How to Ask for a Drink in Subanun

Charles O. Frake

American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 66, No. 6, Part 2: The Ethonography of
Communication. (Dec., 1964), pp. 127-132.

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How t o Ask for a Drink in Subanun
CHARLES 0. FRAKE
Stanford University

W ARD GOODENOUGH (1957) has proposed that a description of a

culture-an ethnography-should properly specify what it is that a
stranger to a society would have to know in order appropriately to perform any
role in any scene staged by the society. If an ethnographer of Subanun culture
were to take this notion seriously, one of the most crucial sets of instructions to
provide would be that specifying how to ask for a drink. Anyone who cannot per-
form this operation successfully will be automatically excluded from the stage
upon which some of the most dramatic scenes of Subanun life are performed.
To ask appropriately for a drink among the Subanun it is not enough to know
how to construct a grammatical utterance in Subanun translatable in English
as a request for a drink. Rendering such an utterance might elicit praise for one's
fluency in Subanun, but it probably would not get one a drink. T o speak ap-
propriately it is not enough to speak grammatically or even sensibly (in fact
some speech settings may require the uttering of nonsense as is the case with
the semantic-reversal type of speech play common in the Philippines. See Conk-
lin 1959). Our stranger requires more than a grammar and a lexicon; he needs
what Hymes (1962) has called an ethnography of speaking: a specification of
what kinds of things to say in what message forms to what kinds of people in
what kinds of situations. Of course an ethnography of speaking cannot provide
rules specifying exactly what message to select in a given situation. If mes-
sages were perfectly predictable from a knowledge of the culture, there would be
little point in saying anything. But when a person selects a message, he does so
from a set of appropriate alternatives. The task of an ethnographer of speaking is
to specify what the appropriate alternatives are in a given situation and what
the consequences are of selecting one alternative over another.
Drinking defined. Of the various substances which the Subanun consider
'drinkable,' we are here concerned only with a subset called gasi, a rice-yeast
fermented beverage made of a rice, manioc, maize, and/or Job's tears mash. Gasi,
glossed in this paper as 'beer,' contrasts in linguistic labelling, drinking tech-
nique, and social context with all other Subanun beverages (tebaq 'toddy,' se-
bug 'wine'' binu, 'liquor,' .~abaw'juice-broth,' tubig 'water').
The context of drinking. Focused social gatherings (Goffman 1961) among
the Subanun fall into two sharply contrasted sets: festive gatherings or 'festivi-
ties' and nonfestive or informal gatherings (Frake 196413). The diagnostic fea-
ture of a festivity is the consumption of a festive meal as a necessary incident
in the encounter. A 'meal' among the Subanun necessarily comprises a serving
of a cooked starchy-staple food, the 'main dish,' and ordinarily also includes a
'side dish' of vegetables, fish, or meat. A festive meal, or 'feast,' is a meal with
a meat side dish. A 'festivity' comprises all socially relevant events occurring
127

