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| Stone Walls and Waterfalls: Irrigation and Ritual Regulation in the Central Cordillera, Northern Phillippines |
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Reference |
| Brett, June Prill (1985) "Stone Walls and Waterfalls: Irrigation and Ritual Regulation in the Central Cordillera, Northern Phillippines" in Karl L. Hutterer, A. Terry Rambo, and George Lovelace (Ed), "Cultural Values and Human Ecology in Southeast Asia", Centre for South and Southeast Asian Studies: The University of Michigan. pp.125-156. |
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Introduction to the Institution |
| The case discusses the role and effects of the Tukukan Bontok ideational system in the management and distribution of water, specifically how ritual regulates social relationships to satisfactorily control individual access to irrigated land, water and labour under particular set of ecological constarints.
The Bontok Region is located in Mountain Province of the Central Cordillera, northern Luzon. Connected to the Sierra Madre in Central Luzon, the Cordillera Central is the most extensive system of highlands in the Phillippines. The people of the Cordillera Central inhabit soem 24,000 sq km of northern Luzon, leaving narrow strip of coastal flatlands and foothills to the west and adjoining the agayan valley to the east. It is a broad, highly dessicated upland with peaks of more than 2,500 m in the south central area. Most of the central Cordillera lies above 1,000 m and thus forms a unique climatic, geographic and cultural region.
In the present paper, the institutional arrangements existing in a village, ukukan have been discussed in detail. |
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Coverage of the Institution |
| The institution discussed in this paper is with the people belonging to a culture group called Bontok colture and represent one of the societies in the Central Cordillera cultivating wet rice in hillside terraces. They live in compact villages with populations ranging from 800 to 3,000 persons and depend heavily for their subsistence on the cultivation of irrigated rice. |
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Rules for Management
of the Institution |
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(a) Boundary Rules |
| Spatial: There are fifty-one localities with irrigated rice-terraces of varying sizes in the village of Tukukan. The approximate total land of irrigated land is less than 100 ha. According to the author's census in 1982, there are approximately 4,424 rice fields of different sizes around the village., all within territorial boundary of Tukukan. The geogrphical layout of the rice fields has been influenced by not only be the terrain and water source, but also by inheritance patterns.
Social : Of the 4,424 rice fields, 1,358 belong to the kakachangyan (aristocrates) and 3,066 belong to non-kakachangyan. There are no villagers without at least a couple of rice-fields to till; there fore there are no landless villagers in Tukukan. Besides the rice fields, all villagers, as members of corporate groups, have ownership rights to communally held swidden land. |
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(b) Governance
rules |
| Members of the irrigation associations are recruited by virtue of their being citizens of teh village and descendants of original terrace-field owners. Membership in an irrigation association ranges from 37 to 275 families whose fields are scattered in different geographical locations. Rights to irrigation water are automatic for any owner of the rice field (whether inherited or purchased) and can not be acquired in any other way.
Newly constructed fields adjacent or below older terraces are allowed to recieve water from kus-sing turnouts (fieldspouts) originating from these older rice fileds. It is a rule that no one is allowed to construct a new field above or close to the turnouts of main irrigation canals. Also, no owner of a new field is allowed to receive water before older rice-terrace owners have watered their fields, unless new fields are extensions of old terraces belonging to descendents of original owners. |
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(c) Resource Allocation |
| During the dry season (January to April), which is critical period, water becomes scarce. Villagers use the method of water distributions known as sosog-li (literally, "rotation") through which water is allocated on temporal basis. If there are five localities to be irrigated by the same canal, sogsog-li procedure is followed as follows; On first day, locality 1 starts off owning all the irrigation water shares (chatang) during the day light hours. At sundown, the owners of the field in the locality 3 block (pet-en) all the turnouts of localities 1 and 2 and divert water to locality 3, which then receives water from sundown to sun-rise. Locality 2 then owns the water during the next day (from sun-rise to sun-down) and from next sun-down to sun-rise, locality 4 owns water rights. and so on.
