Tausug - Settlements

Except for towns and coastal fishing villages, Tausug communities are typically dispersed, with individual houses located close to family fields. The household, or cluster of two or three adjacent households, comprises the smallest territorial grouping. The next larger unit is the hamlet ( lungan ). Still larger is the community ( kauman ), having a common name and headman. The unity of a kauman depends on intermarriage, the existence of a core kin group among its members, their attendance at a common mosque, recent history of conflict, and the political skills of the community's headman. Boundaries between kauman tend to be ill-defined, varying according to the dynamics of alliance and feuding and the relative power of successive headmen. The Tausug house typically consists of a single rectangular room, bamboo- or timber-walled, with a thatched roof, raised on posts about 2 to 3 meters above the ground. The structure is generally surrounded by a series of elevated porches leading to a separate kitchen at the rear and is often enclosed within a protective stockade encircling the house compound.