Philippine History/PSCI-101

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Early Philippines

Early Philippines

This lesson focuses on the early beginnings of the Philippines. It

includes the country’s early inhabitants, foreign settlers, their early customs
and practices and religion.
Learning Outcome
At the end of the lesson, you are expected to:

1. identify the origin of the Filipino people

2. describe the settlers and their form of government
3. describe the customs and practices of the Filipinos
4. evaluate the structure of society of the ancient Filipinos

The Origin of the Filipino people

It is thought that the earliest inhabitants of the Philippines lived some

40,000 years ago. It was in Palawan where they found human bones dating
about 22,000 years ago. Stone tools were also found in Palawan. The age of
tools is estimated to be 30,000 years old. An analyses showed that the tools
have similar features from the tools found in Kalimantan (Indonesia)

The Negritos or Aetas

 The first group of people who came to the Philippines through land
bridges.
 They are also called Ita, Baluga, Agta or Ati.
 They were our ancestors.
 They were small, about four feet tall with dark skin, flat nose, thick lips
and black kinky hair.
 They used bows and arrows as weapons. They used leaves and bark of
trees for their clothing.
 The Aetas were wandering to get food. They gathered fruits, root crops
and edible plants around.
 Most of them lived in caves at the mountainsides or made temporary
shelter made of twigs and leaves of trees.
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 The Indonesians
 They were from South Africa, the second wave of migrants who came
by canoes and boats after the Great Ice Age about 3000 B.C.
 tall, with light skin, large forehead, high nose and thin lips
 shorter and darker, large nose, thick lips
 They introduced bronze and rice terraces.

The Malays
 They were the third group of migrants to the Philippines.
 They were navigators, potters, weavers and blacksmiths.
 They came 1 B.C. in Mindanao and Sulu. Filipinos and Moros were the
descendants of Malays.
 more civilized than the Indonesian
 They lived in larger villages, had government, writing, music, arts, and
sciences.
 They lived by agriculture, fishing, mining and trading.

Mode of Dressing

Male
 Wore kanggan, upper attire, a black or blue collarless, sleeveless
jacket and bahag, lower part, a strip of cloth wrapped around the
waist passing down between the thighs.
 The color of the jacket indicates the rank of the wearer.
 Red – for the chieftain
 Black or blue – for the commoners
 Putong or turban is piece of cloth wrapped around the male’s head. It
also tells the achievement of the one wearing it

Female
 Baro or kamisa, a jacket with sleeves, the upper attire and the saya or
patadyong, the lower part of the attire, along loose skirt
 Tapis is a red or white cloth wrapped around the waist

Ornaments
 Men and women wore ornaments to look attractive.
 Both men and women wore armlets called kalumbiga, pendants,
bracelets, gold rings, earrings and even leglets.
 Some wore gold fillings between teeth
 Tattoo.was fashionable for some pre-colonial Filipinos. It also exhibits
a man’s war record
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Early Philippines

 Islas del Pintados – term coined by the Spaniards for the Visayans

Houses
Houses were built to suit the tropical climate.

Their houses are made of wood, bamboo and nipa palm.

They called it bahay kubo.
The houses were built on stilts and can be entered
through ladders that can be drawn up.
Some Filipinos like the Kalingas, Mandayas and Bagobos
built their houses on tree tops.
Badjaos built their houses on boats.

Social Classes.
Philippine society was composed of three classes: the nobles, the freemen and the
dependents.

The nobles
 They were the chiefs and their families who enjoyed rights that were
not enjoyed by the other members of the society.
 The noble men carry the title Gat or Lakan among the Tagalogs

The freemen
 They were composed of free men and dependents who had earned
their freedom.

The “alipin”
 The lowest class
 They acquired their status by inheritance, captivity, purchase, failure
to settle debts, or by committing a crime
 There are two types of alipin:
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 o aliping namamahay who had their own family and house and
served their master during planting and harvest season;
o aliping sagigilid who did not have property of their own and
lived with their master and could not even marry without the
consent of the master.

