Land Tenure and Class

The elite of Buguias controlled sizable estates and could mobilize the labor necessary to transform them. The baknang household, with its attendant workers, formed a larger production unit than

did the commoner's nuclear family, allowing the wealthy couple to cultivate extensive dry fields and door-yard gardens. In addition, elite families held virtually exclusive rights to two further productive sectors: private pastures and pond fields. Wealthy households thus generated a far greater "subsistence income" than did others. Much of this went to in-house consumption, to feed the many guests, family members, and dependents. And of course, the rich led richer lives: they dwelled in substantial houses, wore fine garments, possessed varied tools and utensils, and regularly ate meat and drank rice beer. A true baknang couple would always serve their guests dried meat and alcohol. Yet all told, the truly wealthy still expended fewer resources on their daily lives than their incomes would have allowed; redistributive rituals consumed the greater share. While the elite monopolized the best pastures and converted the prime agricultural sites into private rice fields, a substantial portion of the fruits of these lands flowed back to the people of Buguias at community feasts.