Showing posts with label Prehispanic Era. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prehispanic Era. Show all posts
Aug 31, 2021
Oct 1, 2019
Feb 3, 2015
Jan 26, 2015
Ancient History of the Philippines: An Introduction
by Alan S. Cajes
If the story of the universe is told in a calendar year[1], the following events happened from January to November: separation of the gravitational force from the infinite singularity; formation of a thick mixture of hydrogen and helium; birth of the galaxies; explosion of a star that spewed forth heavy elements such as carbon, oxygen and nitrogen, and then the birth of the solar system. In the 12th month, December, the first microscopic forms of life emerged. On the last day of December, the first shell appeared. At the last minute of the last day of December, life emerged from the sea. During a tiny fraction of the last second of December 31, the first hominid ancestor of humans and apes and chimpanzees appeared.
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If the story of the universe is told in a calendar year[1], the following events happened from January to November: separation of the gravitational force from the infinite singularity; formation of a thick mixture of hydrogen and helium; birth of the galaxies; explosion of a star that spewed forth heavy elements such as carbon, oxygen and nitrogen, and then the birth of the solar system. In the 12th month, December, the first microscopic forms of life emerged. On the last day of December, the first shell appeared. At the last minute of the last day of December, life emerged from the sea. During a tiny fraction of the last second of December 31, the first hominid ancestor of humans and apes and chimpanzees appeared.
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Dec 5, 2013
Archaeology and our territorial dispute with China
Textbook history often organizes the story of our nation into periods marked by our colonial experiences: the Spanish period 1565-1898, the American period 1898-1946, and the Japanese period 1941-1945. Before
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Apr 17, 2011
Moro Piracy during the Spanish Period and Its Impact
by Domingo M. Non
http://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2433/56477/1/KJ00000131731.pdf
http://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2433/56477/1/KJ00000131731.pdf
Moro piracy during the Spanish period in the Philippines caused an epoch of wholesale misery for the inhabitants. A Spanish writer described the period as a chapter of Philippine history "written in blood and tears and nourished in pain and suffering" [Fernandez 1979: 203]. Piracy also hampered the social and material growth of the country. But its most devastating effect was the socio-psychological impact of the turmoil in shaping the relationship of the Moro and Christianized inhabitants.
Thus, this essay will attempt to re-examine the history of Moro piracy to determine its
motives and the extent of its impact on the present society.
Feb 9, 2011
Pre-historic civilisation in the Philippines. The Tagalo-Bisaya tribes –II
by Elsdon Best
p195-201
The Journal of the Polynesian Society
Volume 1 1892 > Volume 1, No. 4, 1892
THE various tribes of the Philippines were frequently at war with each other, as seems to be the invariable rule where a race is broken up into many separate divisions. The weapons used in former times were the bow and arrow, the lance, long curved knives, and in the southern isles the blow pipe (sarbacan), for propelling poisoned darts. The arrows and lances were pointed with iron and bone, or were simply hardened with fire. Their defensive armour consisted of carved wooden shields (carasa), inlaid with tortoise-shell and mother-of-pearl, which covered them from head to foot, and also cuirasses formed of bamboo. It is not clear whether they manufactured artillery, but they certainly used cannon of iron and bronze before the advent of the Spanish, at which time the Mindanao tribes held strongly fortified positions, defended with cannon. These fortifications consisted of earthworks and stockades, sometimes surrounded by morasses. Such were the defences of the town of the Chief Rahamora when Legaspi attacked it. This town consisted of four thousand houses, and, having destroyed it, the victorious Spanish built on its site, in 1571, the city of Manila. The poison used for the sarbacan darts was either derived from certain trees, or, it is said, from the saliva of a green lizard (chacon). The natives are said by De Morga to have used this poison in order to kill the Spanish, for whom they had conceived a most bitter hatred.
The Manobo and Zambales were the most savage tribes. The Manobo surprised their enemies while asleep, slaughtered the men, and enslaved the women and children. The priest opened the breast of the first victim with the sacred knife, took out the heart, and ate it. This tribe also sacrificed slaves to the god of war, to whom the colour red was sacred. They were also head-hunters, and hung these- 196 ![]()
v:shapes="_x0000_i1025">trophies to the roofs of their houses. The Zambales, a fierce and savage tribe, were also head-hunters, as their name signifies, and were in the habit of extracting and eating the brains of slain enemies. Among the Ifugao the lasso is said to have been used as a weapon.
