ANCIENT FILIPINO

COMMUNITIES
CULTURAL
EVOLUTIONS
MALAY POLYNESIAN DESCENT

- Mainly agricultural and fishing people

- Barangay: 30 to 100 families
CULTURE

- May be associated with manufactured

materials, for these are products of
human behavior
DIFFERENT AGES
Language
Malay – principal language of Southeast
Asian commerce
e.g. talaro (scales), upa (payment)
Indian culture
Trading colony and state marriage
brought Indian culture. (Sulu)

Religious Beliefs and Language: Bathala –

chief god came from Bhattara, “Great
Lord
Beliefs: Good and bad spirits
Literature: Monkey and the turtle, Deer
and snail, etc.
Early Filipinos
They already developed a system of
syllabic writing.

Baybayin – Tagalog script, erroneously

called “alibata” (17 letters: 3 vowels and
14 consonants); horizontal from left to
right; sipol-sharp pointed iron which is a
writing instrument
Early Filipinos
Both oral and written literature had
already flourished in the country prior to
the coming of the Spaniards
E.g. Bugtong – riddles
Awit – songs
Salawikain – proverbs
Legends – myths
Poems
Hindu Influences
Customs and Traditions:
Placing of a fresh flower garland around
the neck of a visitor
The giving of bigaykaya (dowry) and
rendering of personal services in the
house of the bride’s parents by the
groom before the wedding
The offering of buyo (mixture of betel
nut, ikmo leaf, and lime) to a guest
Hindu Influences
Superstitions:
E.g. A girl, who sings in front of the stove
while cooking will marry a widower
A cat cleaning its face indicates the
coming of a visitor
Eating twin bananas would cause a
mother to give birth to twins
Hindu Influences
Mode of dressing

Resemblance of Indian putees and sari in:

Putong (turban)
Sarong (lower garment)
Hindu Influences
Industries: Boat building, weaving of
cotton clothes and Metalwork
Decorative arts: designs of gold necklaces
Musical instruments: kudyapi (guitar)
Flowers: sampaguita and champaka
Fruits: Mango and nangka
Vegetables: ampalaya, patola and
malunggay
Hindu Influences
Ancient Filipino writing

340 Sanskrit words:

E.g. ama (father)
Nanay (mother)
Asawa (spouse)
SINO-PHILIPPINE RELATIONS
- Chinese-Filipino relations
Several traders from Ma-yi (believed to
include Mindoro, Batangas, Manila and
Pampanga) arrived in Canton board on an
Arab ship and sold their valuable
merchandise.
SINO-PHILIPPINE RELATIONS

Honesty of the early Filipinos in their

business transactions with the Chinese
traders.
SINO-PHILIPPINE RELATIONS
Manufacture of gunpowder
Art of metallurgy
Use of porcelain, gongs, lead, silver and
tin
Occupations like blacksmithing and
goldsmithing
Duck culture
Kite-flying and other games including
forms of gambling (jueteng)
SINO-PHILIPPINE RELATIONS

Culinary arts:
Roasting of pigs
Brewing of tea
Cooking of dishes (pancit, lumpia,
chosuey, okoy)
Use of seasonings (Toyo-soy sauce)
Vegetables (bataw, petsay, upo)
SINO-PHILIPPINE RELATIONS

Filipino manner of dressing:

Sleeved jackets (kangan)
Loose trousers
Use of slippers
Wooden shoes (bakya)
Fans
Umbrellas
SINO-PHILIPPINE RELATIONS

Social customs:
Arrangement of marriage by the parents
of the boy and girl
Hiring of a go-between in marital
negotiations
Honoring of departed ancestors
Employment of professional mourners
during the funeral
SINO-PHILIPPINE RELATIONS

Social customs:
Blasting of fire-crackers on New Year’s
Eve
Beating of gongs to celebrate a feast
Collection of tong (percentage fee) by the
owner of a gambling joint
SINO-PHILIPPINE RELATIONS

Linguistic influence:
Chinese loan words (pertain to kinship
and family relations, clothes, ornaments,
food and drinks, agriculture and
commerce, tools and occupations, and
abstract ideas)
E.g. ate (older sister), sanse (third older
sister), gunting (scissors), hiya (shame)
JAPANESE CONTRIBUTIONS

