank of its holder, but it might also be employed to ascertain the rank of other individuals in specific situations for the purpose of assessing—in an ad hoc manner—one's maratabat relative to a particular other.^[24] Titleholders employed tarsilas to seat guests at ceremonial occasions according to rank. Hadji Abbas related the following story about the use of tarsilas by individual

datus to assess relative rank: "When boats passed by the house of a datu, their passengers were required to fold or lower their umbrellas unless they were of higher rank. If a passenger did not do so, the datu immediately had his expert check the tarsila. If the man was found to be of lower rank the datu would order his men to sink the boat." Tarsilas were also used by datus individually to enforce the status privilege of the aristocracy as a whole. As described by Datu Adil, certain garments and dress styles were reserved for the nobility: "Women of high status and those of lower status wore their malongs (sarongs) differently, and carried themselves in different ways. High status women would carry their malongs over one arm. Lower status women would wear theirs more in the manner of men. If a woman of questionable status was found wearing her malong in the style of a high status woman the tarsila was examined. If she was found to be a commoner she would be fined forty pesos by the local datu. If she was unable to pay she would be made to work for the datu for one or two years."

The myth of sanctified inequality was the basis for an ideology of nobility embraced by a ruling class that nonetheless regularly contradicted some of its basic doctrines: aristocratic endogamy, the association of paramount rule with the purest bloodlines, and the indelibility of the lines separating social strata. As in other political belief systems, rather than provoking confutations these irregularities generated mechanisms (such as genealogical manipulation or special appointment) for the "post hoc ennoblement of the powerful" (Beckett 1982, 398).^[25]

The "struggle for status" (Geertz 1980, 116) within the Magindanaon aristocracy fostered coherence among the ruling class by mitigating the many centrifugal tendencies inherent in a political field where local leaders competed for followers and slaves in an underpopulated region. The notion of a common noble ancestor provided a mechanism that bridged the gap between various ingeds (localities) so that individuals were motivated to marry and otherwise relate to one another in order to maintain their positions within the status group. The spatially dispersed members of the datu stratum were integrated by ties of supposed shared ancestry that crosscut local descent lines. As the source of all aristocratic titles and the focal point for the system of prestige stratification, the office of sultan (if not always the current officeholder) was treated with deep respect by members of the datu stratum. Ruling class coherence even extended between sultanates (whose elites shared the ruling ideology) and probably helped to

smooth intersultanate trade relationships and temper the level of endemic intraregional hostilities.

Ruling Ideas and the Incorporation of Subordinates

The post-Althusserian social theory of the past twenty years offers a broad range of analyses of the reproduction of social disparity within complex political structures. While analysts, as we have seen, disagree sharply on many of the basic issues, general accord is evident on at least one point. It is agreed that it is inaccurate to measure the incorporation of political subordinates merely by assessing their belief or disbelief in the legitimizing myths of a ruling class. Political structures are significantly reproduced by other means (and here there is disagreement): by nondiscursive practices, by coercions, by compensatory beliefs or the "common sense" consciousness generated as part of the everyday operation of systems of domination (see, e.g., Bourdieu 1977; Foucault 1978; Abercrombie et al. 1980; Williams 1980; Corrigan and Sayer 1985; Elster 1985; J. Scott 1985, 1990).

The contemporary descendants of the Magindanaon aristocracy favor the view (shared by a range of political actors) that Magindanaon subordinates have perfectly shared (and continue to share) the dominant myth of sanctified inequality. Datu Alunan Glang notes that "down to this day, many of them still hold the datus in characteristic religious awe and adulation" (1969, 33). Datu Michael Mastura seconds this sentiment when he writes that "much of Magindanao's sociopolitical history can be evaluated in terms of the tradition for loyalty to the datus or at least in the veneration of descent groups belonging to the Magindanao core lineage" (1984, 40). Bai Rebecca D. Buan ("Bai" is the form of reference for a female member of the nobility), in a 1978 letter to the editor of a Cotabato newspaper, takes a peculiar pre-Islamic slant when she comments that "the datus of olden days . . . were the living gods of their people" (Mindanao Cross , April 7, 1978).

An examination of the historical evidence and oral traditions from Cotabato suggests that ideological adherence was more fragmentary and symbolic power relations more complex than imagined by contemporary datus. Looking first at the more formal constructs of the myth of sanctified inequality, we find that the tarsilas had little relevance for subordinates except on the occasions when they were used to restrain the behavior of a social-climbing commoner. As essentially private doc-

uments, the tarsilas were viewed rarely, if ever by subordinates (Majul 1973, 3). Commoners were more likely to hear tales of nobles past and present performed by professional reciters and praise-singers at weddings and other celebrations. The primary audience for these performances was aristocrats, and their first purpose was rank competition rather than the edification of commoners.