In regard to marriage customs, there was one peculiar form worthy of observation. When a man wished to marry he went to live with his prospective father-in-law, thus becoming a member of the household, and as such he worked at whatever duties were imposed upon him. This lasted sometimes for several years. If the family became dissatisfied with him he was dismissed, but if all went well he paid over to the parents what was known as “the price of the mother's milk”—that is, a compensation for the rearing of his wife. During the probationary period the young man assumed the name of bagontao, and the girl that of dalaga. They were much given to the practice of divination during the period of the wedding festivities, which lasted for several days. Although polygamy did not exist in a legal sense, yet concubinage was common. The first woman married, however, was the only legitimate wife (inasaba). To the inferior wives were assigned the various domestic labours, the milking of the buffalos, and the rearing of ducks, swans, geese, and pigeons. The women, in paying visits, or in walking abroad, were attended by a following of maids and slaves. In various tribes the “Assuan,” an evil deity, was supposed to exercise an evil influence over women in labour, and at such a time the husband mounted the house-roof, or stationed himself before the door, and, with lance or dagger in hand, cut and slashed vigorously at the air in order to drive away the dreaded spirit. Among these people also obtained that strange and world-wide custom known among anthropologists as the “couvade,” the origin of which it is so difficult to conjecture. In China and Africa, in Egypt and South America, in Malabar and Corsica, among the Basques, Caribs, Bouronese, and many other races, this singular custom of simulated maternity seems to have originated independently.
The language of the Philippines was divided into many different dialects, of which the Tagalo, an abundant and copious tongue, was the most perfect specimen. These, together with the languages of various outlying groups, can be traced to the same common origin by unequivocal marks of affinity, both in word formation and grammatical construction. In spite of various linguistic changes it has been noted by Le Gobien that the language of the Carolines bears a strong resemblance to the Tagalo, and the same may be said of the ancient Chamorro tongue. The Battak speech of Sumatra is said to be closely allied to the Tagalo.1 Prichard states that the Malagasi resembles Tagalo more than it does any other Malayan tongue. The Tagalo-Bisaya languages are said by several writers to be the most highly- 197 ![]()
v:shapes="_x0000_i1026">developed of this family, and are in a transition state between the agglutinative and inflective stages. Humboldt considered the Tagalo to be the parent language of the Malay type, but this was denied by Crawfurd. In the Javanese, one hundred and ten words per thousand are Sanscrit, in Malay fifty, in the Bugi seventeen, in Tagalo one and a half, and in Malagasi there are none. It might be inferred from this that the Tagalo-Bisaya migrations from the south-west took place prior to or about the sixth century of our era, about which time the Hindu religion was introduced into the East Indies, bringing with it many Sanscrit terms. The native languages hold their own in the Philippines. Pickering, in his “Races of Man,” states that the Tagalo is still the chief language of Luzon, being in general use in all the interior towns.
In respect to religion, the more advanced of the tribes appear to have arrived at that stage of intellectual progress when Nature worship begins to give place to a dim idea of a Supreme Being—a Maker of all things. This protecting genius, to whom they offered sacrifices, was called Bathalang Meicapal. These people had a vague conception of a future state in which the good were rewarded, and the wicked punished. Among the Bisaya, Ologan was the term for Heaven in their ancient religion, and their Hell was Solad. The souls of their dead were said to pass to the mountain of Medias in the Oton district. Tigbalan was the name of a forest demon among the northern tribes, who was treated with great respect. In passing beneath a tree a native would invariably say, Tavit' po—that is, “By your leave, my lord.” They practised fire-worship and fetishism, and paid homage to the Sun, Moon, rainbow, to animals, birds, and even to trees and rocks of peculiar appearance. The worship of birds appears to have been confined to two species, the bathala, a small blue bird, and the maylupa, a species of crow or kite. The trees, rocks and headlands which were close to contrary currents or places dangerous to navigation, were objects of veneration and dread, and the deities of these places were propitiated by offerings of food, or were supposed to be quelled by a flight of arrows being discharged against them, Influenced by terror, they venerated the crocodile, calling it mono, or grandfather, and it was sometimes tamed and cherished by the priests. These huge saurians were extremely dangerous, and many natives lost their lives by them, for which reason they constructed enclosures for bathing purposes. The Manobo revered the lightning, and believed thunder to be its voice. The Bisaya held that all who perished in battle, or were killed by crocodiles became dinata. The dinata oranito were guardian spirits, and among some tribes were represented by idols of gold, wood, ivory, or stone. There were anito of the cultivations, of the rains, of the sea, cocoanut trees, also of newly-born children, and of children during the period of lactation.- 198 
Again, there were family anito, a species of house-gods, who protected the family, and who were principally deified ancestors, having, it is said, ascended to heaven on the rainbow (balangao). Images representing these were kept in the houses, or in the vacant space beneath them, and slaves were sometimes sacrificed in their honour. It has been denied by some writers that the Philippine natives had any idols or images, or any places set apart for religious ceremonies, but the fact is proved by several of the old Spanish records, and also by the account of Cavendish, the adventurous English navigator, who visited the group in 1588, and who states: “These people wholly worship the Devil, who appears unto them in divers horrible forms, and they worship him by making figures of these forms, which they keep in caverns and special houses, offering to them perfumes and food, and calling them anito or licha.2 The MSS. which we quote says: “These people lacked capacious temples, neither had they sacred days set apart for religious practices, but they had at the entrances to their towns, and even close to their houses, small chapels or rooms consecrated to the anito, and to the offering of sacrifices. In these places were deposited offerings of food to sustain the souls of the dead in their journey of three days which divided death from the re-incarnation which ensued. Before the figures also were placed small braziers burning perfumes, and plates of sago and fruits.”