Industries: Manufacturing of arms and

tools and the tanning of deerskins

Trading post in Aparri, Northern Luzon

MUSLIM TRADERS FROM
MALAYSIA
Contribution: Islam, “will of God”
TRADITIONAL
FILIPINO
COMMUNITIES
TRADITIONAL FILIPINO
COMMUNITIES
Barangay – the unit of social
organization with broader political,
economic, and religious features than
the family
Datu – head of the barangay; native
chieftain; also called as “rajah”
Sandugu – blood compact
*Consolidation of barangays was formed
through marriages and blood compact
SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
SYSTEM
Ranks (based on wealth, political
influence, social privileges):
1) The datu class or the ruling class
2) The maharlika or the aristocracy
3) The timagua or the common class
4) The alipin or the dependent class
DATU
Barangay – came from the word
balangay, which means boat
Datu - ruled the barangay
- with administrative powers:
a) legislative powers (calling his people
all together and securing their consent);
b) judicial powers (could render
judgment in any dispute)
MAHARLIKA
- believed to be the descendants of
mixed marriages between a ruling
dynasty and the one out of power
- may be the family, relatives, and elders
of the datu
TIMAWA
- Enjoyed their rights to a portion of the
barangay land
- Agricultural labor was their normal
obligation (other obligations: to catch
fish, to accompany expeditions, to
paddle boats; to serve during feasts
and to build houses)
ALIPIN
- A man indebted to another (obligatory)
- Usual creditors: datu, maharlika,
timawa, or another alipin
Gintubo – a person born as an alipin
(through the debts of his/her parents)
ALIPIN

1. Aliping namamahay – with land

rights (householder); only came for
his master’s call to work on the fields
and do other services
ALIPIN
2. Aliping sagigilid – members of the
master’s household (gilid-part of the
house where the stove is) and ate
from their master’s pot; may be
transferred to another creditor at any
moment and may be rewarded at
their master’s pleasure
LAWS
a. Oral laws – customs (ugali), which
had been handed down from
generation to generation
b. Written laws – promulgated by datus
with the help of the council elders
(may be changed by consensus; were
announced to the people by the
umalohokan, barangay crier
BELIEFS and RITUALS
BELIEFS such as:
1. Life after death (reward &
punishment)
2. Ancestor worship (religion) and other
gods (minor &major gods) and idols
RITUALS such as:
1. Religious celebrations
2. Feasts
FOOD
Meat – provided during rituals and feats
Everyday meal: rootcrops, fruits and fish
Staple food: rice
Wines: tuba, basi, pangasi, lambanog
- cooked in earthen pots or in bamboo
tubes
- Used bare hands, banana leaves
(plates) and coconut shells (cups)
FAMILY LIFE
Lessons taught by parents to children:
a. Enduring life’s challenges
b. Work – male: hunting, fishing, timber
cutting, boat making, mining and
agriculture; female: household tasks
like cooking, gardening, sewing
SCHOOL
Ancient Panay:
Bothoan – a barangay school; old man
(teacher)
Subjects: reading, writing, arithmetic,
the handling of weapons, acquiring of
amulets or kinaadman
MUSIC: SONGS AND DANCES
Instruments like guitar, flute, gong,
xylophone, drum, cymbal and horn
Themes of ancient songs: thanksgiving,
birth, death, love, war, labor, religion
and victory
Ethnic dances: connected with ancient
people’s beliefs spirits, in thanksgiving
and healing, in courtship
THEATER and SPORTS
- Dance-dramas: by ritual practitioners
to appease supernatural powers that
were believed to control natural forces,
to ensure good harvest and success in
hunting and battles
- Arnis: self-defense with instruments
made of rattan canes or betel nut
trunks (parrying, offense, defense)
COMMERCE
Early Filipinos has their own:
a. weights and measures e.g. talaro
(balancing scales), salop (one ganta)
b. medium of exchange e.g. coinage
(gold), shells, bronze gongs
c. Barter – offering of their own
products in exchange of other goods
MATHEMATICS
a. Counting (100,000,000 – Bahala)
b. With methods: adding, subtracting,
multiplying, dividing
c. With terms for numerals e.g. isa
(one)
d. Calculating time and reading signs of
nature to identify seasons
e. With a calendar
OTHERS
a. Medicine (folk healers use of plants
for healing)
b. Clothes and other garments (men:
collarless, short-sleeved coat, bahag-
strip of cloth, putong; women: baro,
saya, tapis-strip of cloth, jewelries)
c. Houses (bahay kubo-nipa hut)
d. Taming of pets (cats, dogs, monkeys)