Blanket Rank

The elite received special treatment at ceremonies as a prerogative of power rather than as a display of status. But ritual dancing pegged status exactly, since performers indicated their ranks with funerary blankets and accessory garments of known prestige value.

The five different blankets, which would ultimately serve as burial shrouds, reflected their owners' status in reinforcing ways. The intricately woven higher-rank blankets were elaborately patterned and very expensive. The topmost blanket, alladang , along with its five complementary garments, could only grace the community's highest echelon. The second highest, pinagpagan , was also restricted to the elite. The lower kwabao could adorn the older and more respected commoners, but most common people were entitled only to the cheaper dil-li. The poorest individuals donned only bandala , a cheap, essentially secular covering. Combinations of blankets and accessories displayed intermediate ranks; an elderly and respected commoner, for example, might be allowed kwabao complemented with a few secondary items normally associated with pinagpagan.^[5]

Four considerations determined an individual's blanket rank. These were, in order of importance: level of achievement in pedit, status of immediate ancestors, wealth of close relatives, and age. A person's position at marriage was largely inherited, but one could subsequently ascend the status ladder, even moving a rung or two during the death ceremony itself if unstinting sacrifices were offered. Such social climbing had its limits, however, as only members of the most exalted lineages could ever hope to wear the alladang.

The ultimate ranking decision, at death, rested with the elders and ritual experts. But arguments from the family of the deceased

who usually hoped for higher status regardless of cost could sway opinion. In one noted case, the alleged wizard Kabading rose two full levels during his wake, as his corpse sat in the death chair through an entire month of deliberation. Since Kabading was not notably wealthy and had not progressed far in pedit, his station at death was only dil-li. But his relatives successfully contended that because he was both a priest and a prophet, because he had produced many descendants, and because his wife had rich cousins who had helped defray the funeral costs, he should be inhumed in pinagpagan.