Again, there were family anito, a species of house-gods, who protected the family, and who were principally deified ancestors, having, it is said, ascended to heaven on the rainbow (balangao). Images representing these were kept in the houses, or in the vacant space beneath them, and slaves were sometimes sacrificed in their honour. It has been denied by some writers that the Philippine natives had any idols or images, or any places set apart for religious ceremonies, but the fact is proved by several of the old Spanish records, and also by the account of Cavendish, the adventurous English navigator, who visited the group in 1588, and who states: “These people wholly worship the Devil, who appears unto them in divers horrible forms, and they worship him by making figures of these forms, which they keep in caverns and special houses, offering to them perfumes and food, and calling them anito or licha.2 The MSS. which we quote says: “These people lacked capacious temples, neither had they sacred days set apart for religious practices, but they had at the entrances to their towns, and even close to their houses, small chapels or rooms consecrated to the anito, and to the offering of sacrifices. In these places were deposited offerings of food to sustain the souls of the dead in their journey of three days which divided death from the re-incarnation which ensued. Before the figures also were placed small braziers burning perfumes, and plates of sago and fruits.”The priests of these tribes were known as catalona in the north, and as babailan among the Bisaya. They were the sorcerers or “medicine men,” and rude beyond measure was their art of curing, consisting generally of the imaginary extraction of pebbles, leaves, or pieces of cane from the affected part. The priests possessed great authority among the people. In their invocations to the anito they sometimes deceived the spectators by a peculiar sound produced by burning the kernels of the cashew (casuy); and at all times, says the padre, they were assisted by the devil. The secret of these frauds was transmitted by inheritance, or was sold to the highest bidder, and after being consecrated the priests did no other work than net-making or weaving cloth.
As to their sacrifices, the object of them in many cases was to gain a knowledge of the future. Among other modes, they practised divination by an examination of the victim's entrails, and also by the stars, both of them widely spread customs. In the case of prolonged illness a new house was built, and the patient removed to it. The priest being summoned, he sacrificed according to the wealth of the offerers, sometimes a tortoise, and sometimes as many as three slaves. The house was filled with small tables, on which were placed refreshments, and which corresponded with the number of guests. The- 199 priest performed a sacred dance, purified and sacrificed the victim, and with the warm blood sprinkled the most distinguished of the guests, distributing to the remainder small copper bells. After repeating an incantation the entrails were examined after the manner of the Roman augurs, by the priests, who were often seized with convulsions, made grotesque contortions, foamed at the mouth, and finally announced the sentence of the death or recovery of the patient. If the omen was of health, a revel was held, and the valour of the patient's family and ancestors celebrated with songs. If the omen was of death, they diverted the mind of the patient by dancing, drinking, singing his praises, and persuading him that the gods removed him from this world in order to elevate him to the dignity of anito. At the close of the proceedings the priest received presents of gold and food from the guests. Sacrifices which were offered before undertaking a war or assault were conducted in a similar manner. Others, which were arranged by the chiefs, and dedicated to the principle god, were celebrated with feasting and dancing to the sound of their primitive music. The best dancer was invited by the priest to give the fatal thrust, and the flesh of sacrificed hogs was distributed among the guests, who looked upon it as sacred food.