Water rotation is controlled in two ways; (1) at the main canal level, where the owners of teh scheduled share will block the turnouts to all the other localities and (2) at the field level, the point where the water is diverted to individual fields is blocked when it is time for one's share.
Within each locality, farmers owning rice fileds are divided into further two to four groups, depending on the field lay outs. he farmers drawing water from fields along the main canalas are grouped with teh terraced fields above them. Each group is composed of five to eight farmers. The water among these groups are also distributed at different intervals on rotation similar to that at the higher level of locality. For instance, from the canal which has been fed as that locality quota, group 1 receives from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and group 2 receives from 3 p.m to 8 a.m. Different members will be assigned to sleep in the vicinity of their fields to oversee their share of water and to divert it to their fields. Chotaken are supervisors of water distribution and are recruted through rotation and popular choice of the members of association.
The decision to enforce rotational distribution is taken whenever a group of farmers who have assessed the volume of water flowing at the main canal agree that the water is becoming too scarce to reach the other terraces situated at the tail end in sufficient quantity. They shout (ey-fukhaw) a call to members of the field owners who have terraces in the same locality that the water rotation will be commenced. |
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Conflict Resolution Mechanism |
| Individual farmers own rice fields scattered within a particular irrigated locality. Thus a farmer may own a field at the head (sunga-chan), middle (khawa-an), or tail-end (ucho-na) of an irrigation system. The tail areas are the last to recieve water.The implication of such layout of parcels is perceptively pointed out by Coward regarding his Ilocos data. He writes., "... the fact that all members farmed parcels at the head as well as at the tail of the system served as the strongest incentive for co-operating to maintain the system at maximal efficiency in order to adequately irrigate the entire area." (1979, 30).
Water theft is considered bad and is reported to teh comembers of teh system. The offender is simplyscolded by the owner of teh wate share, a verbal sanction that is then echoed by other fields owners in the vicinity. The lack of stricter sanctions show the inherent ethics and values of the villagers. Withholding one's share of water as a sanction is considered tentamount to "killing" him or her. Thislaissez-faire policy about petty ater thefts between individuals is in contrast to policy surrounding abuses that deprive entire group of villagers from accessing water. Supra-artor council (Supreme Court), village-wise council of elders handle such cases and enforce teh rules. They can also announce a fine. |
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Other Features of Institution |
| Tukukan Irrigation system has unique feature of getting the maintenance works done in the fom of rituals. The cleaning activities of the irrigation canals are doen annually before sowing of the seeds and also during emergencies when storms and other natural catastrophes cause damage to canals. When irrigation cabal activitioes are called for by a consensus of farmers, all memebrs of teh irrigation system should send a family representative to help direct water tio the irrigation canal from the source, clear the canal, and cut the bushes along and around canal slope. In addition, eroded portions must be rip-rapped, debris and silt must be cleared from the clogged waterways, and sacrificial offerings must be contributed by all the rice-field owners. Those who fail to fulfill their labour obligations are fined by members present.Although nothing is written, everyone remebers those who have not rendered service. During the work period, the group will go to the delinquent's house and collect the fine, called ob-ob. This fine is five bundels of palay (unhusked rice) per day of absence, or the equivalent in cash (pesos), sugarcane wine, a chicken, or tobocco leaves. In general, the amount depends on the number of days the memebr was absent during khaat. Proceeds from aollection are used by tjose who were present during the canal activities. If the fine id paid in teh form of food, it is consumed by the people who fulfilled their labour obligations. If the cash is cllected, it will be used to buy tobocco, tinned food, and any other needs members may decide on. |
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Purpose |
| The purpose of the institution is to control the access to the irrigation water under certain ecological constarints |
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Country |
| Phillippines |
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Region |
| Bontok region in the Mountain Province of the Central Cordirella, northern Luzon |
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Date Of Publication |
| Srinivas: 12/07/96 |
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