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656 SAMA
the Sama peoples and have achieved the greatest relative strength in numbers
and economic influence. Allowing for differences in local context, a description
of the Suluan Sama should apply equally well, at least in broad outline, to other
Sama groups in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Suluan Sama communities, and especially those with a strong maritime component
to their economy, typically take the form of densely clustered houses
situated along a stretch of well-protected shore line: at a river mouth, for example,
facing a narrow channel, or where a fringe reef affords some protection against
heavy seas. In central Sulu villages, and particularly in those of recently settled
Sama Dilaut (Sea Sama, the nomadic and semi-nomadic Bajau of the southern
Philippines), the village is usually built directly over the tidal shallows. Elsewhere,
settlements are normally found on the beach front or immediately behind
it. Most houses are built on piles with three to six feet of clearance between the
floor and dry ground or high water, as the case may be. Construction materials
and size generally vary with the wealth of the owner and, to a certain extent,
family size. A relatively poor dwelling might have framing materials of mangrove
or other locally available woods, split bamboo flooring, walls and roof of thatch
and possess a total floor area of 435 square feet or less for its single room. A
wealthier family might use commercially produced sheet lumber and corrugated
roofing to build a house with several sleeping rooms, a porch and a separate
cooking area. Occasionally, there is a spacious, Western-style "bungalow,"
built at ground level from concrete blocks, painted inside and out and expensively
furnished.
The basic unit of Sama social organization is the independent nuclear family,
normally consisting of a married couple (or a divorced or widowed individual)
and one or more dependent offspring. Although the most common type of household
consists of a single nuclear family, membership is frequently augmented
by the addition of other dependents, such as an elderly parent, unmarried siblings,
newly married offspring or others who are unable to establish an independent
residence. The constituency of large extended households tends to be fluid. It
is not uncommon for dependent adults and juveniles to maintain a sort of circulating
membership in the households of several closely related although geographically
separated kin, spending a few weeks or a few months with each in
turn. Children past the age of six or seven are permitted a great degree of latitude
in choosing their household, and one occasionally finds a youngster moving out
of his or her natal home to establish temporary or permanent residence elsewhere
with a favorite sibling or other close kinsman.
The households within a community are generally divided into larger units
known as tumpuk, or residence clusters, composed of households both physically
adjacent to one another and closely related genealogically. One head of household
from within the cluster will be commonly acknowledged as its leader or spokesman
within the community, often as a parish, a larger unit whose members attend
a single mosque and recognize one of their number (usually the mosque's owner
or sponsor) as their common leader in political and legal matters. Large com-