priest performed a sacred dance, purified and sacrificed the victim, and with the warm blood sprinkled the most distinguished of the guests, distributing to the remainder small copper bells. After repeating an incantation the entrails were examined after the manner of the Roman augurs, by the priests, who were often seized with convulsions, made grotesque contortions, foamed at the mouth, and finally announced the sentence of the death or recovery of the patient. If the omen was of health, a revel was held, and the valour of the patient's family and ancestors celebrated with songs. If the omen was of death, they diverted the mind of the patient by dancing, drinking, singing his praises, and persuading him that the gods removed him from this world in order to elevate him to the dignity of anito. At the close of the proceedings the priest received presents of gold and food from the guests. Sacrifices which were offered before undertaking a war or assault were conducted in a similar manner. Others, which were arranged by the chiefs, and dedicated to the principle god, were celebrated with feasting and dancing to the sound of their primitive music. The best dancer was invited by the priest to give the fatal thrust, and the flesh of sacrificed hogs was distributed among the guests, who looked upon it as sacred food.The Philippine natives had a firm belief in omens and superstitions of many kinds. Thus, in the houses of the fishermen, new nets were not spoken of until they had been tested and found reliable, and among hunters the merits of dogs recently acquired were not discussed until they had been successful in catching game. A belief in the invulnerability (anten) of certain persons was a common superstition. A pregnant woman was not allowed to cut her hair for fear the infant should be bald. Much importance was attached to dreams, of which they were anxious to divine the meaning. In order to navigate their seas with safety it was not permitted to carry in the vessel either animals or land birds, nor even to name them; and in like manner, when travelling by land, they did not mention things which pertained to the sea. Before embarking on a voyage they caused the boat to oscillate, and observed carefully to which side it inclined the most. If to the right, it was accepted as a good omen, but if to the left, it was an evil omen. They also tied together many cords, and one end being made fast, would rub the other between the hands, and, by observing the manner in which the cords became entangled, they inferred the good or evil fortune which fate had in store for them.
The geogony of primitive and semi-civilised races always contains an element of interest, and that of the Philippine natives was certainly a singular belief. The creators of the earth were the sky, the kite, and the sea. After the bird had flown many times across the ocean, and found nothing to alight upon, the sky, in quarreling with the sea, caused the bird to throw down huge rocks with the aim of subduing it. These rocks became islands, and the earth generally.
The tradition of the origin of man is as follows: “Two logs of bamboo, impelled by the waves, were cast on shore at the feet of the bird, which, becoming enraged, began to pick them to pieces, when there appeared from the first log a man, and from the second a woman, thus proving the monogeny of the human species.” The man succeeded in gaining the affections of the woman, and from them are descended the whole human race. The dispersion of the race through-out the world was caused by a family quarrel. The many children of the primal couple lived indolently in the house of their parents, which displeased the father, who belaboured them with a cudgel, and expelled them from the house. The young people were much terrified, and fled from his presence. Some concealed themselves in the house, and from them are descended themaguinoo, or chiefs. Others went out openly from the house, and these were the fathers of the timagua(timāwa) or freemen, and yet others took refuge in the cooking-sheds and beneath the house. From these last sprang the slaves. Finally, those who were banished, and never returned, became the ancestors of distant people, and remote tribes. It is worthy of note that, on the arrival of the Spanish, they were supposed by the natives to be the descendants of the last-mentioned migration. The various animals are also said by tradition to have been derived from other logs of bamboo; and the fact that the monkey came from one close to that which contained man, explains satisfactorily the resemblance between them.
Respecting their idea of a future life, the belief was, that preceding the state of happiness after death, there was a series of incarnations or purifications of the soul, which successive transmigrations took place in a cluster of one hundred and fifty islands, on which were sheltered the souls of the dead. In those beautiful isles the departed spirits enjoyed perpetual youth. In this paradise there were trees always loaded with ripe fruit, and fastened to the earth by chains of gold, which served as roots. Of gold also were the ornaments, the bells, ear-rings (panica), the cloths (isine), and many other things. The shores of the sea were formed of pure rice, and there was also a sea of milk, and another of linogao, which is rice boiled with milk or fat. Yet another sea was of blood, and on the bank of this grew plants, whose flowers had petals of flesh ready for eating.
