The Economics of Ritual Expenditure

All rituals entailed expense. An angry nature spirit could usually be appeased with nothing more than a chicken, although an irritated timungao might exact an expensive white pig. But the ancestors, and the living persons honoring them, demanded real livestock slaughter. In any given ceremony this could escalate beyond original expectations, as bile omens might require additional sacrifices. With this eventuality in mind, celebrants sometimes stockpiled small, cheap pigs. In funerals, the paired offerings increased the risk, since a single malformed gallbladder might call for two new animals.

Nor was livestock the only expense. The guests also required carbohydrates and plenty of expensive rice beer. Furthermore, the ritualists demanded pay: the manbunung received the hind leg of a pig or the foreleg of a water buffalo, and the mankotom was given a large portion of the finest meat. As major ceremonies called for several manbunungs, the outlay here could be significant.

A funeral burdened both the estate of the deceased and the personal fortunes of the surviving children. Guests brought alms (used spiritually by the departing soul and materially by responsible family), but these could never cover the entire cost of the funeral. Many believed that if the personal property of the dead (animals and rice terraces) were spared, his or her spirit would be prone to haunt. Further, the alms givers received raw and cooked meat to take home in proportion to their contributions. And finally, the mar-

ried children of the deceased were further burdened with private postfuneral observances for which no assistance was forthcoming.