Position of Women
 Women were give equal rights with the men by the customary laws.
 They could inherit and own property, engage in trade and industry
and succeed to the chieftainship of a balangay (barangay) in the
absence of a male heir.
 They can succeed to the chieftainship of the barangay in the absence
of a male heir
 They also have the exclusive right to give names to their children.
 The men walked behind them as a sign of respect.

Marriage Customs.
 Men in general were monogamous
 Their wives are called asawa, while concubines are called friends
 In order to win the hand of his lady, the man had to show his patience
and dedication to both the lady and her parents
 courtship usually begins with paninilbihan
 if the man won the trust of the parents, he does not immediately
marry the woman, but he has to satisfy several conditions:
- give a dowry or bigay-kaya
- pay the panghihimuyat
- pay the wet nurse bigay-suso
- pay the parents himaraw
- bribe for the relatives called sambon (among the Zambals)

 pamamalae/pamanhikan/pamumulungan – happened when all of the

above conditions were met. The man could bring his parents to meet
the future bride’s parents to arrange the marriage
 wedding ceremonies vary depending on the status of the couple;
however, the people from the upper class served as a go-between
 babaylan was a priestess who officiated the marriage
 uncooked rice was thrown on the couple after the wedding ceremony

Marriage among Muslims

 they have similar marriage customs
 pananalanguni or bethrotal was the first stage, followed by the
consultation with the girl’s parents who relayed their decision to the
village chief
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Early Philippines

 the suitor’s parents were informed of the village chief’s decision

 Pedsungud was a dowry which was settled by the chief. The dowry is
classified into seven.
 Kasawateg – money given to the bride’s relatives
 Siwaka – brassware given to those who helped arrange the wedding
 Enduatuan – brassware or animals given to the village chief
 Pangatulian – jewelry given to the bride’s mother and aunts
 Tatas – blade given to the girl’s uncle
 Langkad - money given to the girl’s parents as fine for having
bypassed the girl’s eldest sister if she had any
 Lekat – amount of money given to the girl’s attendant

 Pegkawing – the wedding ceremony. It followed once everything was

settled.
 Hadji - officiated the wedding ceremony
 Six days of festivities followed the wedding ceremony. The couple can
only sleep together on the seventh day.

Mixed Marriages, Inheritance and Succession

 Mixed marriages were allowed during the pre-colonial society
 Children were dependent on the status of their parents
 In mixed marriages, the status of children was divided evenly between
the parents
 Single children of mixed marriage were half-free and half-dependent
 Legitimate children inherited their parents’ property even without
any written will and was divided among the children
 natural children inherited only a third of the inheritance of legitimate
children
 children of dependent mothers are given freedom and a few things
 nearest relatives inherit the property of childless couples
 in succession, the first son of the barangay chieftain inherits his
father’s position; if the first son dies, the second son succeeds their
father; in the absence of male heirs, it is the eldest daughter that
becomes the chieftain

Religious Beliefs.
 Ancient Filipinos believed in the immortality of the soul; the life after
death.

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  They believed in the existence of a number of gods whom they
worship and made offerings according to rank
 Their rituals were based on deities.
 The head of the deities is called Bathalang Maykapal or the Creator.
 The deities under Bathalang Maykapal had their functions in relation
to their beliefs. The god of agriculture is called Idinayale; the god of
death is Sidapa; the god of rainbow is Balangaw, the god of war is
Mandarangan; the god of fire is Agni; the god of the other world is
Magwayen; the god of hell is Siginarugan; the god of love is Diyan
Masalanta; and the goddess of harvest is Lalahon.