These people held primitive notions concerning original sin, and also cherished a belief in the punishments and rewards of a future life. They accounted for the coming of death into the world in the following manner:—Far back in the very night of time the god Laon possessed a most beautiful fish, which was his delight, also a tree which bore the most luscious fruit. The offenders killed the fish and plucked the fruit. For this offence Laon caused men to die in all ages.
Such then was the state of civilisation among the Tagalo-Bisaya- 201 ![]()
' v:shapes="_x0000_i1030"> tribes at the time when the Malay Mahomedans, and the Spanish conquistadores attempted, from opposite points, to introduce their religions into the archipelago. The Moros of the Sulu Islands were beginning to overrun the Philippines on the arrival of the Spanish, and would eventually have Mahomedanised the entire group. The Philippine natives at this time were in a singularly interesting stage of intellectual progress. They had lived through the crude fetishism of savagedom, and were emerging from the second stage of religious feeling, during which, they had evolved out of the contemplation of Nature, one of those wonderful mythologies which are met with among so many nations. They were beginning to renounce the old Nature worship, and to have a more or less confused idea of a superior religion, of which the central figure was a Supreme Maker.
It has been truly said that nothing requires such calm and impartial judgment as the inquiry into the moral and religious condition of uncivilised races. The co-evolution of religion and civilisation is an extremely interesting subject to the student of anthropology, when he notes the gradual refinement of the national religion as the culture of the race improves, and the degradation of that religion when a race retrogrades in civilisation. It is one of the many grand problems, based on the retributive laws of Nature, which confront the enquirer into that great and wonderful mystery—the development of the human race. Well it is for him who can learn from the savage Aieta or the semi-civilised Tagalo, a lesson in the evolution of the human intellect; but, unfortunately, so many who have golden opportunities of studying the intellect and works of uncultured man are careless of these matters, and look with contempt upon the noblest of studies. They cannot interest themselves in the struggling intellect of primitive man; they no longer understand the craving of youth for advancement; they disdain to look upon the dawn of intellectual day.
These are the most interesting points procured from the afore, mentioned works on the Philippine Islands—a land which we call new-but in which the events of the Tagalo-Bisaya migrations were but as of yesterday. Here, as elsewhere, the rude savage retreats before a superior race, but the receptive Tagalo attaches himself to the civilisation of his conquerors. He had already advanced far on the difficult highway that leads from barbarism to a higher culture, and was thus enabled to receive the teachings of his Iberian invaders; but he who would seek the indigenous Aieta must look for him in the distant recesses of the primæval forest, or in the dark and gloomy cañons of the great ranges.
1 Cust. “Languages of the East Indies.”
2 Licha=A statue or image, in Tagal dictionary, by Fray Domingo de los Santos. Manila, 1835.
Feb 8, 2011
Huluga Fossils and Artifacts
Published by the Heritage Conservation Advocates, Cagayan de Oro, Philippines, July 21, 2003. Updated June 18, 2008
Although many archaeological sites in the Philippines are heavily looted and destroyed, some fossils and artifacts have been retrieved for scientific study. This collection in Huluga, Cagayan de Oro indicates that the area was settled around 350 AD, and possibly earlier. The settlers were using stone and later metal tools. They had artistic inclinations, hunted large terrestrial and aquatic mammals, and had direct or indirect trading with the Chinese.
See link below.
Feb 7, 2011
The lower Palaeolithic record in the Philippines
By Eusebio Z. Dizon and Alfred F. Pawlik
National Museum of the Philippines, Archaeology Division, Manila, Philippines
University of the Philippines, Archaeological Studies Program, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
Source: http://homepages.uni-tuebingen.de/alfred.pawlik/publications/Dizon%20and%20Pawlik%20Lower%20Palaeolithic%20Philippines%20Quat%20Int%202009.pdf
Source: http://homepages.uni-tuebingen.de/alfred.pawlik/publications/Dizon%20and%20Pawlik%20Lower%20Palaeolithic%20Philippines%20Quat%20Int%202009.pdf
Prehistory and Theories
by George Weber
Lots of questions and few answers
Lots of questions and few answers
Every archaeologist working on prehistorical sites knows: the more you dig the more you find (if you are lucky) and the less you know. Prehistoric finds by themselves usually mean little, an outline of sense only begins to appear when large numbers of finds are available that can be compared, analysed and correlated. There are no large numbers of finds and there is hardly any archaeological activity in the Andamans now. Nor are there vast numbers of researchers actively excavating sites and in Southeast Asia as a whole. Despite the frustratingly frequent use of "could", "is likely" and "perhaps", the picture we paint below is based on some facts and it does make overall sense. This may not be very satisfactory - but it is all that can be offered at the present state of knowledge.