128 Tlze Ethnography of Communication

between the arrival and dispersal of participants in a feast. Apart from a feast,
the necessary features of a festivity are 1) an occasioning event, 2 ) multi-fam-
ily participation, and 3) beer. The drinking of beer, unlike the consumption of
any other beverage, occurs only during a festivity and must occur as part of
any festivity. I t occupies a crucial position as a focus of formal social gatherings.
Drinking technique. 'Beer,' uniquely among Subanun drinks, is drunk with
bamboo straws inserted to the bottom of a Chinese jar containing the fermented
mash. Just prior to drinking, the jar is filled to the rim with water. Except in cer-
tain types of game drinking, one person drinks at a time, after which another per-
son replenishes the water from an agreed-upon 'measure.' As one sucks on the
straw, the water disappears down through the mash where it picks up a surpris-
ing amount of alcohol and an indescribable taste. After initial rounds of tast-
ing, drinking etiquette requires one to gauge his consumption so that when a
full measure of water is added, the water level rises exactly even with the jar rim.
The drinking encozbnter. Each beer jar provided for a festivity becomes the
focus of a gathering of persons who take turns drinking. A turrz is a single period
of continuous drinking by one person. Each change of drinkers marks a new turn.
-4 circuit of turns through the gathering is a round. As drinking progresses,
rounds change in character with regard to the number and length of constituent
turns and to variations in drinking techniques. Differences in these features
among successive sets of rounds mark three distinct stages of the drinking en-
counter: tasting, competitive drinking, and game drinking (Table I ) .
The first round is devoted to tasting, each person taking a brief turn with
little regard to formal measurement of consumption. Successive turns become
longer and the number of turns per round fewer, thus cutting out some of the
participants in the encounter. These indivduals go to other jars if available or
withdraw from drinking during this stage of competitizte drinking. Measurement
is an important aspect of competitive rounds, participants keeping a mental rec-
ord of each other's consumption. Within a round, successive drinkers must equal
the consumption of the drinker who initiated the round. I n later rounds, as the
brew becomes weaker, the measure tends to be raised. Continued competitive
drinking may assume an altered character signaled by accompanying music,
dancing, and singing. The scope of the gathering may enlarge and turns become
shorter. Special types of drinking games occur: 'chugalug' (sat~gayuq)a nd dual-
drinking by opposite-sexed partners under the cover of a blanket. These rounds
form a stage of game drinking.
Drinking talk. The Subanun expression for drinking talk, taluq bwat dig
beksuk 'talk from the straw,' suggests an image of the drinking straw as a channel
not only of the drink but also of drinking talk. The two activities, drinking and
talking, are closely interrelated in that how one talks bears on how much one
drinks and the converse is, quite obviously, also true. Except for 'religious offer-
ings,' which must precede drinking, whatever business is to be transacted dur-
ing a festivity occurs during drinking encounters. Consequently drinking talk is
a major medium of interfamily communication. Especially for an adult male,
one's role in the society a t large, insofar as it is subject to manipulation, de-
 Horet to Ask for a Drink ilz Subanun 129

TABLEI. SUBANUN
DRINKING
TALK
-
Encounter Stages Discourse Stages Focus of Speech Acts Function

1. Tasting 1. Invitittion- Role expression Assignment of role distances

permission and authority relations to par-
ticipants

2. Competitive 2. Jar talk Role expression Allocation of encounter re-

drinking and context defi- sources (turns a t drinking and
nition talking)

3. Discussion Topic Exchange of information; dis-

3.1. Gossip putation, arbitration; deciding
3.2. Deliberation issues on basis of cogent argu-
ment

3. Game drinking 4. Disp1:ty of verbal Stylistic Establishment of euphoria.

art Deciding issues on basis of skill
in use of special styles of dis-
course (singing, verse)

Segments of a drinking encounter: Segments of drinking talk:

1. A turn (continuous drinking 1. An utterance (continuous
by one person) speech by one person)
2. A round (a set of related 2. An exchange (a set of related
turns) utterances)
3. Encounter stage (a set of re- 3. Discourse stage (a set of re-
lated rounds) lated exchanges)