A second official forum for the transmission of the dominant ideology would have been the mosque, particularly at Friday community prayers. As putative sharifs, sultans and ruling datus were religious as well as political leaders. Imams (prayer leaders), themselves datus, were appointed by rulers, and they paid customary obeisance to those rulers before beginning public prayers in the mosque. In their Friday orations, imams asked special blessings for the sultan, his family, and his royal predecessors (Saleeby 1905; Loyre 1991). Accounts of public religious practice suggest, however, that the mosque was not a primary arena for interclass instruction. William Dampier visited Cotabato for seven months as an officer aboard a British privateering vessel, the Cygnet . His 1697 account, New Voyage Round the World , provides the best ethnographic description of Cotabato in the seventeenth century. It includes the following description of mosque attendance: "Friday is their Sabbath; but I never did see any difference that they make between this Day and any other Day, only the Sultan himself goes to the Mosque twice . . . The meaner sort of people have little Devotion: I did never see any of them at their Prayers, or go into a Mosque" (1906, 344–45).

The entire community did gather for such ceremonial events as royal weddings, installations, or lustrations. These were certainly (as elsewhere in Southeast Asia) occasions for displaying the power and splendor of the ruler, but they offered limited opportunity for the direct inculcation of dominant beliefs.^[26]

The ideology of sanctified inequality was tracked by more elemental (and more indigenous) representations of rule. These were symbolizations of individually exercised power rather than sanctions for collectively claimed authority. Jeremy Beckett notes that the term "datu" had two meanings: "ruler" and "one entitled to rule on account of his descent from datus" (1982, 396). The ideology of nobility emphasized the latter meaning. In practice though, the regular occurrence of feuds, wars, and succession struggles ensured that the personal attributes of a datu, especially his ability to command fear and deference, remained a key factor in his political successes.^[27] Datu Adil informed me that the

ideal datu acquired recognition without demanding it and obtained tribute without exacting it—not because of his elevated rank but as a result of his personal force. That regard for personal power and its projection was often represented in the names of prominent datus, three of which—Mangelen, Makapuges, and Dilangalen—may be glossed as "the Controller," "the Enforcer," and "He Who Cannot Be Moved." It was also evident in some inherited titles. The full title of one of the highest offices in the Magindanao Sultanate, "Amirul Umra a Tibpud a Bangias a Dimakudak u Pagilidan," translates as "Commander of Decisive Power Who Treads upon the Seashore."

The substantial power of a ruling datu was projected symbolically through his supernatural abilities. As with the political skills that secured his position, those abilities were individually acquired, not innately possessed. The single exception to the pattern of intentional acquisition of supernatural abilities was the supernatural potency that inhered in the person of the sultan. That endowment of potency was equally capable of benefaction or injury. As related by Imam Akmad, "The sultan would bathe ceremonially in the Pulangi River to drive away the three evil spirits of Satan [Saytan]. Ordinary people were careful never to bathe downstream from the sultan. It was believed that the sultan was toxic, that the water that flowed past his body would make a person ill."^[28] All other aristocrats, I was told, acquired their supernatural abilities through the study of esoteric arts known collectively in Magindanaon as kamal or ilmu ("special power" or "special knowledge"). Kamal was taught by special masters and was effectively limited to members of the aristocracy. Kamal arts included the abilities to repel blades and bullets, leap great distances, and disappear at will.

Ethnographic evidence suggests that these symbolizations of power were appreciated, and often embellished, by Magindanaon subordinates. When asked about the supernatural powers exercised by past rulers, contemporary datus had few stories to offer, and those they did tell usually emphasized how the powers were acquired from specific teachers rather than relating how such powers were used to secure or maintain political power.^[29] By contrast, Magindanaon commoners related numerous narratives of supernatural power—stories that diverged from those of datus in interesting ways.

I often heard stories of datus of old (and a few in living memory) possessed of extraordinary physiognomies: terrible visages, monstrous bodies, extra eyes and fingers. Rulers also exhibited various marvelous

powers—those directly related to the kamal arts but others as well: prognostication, remote vision, and the ability to strike a man dead without touching him. In these stories, neither extraordinary appearance nor exceptional powers was explicitly linked to noble descent. They were attributed only to prominent and powerful members of the nobility and served as both metaphors for and explanations of the personal power of individual rulers. The narratives related by non-elite Muslims tend to be unclear about, or indifferent to, the ways in which kamal powers were acquired by rulers. They focus instead on linking the power of command with the command of supernatural powers. Taken as a whole they form a subordinate mythology of power analogous to but distinct from the dominant mythology of nobility.

While the myth of sanctified inequality is advanced by many in Cotabato today as the fundamental axiom of traditional governance, it is more likely that symbolic representations of power, some of them generated endogenously out of the experiences of subordinates, were more significant for social reproduction.