Ritual Experts

Knowledge of ritual matters could also influence status determination. While the office of manbunung, or priest, appealed little to the wealthy, it did provide an avenue by which a common man could gain prestige. Manbunungs led many exclusive activities, and their blanket ranks could be boosted if they had gained renown.

The Buguias priesthood was internally stratified according to depth of knowledge and performance skills. Obscure rites escaped the mediocre, and only the most capable could officiate at the distinctly different and generally more complex rituals of Kalanguya immigrants. The best of the priestly elite solemnized charismatically, gracefully covering forgotten stanzas and evoking heartfelt emotion from the participants. The worst were castigated as lazy if not greedy; one could earn such a reputation, for instance, by refusing to perform any ceremony that required only chickens.

Although manbunungs occupied an essential ritual office, they were not the most important religious figures. Real ideological power resided rather with the mankotoms , the ritual advisers and prophets of Buguias. Although a manbunung performed ceremonies, he could not determine what they should include; priests could not be so entrusted, it was thought, since they might choose the most expensive ritual in order to increase their own remuneration. A spirit medium would recommend minor curative rites, but a mankotom would specify the procedures of the major ceremonies honoring the ancestors. These several men determined the sequence of pedit and the magnitude of funeral rites; they also served as the ultimate arbiters of social standing. This was not a position

for the poor, although a few men of intermediate standing did reach it, and while it was coveted by the rich, few from that class ever achieved it. The mankotom's position was always tenuous, for his authority finally rested on his ability not only to remember the past but also on his ability to predict the future.