The Bontoc Igorot by Albert Ernest Jenks
page 87 of 483 (18%)
page 87 of 483 (18%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
|
According to a recent translator of Blumentritt[19] that author is
made to say (evidently speaking of the o'-lag): Amongst most of the tribes [Igorot] the chastity of maidens is carefully guarded, and in some all the young girls are kept together till marriage in a large house where, guarded by old women, they are taught the industries of their sex, such as weaving, pleating, making cloth from the bark of trees, etc. There is no such institution in Bontoc Igorot society. The purpose of the o'-lag is as far from enforcing chastity as it well can be. The old women never frequent the o'-lag, and the lesson the girls learn there is the necessity for maternity, not the "industries of their sex" -- which children of very primitive people acquire quite as a young fowl learns to scratch and get its food. Marriage The ethics of the group forbid certain unions in marriage. A man may not marry his mother, his stepmother, or a sister of either. He may not marry his daughter, stepdaughter, or adopted daughter. He may not marry his sister, or his brother's widow, or a first cousin by blood or adoption. Sexual intercourse between persons in the above relations is considered incest, and does not often occur. The line of kin does not appear to be traced as far as second cousin, and between such there are no restrictions. Rich people often pledge their small children in marriage, though, as elsewhere in the world, love, instead of the plans of parents, is |
|