Looking through the technical literature, we have noticed that professional archaeologists reporting on their sites and finds draw comparisons between their finds and those of other sites. There is, of course, absolutely nothing wrong with this, it is part of their work. What strikes us as odd is that even if the evidence discussed has been found in the wider neighbourhood of the the Andaman islands, the Andamanese Negritos are hardly ever mentioned. They seem to be a sort of blind spot among professional prehistorians.
In such a situation, maps laying out what limited evidence there is are surely the best available medication to wilful blindness, overheated speculation, wishful thinking and all the other psychological malfunctions that we are suffer from at time or another. Hence the preponderance of maps in this chapter.
Connecting a specific population (whether extinct or still living) to a specific prehistoric tool technology is something that archaeologists very seldom do, or can do. Indeed, A prehistoric tool industry could have been invented by one people, only to be used by several different peoples later. Professional archaeologists normally talk of "tool industries" without identifying the people who made the tools; in Europe, for example, it took decades of work on countless finds by large numbers of archaeologists before the association of the Mousterian stone tool industry with Neanderthal man was widely accepted.
In the Andamans, the situation is by archaeological standards highly unusual. Only in Tasmania is there something similar. No other prehistoric peoples are known to have inhabited islands in such isolation for so long - and until as recently as the 19th century. In those two cases it is, for once, reasonable to assume that all archaeological finds that have not obviously come from the outside world and predate the 19th century have been made by the Andamanese Negrito (or the Tasmanians in their case). The stone tools found in Andamanese kitchen midden and described in the previous chapter are closely related to a specific stone tool industry, the Toalean (see below). This industry has been found all over the Indonesian archipelago and beyond. However, the conclusion that if the Andamanese tools are Toalean, all Toalean tools must have been made by Negrito is not possible. Other people can have made those tools, copied from Negrito or the Negrito copied from them. The fact that the Andamanese used a Toalian stone technology does indicate that the Negrito ancestors were much more widespread in the past and not nearly as isolated then as they were during the last 2,000 years.
Australia seems to have received its first human immigrants around 50,000 years ago. On their way to Australia, the migrants must have passed through the Indonesian archipelago. Indeed, Indonesia, the Philippines and Papua-New Guinea today number among their citizens genuine Negritos as well as many small groups possibly related to the Negrito(see map below). Most of the suspected relatives are small and secretive groups, barely known and researched. Many are also on the verge of extinction. Do they mark the trail of peoples that moved (quite likely in several waves) through the archipelago and into Australia, there to become the Tasmanian and Australian aborigines? Quite likely, but we don't know for sure yet.
The Andamanese Negrito are a population that has undoubtedly been isolated from the outside world for a long time. The genetic evidence does not allow doubts here. The most immediately convincing reason for such isolation is a long period of residence in the Andaman islands. The handful of Indian archaeological excavations in the islands have so far found an oldest archaeological date for an Andamanese presence of only 2,280 years from the present (with an uncertainty +/-90 years). In prehistory, this is almost yesterday and not old at all. Where were the Andamanese before? Are they recent arrivals in the previously uninhabited islands? Or have the few archaeological trenches been dug in the wrong places? Have the older sites on the ancient coastline been drowned by the rising sea and the higher ones been hidden by the jungle? We can only guess.
In the present patchy state of our knowledge, we are dealing in probabilities. Most probably, the Andamanese formed part of a large Southeast Asian area inhabited at one time by Negritos of which the Aeta (in the Philippines) and the Mani (in Thailand), the Semang (in Malaysia) and the Aeta (in the Philippines) are also surviving remnants. But were the Andamanese already living on the islands when most of Southeast Asia was Negrito territory or did they only move into the Andaman refuge later? Your guess is as good as ours. Was that more or less unified Negrito population broken up and largely destroyed by the Great Migrations of modern groups speaking languages of the Austronesian (Malayan etc), Austroasiatic (Khmer, Nicobari, etc) and Sino-Tibetan (Thai, Burmese, etc) families from the north between 8,000 and 5,000 years ago? Probably it was.
An enigma within a riddle (if I may be allowed to to mangle Sir Winston Churchill out of context just this once) is the possible relationship between Negritos and Veddoids. The Vedda are the aboriginal people of Sri Lanka and there are many Vedda-like (Veddoid) people in India as well as probably in Southeast Asia. Just how or whether the Negrito groups are related to the Veddoid groups and whether the Vedddoid really are related with each other is - you may have guessed as much by now - quite unknown.
