variety of mechanisms the institutionalized system of reciprocal gift exchange; intermarriage between elite members of different alliance groups; and mutual participation in ritual oath-taking as a symbolic expression of political solidarity. Limited powers Neither Datus nor Paramount Datus functioned as Monarchs in any strict academic sense. The Datu's ability to exercise power over the members of their Barangay was not absolute, and their control over territory was a function of their leadership of the Barangay, rather than any concept of "divine right." Furthermore, their position was dependent on the democratic consent of the members of the Barangay's aristocratic (maginoo) class. Although the position of Datu could be inherited, the maginoo could decide to choose someone else to follow within their own class, if that other person proved a more capable war leader or political administrator. Rulers from Philippine polities were sometimes referred to as "Kings" by the Chinese officials conducted trade with, and later initially by early Spanish chroniclers such as Pigafetta and Rodrigo de Aganduru Moriz. However, this was a function of language, and of the respective sinocentrism and hispanocentrism of these early records, rather than ethnographic observation of the way power was exercised locally. Since both the Chinese and the Spanish came from cultures which were politically organized around a belief in the divine right of monarchs, they tended to project their beliefs into the peoples they encountered during trade and conquest. In a more careful ethnographic observation, San Buenaventura (1613, as cited by Junker, 1990 and Scott, 1994) later noted that Tagalogs only applied the term Hari (King) to foreign monarchs, rather than their own leaders. Although popular portrayals and early nationalist historical texts sometimes depict Philippine paramount rulers as having broad sovereign powers and holding vast territories, critical historiographers such as Jocano, Scott, and Junker explain that historical sources clearly show paramount leaders exercised only a limited degree of influence, which did not include claims over the barangays and territories of less-senior datus. For example, F. Landa Jocano, in his seminal work "Filipino Prehistory:Rediscovering Precolonial Heritage", notes: "Even if different Barangays entered into alliances with one another, there was no sovereign datu over them. Each datu ruled his barangay independently. The alliances were limited to mutual protection and assistance in times of need. It did not entail permanent allegiance. The grouping was based on consensus. Whoever was chosen by the groups as their leader exercised leadership