THE SULOD are a group of mountain people inhabiting the banks of Panay River between Mt. Siya and Mt. Baloy in Central Panay Island, Philippines. The basis of their economic subsistence is shifting dry agriculture, called kaingin, supplemented by hunting, fishing, and gathering. Despite occasional contacts with the Christian lowlanders, no dramatic social and cultural changes have occurred in Sulod lifeways in recent times. Social life is still characterized by a primary concern for socioreligious activities and correlative superordination of kinship/
In this book, Jocano offers a comprehensive description and analysis of the kinship system and social organization of the Sulod. These people possess a complex bilateral kinship system which looms large over all major community decisions. For example, kinship is used in specifying rights and obligations, social and religious activities. and in prescribing certain types of sexual union, marriage, and burial practices. In short, it functions as a communication device which holds together members of Sulod Society.