Family

CULTURAL NOTES

Richard Kinnud

Most often than not, family is translated in the local languages including ours in the Cordilleras as “pamilya.”  Easily, one can say that this translation is just referent to the English word.  Trivial as it maybe, this translation indicates that the Cordilleran societies’ understanding of the family has revolutionized.  This is not surprising as the family, considered to be the basic institution, is continually affected by economic and technological changes, the influence of foreign culture, and even the advancement of knowledge because of education. 
    In my native Ifugao language, the word family can be translated as “himbabbale.”  The root word is “bale” which refers to a house or a home and there is the prefix “him” which means togetherness.  The infix “ba” which is a repetition of the first syllable of the root word indicates more than two people.  Thus plainly, himbabbale means a group of people living in one house or one home.   It generally refers to a husband and wife and their children.
    It would be notable though that in olden times, children of age would not sleep in one house with their parents.  The Ifugao native house is usually a small one-room abode.  Rarely is a “kulob” or an extra room appended to the house.  Children thus simply come home, do chores to include feeding animals raised at the yard, eat, then go their respective agamang or sleeping quarters which are usually homes of folks who live alone, then go back home again in the morning to eat, change clothes perhaps, and go to their daily chores.
    When one would marry, or had own home, he or she would be considered “limmahun,” literally meaning one who went out or “immiwe”, meaning to separate.  This indicates that the parents are no longer accountable for the basics such food and clothing.  Someone of age may also opt to be an “immiwe” by living on a separate home.   Every son or daughter, though, whether marrying or living alone still have responsibility to the home especially to the parents.
    Distinct to himbabbale are himbale (husband and wife), hina’ama (father and children), hinama (father and child), hini’ina (mother and children), hinina (mother and child), hina’agi (siblings) and hinaappu (grandparent and grandchildren).  A family relate to other families as they could be from the same “tinanud” which can be termed as “himpananud” (clan).  And of course, there is the nun-aapu (kin by affinity).  All this are subsumed in the term now used -  “pamilya.”
    The practice of “agamang” has long been over and done.   And that would mean children and parents will literally be a “himbabbale.”  Marriage would not be the main reason for leaving the house (lumahun or umiwe), but for economic and similar reasons.  They go to school or land in a job away from hometown for instance.  However, it also happens that because the “pamilya” nowadays have bigger houses, married children bring their new family and live with their ascendants.
    On certain rituals or celebrations involving families, some changes are also observed. For instance, in the Ifugao engagement rite which is the bequeathing of the “momon” from the man to the woman’s family  it is ideal that the husband-to-be is not present during the occasion.  The wisdom behind is for him not to be part of the consumption of his own present, which usually is duck or pig meat or the animal itself, and more importantly, to wait that said momon which is actually a marriage proposal is accepted by the family of the lady.  

The period after the momon is usually a time for relatives to register their objection to the impending marriage.  Nowadays, however, it is often seen that an engagement rite while still called a “momon” involves the presence of the parties involved.  It now becomes the marriage itself even if there no proper ceremonies by an authorized administering official as a priest or a mayor.  One reason that I usually hear is that “they have already children; there’s nothing to object on.”  Another reason involves being practical, “That would now be the celebration of the marriage so we will lessen on expenses.  They can invite on a grander one if they so desire and provisions permit.”
    In earlier times, one primary occasion that would gather families is the honga.  It is an occasion dedicated to celebrate the life of a living person.  And it should be the responsibility of children to afford one for their parents.  Honga is a community occasion which anyone can attend but the value of kinship is emphasized here particularly on the practice called the bolwa.  This is a system of sharing meat among kinfolks.  Children of honoree will first get their share to include the married grandchildren if there are.  After which, what remains of the meat will be divided between the himbale (spouses) honored in the occasion.  The split will then be distributed to the respective closest kins.  It is thus important that one knows the genealogy so as to know if the distribution of “meat” still comes to one’s reach.
    While honga is still being practiced today, sometimes children delay its happening.  For one, it is costly to host one.  Another is that it is often difficult to arrange a time when every one of the children of the honoree are present.  Unlike before when a family could be just within a village all involved in farming, often times siblings live far from each other or are in diverse works that there is no common availability. Besides, sometimes people find no utility for it in as far as knowing one’s relatives as there is already the clan reunion, which is an adopted practice. 

In other celebrations such as on weddings, age-old cultural practices dictate that the important people to invite (maayagan) are the relatives.  This surely strengthens the “himbabbale” and even the “himpananud.”  In modern times, the important guests would now extend to people that wields power and influence in the society.  It is evident on what people choose to be their ninongs or ninangs.  This surely influences certain dynamics in “pamilya” especially during political exercises.

As times go by, more changes will certainly happen on society’s understanding of the family.  But at any rate, people will surely like that these changes will be for the good and not for the deterioration of “pamilya.”

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Religion, particularly Christianity which is the dominant one in the Cordilleras, is a major influencer in the dynamics of family.  In the Catholic Church, the Sunday after Christmas Day or December 30 if Christmas Day itself falls on a Sunday, is designated as the Feast of the Holy Family.  The Holy Family refer to Joseph, Mary and Jesus.  His emphasizes the advocacy of modeling one’s family to the Holy Family.  Some values often emphasized are surrendering one’s family to God’s plan, faithfulness and love.  Joseph and Mary both accepted their role as angels revealed even as their human reasoning would have dictated otherwise as the scriptures will tell.  They remained to be with each other despite the odds that they faced such as their escape to Egypt.  As pastors would tell, they have shown us how to show love in family.  Others would even say that our current cultural practices as family reunions and other family bonding activities that people do at Christmas time are good practices on how we shall model ours to that of the Holy Family.

After the Feast of the Holy Family comes the so-called Feast of the Epiphany.  This is a celebration of the visit of three wise men, some say kings, to the Holy Family.  If the catechism I heard don’t fail me, this is the manifestation that Jesus the Christ is not only a savior for a particular nation but for the whole of humanity as represented by the wise men or kings.  They have brought to the Holy Family gifts as gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  Bible scholars have the interpretation that these are act of praises to the kingship (gold), divinity (frankincense) and humility/humanity (myrrh) of the Child Jesus.  I also read one that says, while these are acts of praises, the gifts are representative of the culture of these wise men.  This made me think, what if the birth of Jesus happened today and one of the wise men is from the Cordillera, what could one of the gifts be? 

When attending family occasions such as a honga, one can bring along as a present to the honoree a pig.  This is usually seen as a recognition of a close attachment to the family.  Usually, the family of an honoree will do the same when the occasion is also observed in the giver’s family.

As to new births, a usual gift given in earlier times is the “oban” or a “bayyaung”.  These are blankets that can be used to carry a child and the later can even be used later as an attire. 

So, if one of the wise men was a Cordilleran, would it be a black pig?  Or could it be one of those native blankets?  Anyway, this is just to tickle our minds on how we may be able to approximate the acts of praises of the Three Kings.

Meantime, I greet readers of this column and the Northern Philippine Times a Happy New Year and we now hear the salutations of Happy Three Kings, may it lead us to reflective celebration of the Epiphany.