pends to a considerable extent on one's verbal performance during drinking en-

counters.
Subanun society contains no absolute, society-wide status positions or of-
fices which automatically entitle their holder to deference from and authority
over others. The closest approximation to such a formal office is the status of re-
ligious specialist or 'medium' who is deferred to in religious matters but who has
no special voice in affairs outside his domain (Frake 1964b). A4ssumption of
decision-making roles in legal, economic, and ecological domains depends not on
acquisition of an office but on continuing demonstration of one's ability to make
decisions within the context of social encounters. This ability in turn depends on
the amount of deference one can evoke from other participants in the encounter.
Although relevant, no external status attributes of sex, age, or wealth are sufficient
to guarantee such deference; it must be elicited through one's skill in the use of
speech. Apart from age, sex, and reputation from performances in previous en-
counters, the most salient external attributes brought to an encounter by a partici-
pant are his relational roles based on kinship, neighborhood, and friendship with
specific other participants. Because of consanguineal endogamy and residential
mobility, the relationship ties between an ego and any given alter are likely to be
multiple and complex, giving wide latitude for manipulation of roles within
particular encounters. Moreover, most kinship roles permit a range of interpreta-
130 The Ethnography of Conzmunication
tion depending upon other features of the relationship such as friendship and
residential proximity.
The strategy of drinking talk is to manipulate the assignment of role rela-
tions among participants so that, within the limits of one's external status at-
tributes, one can maximize his share of encounter resources (drink and talk),
thereby having an opportunity to assume an esteem-attracting and authority-
wielding role. Variations in the kinds of messages sent during periods devoted
to different aspects of this strategic plan mark four distinct discourse stages
within the drinking talk of the encounter: invitation-permission, jar talk, discus-
sion, and display of verbal art (Table I ) . The constituents of a discourse stage
are exchanges: sets of utterances with a common topic focus. (Boundaries of
exchanges in American speech are often marked by such expressions as "Not to
change the subject, but . . ." or "By the way, that reminds me . . .".) The con-
stituents of exchanges are utterances: stretches of continuous speech by one
person.
1. Invitation-Permission. The Subanun designate the discourse of the initial
tasting round as 'asking permission.' The provider of the jar initiates the tasting
round by inviting someone to drink, thereby signaling that this person is the
one to whom he and those closest to him in the encounter owe the greatest in-
itial deference on the basis of external status attributes. The invited drinker
squats before the jar and asks permission to drink of the other participants. He
has two variables to manipulate: the order in which he addresses the other par-
ticipants and the terms of address he employs. Apart from the latter variable,
message form remains relatively constant: naa, A , sep pa u 'Well, A, I will be
drinking.' ( A represents a term of address.) Role relations with persons who are
not lineal con5anguineal or lineal affinal kin (Mo, F, Ch, Sp, SpPr, ChSp,
ChSpPr) permit a variety of forms of address each with different implications
for social distance with respect to ego (Frake 1960). The drinker's final oppor-
tunity to express role relations comes when he finishes tasting and invites an-
other (ordinarily the person who invited him) to drink.
2. Jar talk. As competitive drinking begins, asking permission is reduced in
scope and importance, and there is an increase in messages sent during drinking
itself. The topic focus of these exchanges is the drink being consumed. The
drinker responds to queries about the taste and strength of the beer, explana-
tions are advanced for its virtues and defects, and the performance of drinkers
is evaluated. During this stage the topic of messages is predictable. The infor-
mative aspect of the messages is the quantity and quality of verbal responses
a drinker can elicit. This information signals the amount of drinking and talking
time the gathering will allot him. Those who receive little encouragement drop
out, and the encounter is reduced generally to less than half-a-dozen persons,
who can thereby intensify their interaction with each other and with the beer
straw.
3. Discussion. As the size and role-structure of the gathering becomes de-
fined, discourse changes in topic to removed referents, usually beginning with
relatively trivial gossip, proceeding to more important subjects of current inter-
 How to Ask for a Drink in Subanun 131
est, and, finally, in many cases arriving at litigation. Since there are no juro-po-
litical offices in Subanun society, a legal case is not only a contest between
litigants, but also one between persons attempting to assume a role of legal au-
thority by settling the case. Success in effecting legal decisions depends on
achieving a commanding role in the encounter and on debating effectively from
that position. Since there are no sanctions of force legally applicable to back up
a decision, the payment of a fine in compliance with a decision is final testi-
mony to the prowess in verbal combat of the person who made the decision.
4. Display of verbal art. If drinking continues long enough, the focus of mes-
sages shifts from their topics to play with message forms themselves, following
stylized patterns of song and verse composition. Songs and verses are composed
on the spot to carry on discussions in an operetta-like setting. Even unsettled
litigation may be continued in this manner, the basis for decision being shifted
from cogent argument to verbal artistry. The most prestigious kinds of drinking
songs require the mastery of an esoteric vocabulary by means of which each line
is repeated with a semantically equivalent but formally different line. Game
drinking is a frequent accompaniment to these displays of verbal art. Together
they help assure that the festivity will end with good feelings among all par-
ticipants, a goal which is explicitly stated by the Subanun. Participants who
have displayed marked hostility toward each other during the course of drinking
talk may be singled out for special ritual treatment designed to restore good
feelings.
The Subanun drinking encounter thus provides a structured setting within
which one's social relationships beyond his everyday associates can be ex-
tended, defined, and manipulated through the use of speech. The cultural pat-
terning of drinking talk lays out an ordered scheme of role play through the use
of terms of address, through discussion and argument, and through display of
verbal art. The most skilled in "talking from the straw" are the de facto leaders
of the society. In instructing our stranger to Subanun society how to ask for a
drink, we have at the same time instructed him how to get ahead socially.
NOTE
'The Subanun are pagan swidden agriculturists occupying the mountainous interior of
Zamboanga Peninsula on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. This paper refers to
the Eastern Subanun of Zamboanga del Norte Province. Descriptions of Subanun social
structure, festive activities, and some aspects of gasi manufacture are given in Frake 1960,
1963, 1964a, and 196413. The ethnographic methodology of this paper is that described in
Frake 196413. Single quotation marks enclose English substitutes for (but not translations of)
Subanun expressions.

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