 They showed respect for animals and plants like the crocodile, crow,
tigmamanukin;
 They believed that some trees were considered divine, so they were
not cut
 Diseases were thought to be caused by the temper of the
environmental spirits
 Filipinos also venerated the dead by keeping their memory alive by
carving idols of stone, gold or ivory called likha or larawan; food, wine
and other things were also shared with the dead

 They adored idols called anitos or diwatas to whom they made

offerings
 priestesses such as the babaylan/ baylana or katalona acted as
mediums to communicate with these spirits

Burial Customs and Practices

 the dead was placed in a wooden coffin and buried under the house
complete with cloth, gold and other valuable things
 upon the death of the person, fires were made under the house and
armed men acted as sentinels to guard the corpse from sorcerers

 sometimes, the relatives of the dead wore rattan bands around their
arms, legs and necks and they abstained from eating meat and
drinking wine
 the ancients distinguished mourning for a woman from that of a man
– morotal (for women) and maglahi (for men)
 mourning for a dead chief was called laraw, and this was accompanied
by certain prohibitions like engaging in petty quarrels, wars, carrying
daggers with hilts in the normal position, singing in boats coming
from the sea or river, and wearing loud clothes
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Early Philippines

Divination and Magic Charms

 ancient Filipinos are quite superstitious and put much stock into
auguries, and magic charms
 they interpreted signs in nature like the flight of birds, the barking of
dogs, the singing of lizards, and the like, as good or bad omens
depending on the circumstances
 they also consulted with the pangatauhan, or soothsayers, to tell their
fortunes
 there was also a belief in the existence of the aswang, mangkukulam,
manggagaway, tiyanak, and the tikbalang
 amulets and charms were also used by the ancients like the anting-
anting, gayuma, odom or tagabulag, wiga or sagabe, and tagahupa
 these beliefs were not eradicated with the coming of Western
civilization and most of them were practiced behind the backs of the
Christian missionaries
 the result was a blending of pagan and Christian beliefs that made
Filipino Catholicism unique

Politics
 barangay was the unit of government which consisted of 30 to 100
families. The term barangay came from the Malay term “balangay”, a
Malay meaning boat.
 Barangay was headed by a chieftain called datu
 The subjects served their chieftain during wars, voyages, planting and
harvest or when his house needed to be built or repaired in times of
war
 The datu was the chief executive, legislator and the judge, also the
supreme commander
 Buwis - attribute paid by the members to the chief
 Sangduguan – a ritual that formalized the alliances among members.
 Conflicts were settled by violence. Those who won by force were
always right.

Laws
 were either customary (handed down from generation to generation
orally) or written (promulgated from time to time as necessity arose)
 dealt with various subjects such as inheritance, property rights,
divorce, usury, family relations, divorce, adoption, loans, etc.

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  those found guilty of crimes were punished either by fine or by death;
some punishments could be considered as torture by modern
standards

Legislation
 before laws were made, the chief consulted with a council of elders
who approved of his plan
 they were not immediately enforced until the new legislation was
announced to the village by the umalohokan, who also explained the
law to everyone

Judicial Process
 disputes between individuals were settled by a court made up of the
village chief and the council of elders; between barangays, a board
made up of elders from neutral barangays acted as arbiter
 the accused and the accuser faced each other in front of the “court”
with their respective witnesses
 both took an oath to tell the truth; most of the time, the one who
presents the most witnesses wins the case
 if the losing party contests the decision, he is bound to lose in the end
because the chief always take the side of the winner

Trial by Ordeal
 to determine the innocence of an accused, he was made to go through
a number of ordeals which he must pass
 examples include dipping one’s hand in boiling water, holding a
lighted candle that must not be extinguished, plunging into a river and
staying underwater for as long as possible, chewing uncooked rice
and spitting, etc.
 among the Ifugaos, ordeal by combat was common, i.e. bultong
(wrestling), alaw (duel)

References
Agoncillo, Teodoro A. (1990). History of the Philippines. Garo Tech Books Inc.:
Quezon City

Malabuyoc, Edwin (2008). Philippine History. Jimsy Publishing House: Malabon

City