Ilongot - Kinship

Above the level of the nuclear family, the be:rtan , or ambilaterally reckoned allegiance, is important. Generally, males prefer to become members of their father's be:rtan, and females members of their mother's, although in cases in which a man's parents pay his bride-price, all of his children become members of his be:rtan. This term is used polysemicly to refer in the first sense to kin to whom one is linked during discussions of various social situations, as well as the thirteen mutually exclusive local dialect groups. The names of be:rtan are geographical names, plant names, place names, or color terms. Kin terminology is of the Hawaiian type. Affinal terminology applies only to Ego's generation.