Our Early Ancestors FERDINAND D. SALAGAN, MA,MPA,PH.

D(Candidate) Associate Professor V Department of Social Sciences The First Filipinos Who were the first people to live in the Philippines? What happened to them? Where are they now? These questions on the past cannot fully be answered even by the best scientist who study about our early ancestors The best explanation we have about our distant past comes from the three main sources: The story of Gods creation in the Bible The theories of evolution made by human scientists Legends and fairytales made up by imaginative people. A. The Biblical Story According to the Holy Bible, all men and women originated from the first man (Adam) and the first woman (Eve) Historians do not believe in the story of creation in the Holy Bible instead, they have invented the theory of evolution or the story how the first man came from apelike creatures who walked the face of the earth thousands of years ago.

ancestors migrated outside to the other nearby islands to spread our own culture to the other islands. Austronesian Migration Austronesian Migration (Fernando N. Zialcita) The Austronesian Theory of Migration proves to be one of the most palpable reasons for the interconnection of cultures within Southeast Asia According to Encarta Reference Library, Austronesian Languages, formerly called Malayo-Polynesian languages, is one of the world's largest language families, both in terms of numbers of languagesmore than 700and geographic spread covering islands and some mainland areas from Madagascar in the west to Easter Island and Hawaii in the east. Both groups of evolutionist however believe that the first man in the Philippines lived in Palawan about 25, 000 years ago. The first Filipino lived in caves at Tabon, Palawan. Thus, they are called the Tabon Man, They belonged to the Stone Age culture. They used stone tools and has no knowledge about the use of metal. Hunted wild animals with crude stone tools and make clothes using simple stone tools. They did not know how to farm or raise animals. They were short, with bushy eyebrows, and a low forehead. They lived in a very harsh surroundings and it was a daily battle for survival. Most of the time was spent looking for food. Waves of Migration (HOB) Another story of the first Filipinos describes three waves of migration to these islands The Philippines was once connected to Mainland Asia by land bridges which gradually sank in the China sea, as a result of constant leveling work of ocean waves. It was through these bridges that the first inhabitants came over to the Philippines. According to the migration theory, our country was settled by three kinds of people: 1. Negritos 2. Indonesians

C. Scientific Theories Theory of Evolution It is a belief that man came from apelike creatures who lived thousands of years ago in caves and have very crude tools. Waves of Migration Theory They believed that early Filipinos came from waves of migration Negritos, Indonesians, and Malays who peopled these island thousands of years ago. Scientific Theories Core Population Theory Believes that the early Filipinos came from the settlers within the islands, not from outside, and in fact our

3. Malays

Tirurays 3. The Malays

Sabanuns

1. The Negritos The first people to come to the Philippines.

The Malays came after the Indonesians, about 2, 000 years ago. They also arrived in boats from Southeast Asia.

They were called Atis or Aetas They came across land bridges from mainland Asia about 25, 000 years ago. The Negritos were very small people and less than five feet tall. They were called Negritos because they have black skin, short kinky hair, thick lips, and black noses. They wandered in the forests and lived by hunting, fishing, and gathering wild plants and fruits. They used bow and arrow for hunting. They were medium in height, brown-skinned, with dark eyes, flat noses and straight black hair. They drove Indonesians to the forests and lived in the lowlands The Malay were more civilized than the Indonesians. They lived in larger villages, had government, writing, music, arts, and sciences. They lived by agriculture, fishing, mining and trading. Some legends describe the coming of the Malays. Maragtas It tells how the first ten Malay Datus left Borneo and came to Panay They bought the land from the Negritos. This legend is now celebrated in the famous atiatihan fiesta and dance. The Filipinos today came from the Malays brown race. Thus, there are Muslim malays in Mindanao, particularly in Jolo and also in Palawan There are also Christian Malay across the country

