Notes on the Bontok and work

(The fifth of a series)

One of the factors that may promote the concept of rape is idleness. As they say, idleness is the playground of the devil. A society where people can end up having nothing and doing nothing with their lives is no good in preventing crime.

Work in the fields

In the old Bontoc, there were no unemployed bums who just drank and gambled all day. The Bontok were a hardworking people whose work was central to their daily lives. Everyone able was sent to the fields to work. Those who cannot go to the fields (i.e. the elderly, the disabled) are left in the village to care for the children.

But work in the fields was not just work; it was a social activity. People get to interact while working, like some sort of bonding activity. In fact, it was where the youth fell in love and found their spouses. There was also food: owner of the field provided it as compensation. Perhaps the La Presa community in the hit local teleserye Forevermore is a nice depiction of what it had been like.

Working while spending time with the people you love sounds lovely. No one ever has to complain that you're choosing work over relationships. Work didn't interfere with relationships. If anything, it even strengthened them. One didn't have to go out of one's way to be with people. It was all built-in.

This did not mean that they only spent time with each other in the fields. In fact, it was after working in the fields that the lads went courting the ladies (More about this in the last post).

Work at home

The Bontok spent their day in the fields working but at the end of the day, they still had chores to do at home. As discussed earlier, there weren't gender-specific chores. Whoever came home first would do what had to be done because as the elders put it: "Bakit mo hihintayin ang taong wala?"

Rest day

Every once in a while, the elders would decide that the whole village take one whole day to rest. No one was to step out of the village. No one was to go to the fields. No one was to enter the village, as well. The elderly women guarded the gates to make sure. Everyone was expected to stay home.

During the American period, when education was imposed, the children would plead and cry that they had to leave for school. But the elders would not yield. Rest day was rest day. It was taken seriously.