Professional Documents
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Pcsi Week 2 Module
Pcsi Week 2 Module
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Early Philippines
Early Philippines
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
Philippine History/PSCI-101
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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.
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)
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
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
Philippine History/PSCI-101
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Early Philippines
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