2. The Indonesians They were the first immigrants to come by the sea to the Philippines. They came about 5, 000 years ago and sailed in boats from South Asia. They drove the Negritos into the mountainsand lived in the lowlands. There were two types of Indonesians: 1. tall, with light skin, large forehead, high nose and thin lips 2. shorter and darker, large nose, thick lips 2. The Indonesians Indonesians were more advance than the Negritos. They lived in permanent homes and used fire to cook their food. They lived by hunting, fishing, and small farming. They painted their bodies with colorful figures. 2. The Indonesians Today, the Indonesian minority tribes are found in some interior parts of our country. They are the: Apayaos Gaddangs Ibanags Tagbanuas Bagobos Manobos Mandyas Bukidnon

There are also Malay tribes like the Igorots, Ifugaos, Bontoks, and Tinggians of Luzon Felipe Landa Jocano (Questions and Challenges in Philippine Pre-History) They stand co-equal as ethnic groups, without anyone being the dominant group, racially or culturally. The differences are due to the differences of their response to their environment. On the other hand, similarities are due to the adjustment to their environment. The people of prehistoric island Southeast Asia belonged to same population. It grew out of combination of human evolution and movements of other people. The core population shared a common cultural orientation and cultural elements. The configuration of these shared elements into a common way of life is what we call the base culture. None of these ancient men could be categorized under any of the historically identified ethnic groups. It was the West who fragmented the population into groups.

Kalingas

 the explanation of the peopling of the Philippines through a series of waves of migration as documented by folk history like the Maragtas has to be reconsidered. The undue credit given to the Malays as the original settlers of the region and dominant cultural transmitter must be corrected. CAGAYAN MAN & TABON MAN Homo Erectus Philippines (Cagayan Man) 1970, the National Museum archaeologist started to work in Cagayan Valley through a survey and exploration of all places were fossils and stones appeared. The initial problem was to determine the age of materials. After a number of years of study, it was determined that the rock layer named Awidon Mesa formation was formed during the Ice Age. CAGAYAN MAN & TABON MAN Homo Sapiens (Tabon Man) It is difficult to come up with the perfect theory, the artifacts can not speak for themselves (Dr. Eusebio Dizon, National Museum) Robert Fox (Lecture in National Museum) Why in Palawan? Palawan is the perfect corridor that bridged the Philippines to Borneo. First men who came to the Philippines inhabited the island ever since Paleolithic era (500,000 years ago. When the ice melted and land bridges sank, Neolithic era began. It was the start of the dramatic changes in tools of ancient man and were much superior to the tools of Paleolithic people. These tools, according to Fox, are commonly in the Pacific were found in cave sites in Palwan. There are two general theories on where the Neolithic Man who inhabited the Philippines came from The Austronesian Migration Mainland Origin Theory (Peter Bellwood) The larger Austronesian migration had its stimulus with the beginning of agriculture in Central China about 9000 years ago.

They moved to Taiwan either by raft or canoes and as the movement began and as it spread, they developed better techniques for acquiring food from the sea and building boats and so they spread further. They went to the Philippines moving rapidly by boats. Then Indonesia, Pacific and Madagascar. The Austronesian Migration Island Origin Hypothesis (William Solheim) In 1981, he came up with a theory marked by four (4) different periods: ARCHAIC PERIOD (man began to settle in the island 5, 000 BCE) INCIPIENT FILIPINO PERIOD (when archaic period ended and stopped in 10,000 BCE) Nusantao the maritime people who travelled from Southern Philippines in the Mindanao Island and Indonesia to the north ending in China sea and passing through Taiwan. FORMATIVE FILIPINO (1, 000 BCE to 500 CE) ESTABLISHED FILIPINO (500 CE to 1521) The people in the last phase are traders Evidences: Linguistic Cultural Genetic C. Legends and Fairy Tales The Story of Malakas at Maganda The Story of the Brown People

Prior to Magellan's arrival, there were Negrito tribes who roamed the isles but they were later supplanted by Austronesians. These groups then stratified into: hunter-gatherer tribes, warrior-societies, petty plutocracies and maritime oriented harbor principalities which eventually grew into kingdoms, rajahnates, principalities, confederations and sultanates. States such as the Indianized Rajahnate of Butuan and Cebu, the dynasty of Tondo, the august kingdoms of Maysapan and Maynila, the Confederation of Madyaas, the sinified Country of Mai, as well as the Muslim Sultanates of Sulu and Maguindanao.