Investigating DNA among these many groups will not only answer a lot of these questions (and no doubt throw up new questions), it will also put dates to the various forking points. Getting answers here is not just of interest to the unworldly few who are interested in the Negrito and Veddoid groups for their own sake, but answers would also throw light on a murky era when Homo sapiens became HUMAN. And those are definitively not questions that interest only specialists.
Clues to Philippine prehistory
by Ambeth Ocampo
Inquirer
First Posted 02:44:00 08/24/2007
First Posted 02:44:00 08/24/2007
MANILA, Philippines — At the start of each semester, when I meet a new class for the first time and go over the syllabus, I watch out for the collective groan that comes when I announce that a visit to the National Museum is required. For many college students who had to endure a grade school trip to the museum, going there a second or third time is considered cruel and unusual punishment. This mind-set is not the fault of the museum; it is the fault of the teacher or museum guide who did not infect the students with a sense of discovery and appreciation of our past. Many of my students complain after visiting the National Museum that they do not want to see another piece of blue-and-white ceramic for the rest of their lives, but they say this because they do not appreciate not just the artistic and symbolic beauty of the pieces but more importantly the fact that these are traces of a long and complex story that goes beyond our written history.
If you haven’t visited it yet, there is a very comprehensive display of ancient porcelain excavated from Philippine archeological sites in the Ayala Museum. Ably curated by the president of the Oriental Ceramic Society of the Philippines, Rita Ching Tan, the exhibition is but a small fraction of the Roberto T. Villanueva collection of ceramics that used to be kept in a private museum in Forbes Park. At first glance, you will be overwhelmed by a hall filled with ceramics, but Rita Tan has not only arranged them by point of origin — China, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia — she has also arranged the Chinese section chronologically by type so that anyone can follow the development of Chinese ceramics from the 9th to the 19th century and appreciate these artifacts, which have been imported into the Philippines over the centuries. Now that the United States is making such a big fuss over Chinese exports, and we are told not to eat White Rabbit candy or give children Chinese-made toys, it would be interesting to note that we have been importing things from China for over 1,000 years.
Over the years, I have been picking up pieces of ancient ceramics from antique shops not for a systematic collection but rather as souvenirs of a pre-Spanish past. Over the years, I have tried to read up on ceramics starting from the pioneering work by Leandro and Cecilia Locsin’s “Oriental Ceramics Discovered in the Philippines.” Much of the material is scattered over a number of books, all of them out of print and hard to obtain. And even if I had a book on ceramics or a photocopy, there is no substitute to seeing actual pieces. Now that the Roberto T. Villanueva collection is on display and arranged so sensibly, one can get an introduction to pre-colonial trade.
A smaller exhibition of Chinese ceramics, also curated by Rita Tan, is on view in Kaisa Museum in Intramuros. I tell myself that if I had these resources when I was a student, my visits to the National Museum and my lessons on pre-colonial Philippine history would have been enriched and made more engaging.
If the present Ayala Museum exhibition were done 20 years ago, I would have been more appreciative of my mother’s modest collection of ceramics. Once she arranged them all neatly on a shelf in my study and I was so upset by the intrusion that I gathered everything and left them in a box outside the door. Infuriated, she threatened to break a particularly beautiful Song period celadon plate on my head but changed her mind when she realized how much more valuable — historically and monetarily — the plate was than her son’s hard head. Years later, I ate my pride and sheepishly asked for a few pieces and, like all mothers, she forgave. I inherited the whole lot of mostly Ming 15th to 16th century pieces.
These days whenever I go to the beach, I spend time with goggles and snorkel, scanning the bottom of the sea for broken shards of ancient ceramics that fell off some ancient ship. In Mindoro, I found some Ming period shards of blue-and-white ceramics and pieces of black ceramics made in Thailand. In Cebu, aside from a broken Noritake plate and a torn condom, I found two pieces from a Ching (probably 19th century) plate.
When I show these to the locals, I’m usually told that these things turn up on the shore after a storm, making me imagine shipwrecks with ancient cargo in the vicinity. I’m often shown other broken pieces that are just tucked away in homes, sometimes even used as markers for a game of “piko” or even “sungka.”
