Notes on the physical structure of Bontok communities

(Or the second of a series)

Previously, it had been suggested that if rape happened in Bontok, it couldn't have been outdoors because they believed that sexual intercourse in a public area would evoke the anger of the spirits, bestowing destruction upon the place. However, the physical structure of their communities wouldn't allow it to happen indoors, either.

Of houses without privacy

The Bontok houses did not have rooms. They were small, the biggest perhaps just about the size of a typical two-door Palma Hall classroom. The interior of the house, though, was divided into areas for specific tasks, like sleeping, cooking, eating, and pounding rice.

From http://historyofarchitecture.weebly.com/vernacular-houses.html
The floor plan of a typical Bontok dwelling

The divisions spanned only about half the distance between the floor and the ceiling, meaning you can see what the other members of your household are doing. (Only the married couple had a special compartment for sleeping.) The four walls of the house were about the same height.

From https://www.univie.ac.at/ksa/apsis/aufi/pop/bontoc-d.htm
A typical Bontok dwelling

There were no fences and gates, and not much of yards. The houses were close to each other, much like the distance between the houses in UP Campus Area 1, without the fences. The neighbors can see and hear the occupants, and vice versa. In short, there was no privacy.

This is a striking point for me, who enjoys the daily comforts of being concealed from the rest of the world. Most likely, you do, too. But why? Where is all the fuzz for privacy coming from? What is privacy for, anyhow?

Many a night, marital disagreements erupted in a Bontok household for the whole neighborhood to hear. If the couple continued this way, the neighbors would try to calm them down. If unsuccessful, the elders would intervene. As a result, the fights get settled before they escalated to more serious ones. I think this is partly why most Bontok marriages were successful, as the film mentions in a later segment (More about this in the following posts). Maybe privacy isn't that important after all?

Of course, it was really different back then, and such a set up would not work where I live right now. Also, the community did consist of relatives of different degrees. But given a different set up-- a community of friends and relatives-- Bontok's lack of privacy sounds attractive to me.

Now to sum up this point, rape as we know it happens in secluded places, may it be a dark alley, an unkept field, or even the victim's own home. But the structure of Bontok houses and belief about outdoor sex conveniently decreases this possibility.

Of separate quarters and a common bath area

In modern times, male and female Bontok siblings do not sleep in the same house when they reach puberty-- a measure against incest. The sons are made to sleep in a relative's house, while the daughters stay. (At least this is what I understood-- that what they were describing is the current state.)

In the olden times, the males and females were segregated into dormitories when they reach puberty. These dormitories were also where they were trained and taught about adult life in the community. The young boys, with the male elders who didn't sleep in their own houses, slept in the male dormitories called ato (the different communities had their own names but this is what the film adopts); the young girls slept in the female dormitories called olag (same as the note on the name ato, though I don't remember if this was the term the film adopted). 

The ato and the olag consisted of a single room where the adolescents slept on the floor, or on mats they lined the floor with, much like the sleeping arrangement in high school leadership camps held at school. Males were allowed to hang out in the olag to mingle with and court girls. Females, on the other hand, were not allowed in the ato -- the opposite of what is in the Gryffindor dormitories.

Strangely, despite these restrictions, males and females bathed in the same place: either a nearby stream, or river, I forget which. Even without physical barriers or cubicles, they could bathe simultaneously (but separately), without anything happening-- a relatively young female interviewee recounts. If the group of females get there first, the male group would wait for them to finish-- a male elder recalls. There wasn't malice among the Bontok (More about this in the following posts). Bathing was just bathing. The American soldiers, in contrast, would watch them with binoculars from higher ground.