Now that most of the archeological sites on land have been exhausted, the last frontier is the sea. Clues to our pre-history lie on the sea-bed, and we are glad that the National Museum Underwater Archeology Section, in cooperation with interested individuals like the Frenchman Frank Goddio, are bringing things to the surface. By patiently documenting each piece in its historical context, they help complete the proverbial jigsaw puzzle we call Philippine pre-history.
So many resources available today were not around when I was a student. We hope these can be disseminated in a more popular and lively way so that museum visits will be a joy rather than a chore.
Feb 6, 2011
Early History
Negrito, proto-Malay, and Malay peoples were the principal peoples of the Philippine archipelago. The Negritos are believed to have migrated by land bridges some 30,000 years ago, during the last glacial period. Later migrations were by water and took place over several thousand years in repeated movements before and after the start of the Christian era.
The social and political organization of the population in the widely scattered islands evolved into a generally common pattern. Only the permanent-field rice farmers of northern Luzon had any concept of territoriality. The basic unit of settlement was thebarangay, originally a kinship group headed by a datu (chief). Within the barangay, the broad social divisions consisted of nobles, including the datu; freemen; and a group described before the Spanish period as dependents. Dependents included several categories with differing status: landless agricultural workers; those who had lost freeman status because of indebtedness or punishment for crime; and slaves, most of whom appear to have been war captives.
Islam was brought to the Philippines by traders and proselytizers from the Indonesian islands. By 1500 Islam was established in the Sulu Archipelago and spread from there to Mindanao; it had reached the Manila area by 1565. Muslim immigrants introduced a political concept of territorial states ruled by rajas or sultans who exercised suzerainty over the datu. Neither the political state concept of the Muslim rulers nor the limited territorial concept of the sedentary rice farmers of Luzon, however, spread beyond the areas where they originated. When the Spanish arrived in the sixteenth century, the majority of the estimated 500,000 people in the islands still lived in barangay settlements.
Pre-Spanish Period
The Philippines is the only country in Southeast Asia that was subjected to Western colonization before it had the opportunity to develop either a centralized government ruling over a large territory or a dominant culture. In ancient times the inhabitants of the Philippines were a diverse agglomeration of peoples who arrived in various waves of immigration from the Asian mainland and who maintained little contact with each other. Contact with Chinese traders was recorded in 982, and some cultural influences from South Asia, such as aSanskrit-based writing system, were carried to the islands by the Indonesian empires of Srivijaya (7th–13th century) and Majapahit (13th–16th century); but in comparison with other parts of the region, the influence of both China and India on the Philippines was of little importance. The peoples of the Philippine archipelago, unlike most of the other peoples of Southeast Asia, never adopted Hinduism or Buddhism.
Pre-Spanish history
According to what can be inferred from somewhat later accounts, the Filipinos of the 15th century must have engaged primarily in shifting cultivation, hunting, and fishing. Sedentary cultivation was the exception. Only in the mountains of northern Luzon, where elaborate rice terraces were built some 2,000 years ago, were livelihood and social organization linked to a fixed territory. The lowland peoples lived in extended kinship groups known as barangays, each under the leadership of a datu, or chieftain. The barangay, which ordinarily numbered no more than a few hundred individuals, was usually the largest stable economic and political unit.
Within the barangay the status system, though not rigid, appears to have consisted of three broad classes: the datu and his family and the nobility, freeholders, and “dependents.” This third category consisted of three levels—sharecroppers, debt peons, and war captives—the last two levels being termed “slaves” by Spanish observers. The slave status was inherited but, through manumission and interclass marriage, seldom extended over more than two generations. The fluidity of the social system was in part the consequence of a bilateral kinship system in which lineage was reckoned equally through the male and female lines. Marriage was apparently stable, though divorce was socially acceptable under certain circumstances.
Early Filipinos followed various local religions, a mixture of monotheism and polytheism in which the latter dominated. The propitiation of spirits required numerous rituals, but there was no obvious religious hierarchy. In religion, as in social structure and economic activity, there was considerable variation between—and even within—islands.
This pattern began to change in the 15th century, however, when Islam was introduced to Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago throughBrunei on the island of Borneo. Along with changes in religious beliefs and practices came new political and social institutions. By the mid-16th century two sultanates had been established, bringing under their sway a number of barangays. A powerful datu as far north as Manila embraced Islam. It was in the midst of this wave of Islamic proselytism that the Spanish arrived. Had the Spanish come a century later or had their motives been strictly commercial, Filipinos today might be a predominantly Muslim people.
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