PHILIPPINE HISTORY

Pre-Colonial Period
Pre-Colonial Philippines
A. Society
1. Mode of Dressing
2. Ornaments
3. Houses
4. Social Classes
5. Status of Women
6. Marriage customs
7. Mixed Marriages, Inheritance and
Succession
Pre-Colonial Philippines
B. Politics C. Religion
1. Government 1. Religious
2. Laws Beliefs
3. Legislation 2. Burial
4. Judicial Process 3. Divination
5. Trial by Ordeal and Magic
Charms
Pre-Colonial Philippines
D. Economic Life E. Culture
1. Agriculture 1. Languages
2. Livestock 2. System of
3. Fishing Writing
4. Mining 3. Literature
5. Lumbering and 4. Music and
Shipbuilding Dance
6. Weaving
5. Art
7. Trade
Society
Philippine pre-colonial society is both
different and the same as in the present.
Some aspects of the pre-colonial period
have survived into our time.
Mode of Dressing
• male attire was composed of the
kanggan (sleeveless jacket) and
bahag (loincloth)
• the color of the kanggan

• men also wear a turban called

Bogobo man & woman
putong,

• female attire consisted of baro or

camisa (jacket with sleeves) and
saya or patadyong (a long skirt);

Kalinga & subuanon women

PUTONG

Bogobo man
Ornaments

• to look attractive
• both wear kalumbiga, pendants,
bracelets, and leglets
• these ornaments were made of gold
• some wore gold fillings between the
teeth
• tattoos were also fashionable for some
pre-colonial Filipinos; they also exhibit
a man’s war record
• Islas del Pintados
Bontoc men
Houses
• built to suit the tropical
climate
• called bahay kubo, made of
wood, bamboo, and nipa
palm;
• some Filipinos, such as the
Kalingas, Mandayas and
Bagobos built their houses
on treetops
• others, such as the Badjaos,
built their houses on boats
Social Classes
• the society was made up of three classes:
nobles, mahadlika or maharlika (freemen)
and the alipin (dependents)
• members of the nobility were addressed
with the title Gat or Lakan among the
Tagalogs
• alipin or dependents acquired their status
• there were two kinds of dependents: aliping
namamahay and aliping sagigilid
• in the Visayas, dependents
were of three kinds : tumataban, tumarampok,
and the ayuey

Maguindanao Sultan, nobles &

Alipins
Status of Women

• women in pre-colonial Philippine society

had the right to inherit property
• had the exclusive right to name their
children
• men walked behind them as a sign of
respect
Marriage customs

• men were in general, monogamous; while their wives are

called asawa, while concubines are called “friends”
• courtship usually begins with paninilbihan

- 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)
• final arrangements; this is called pamamalae or
pamamanhikan or pamumulungan
• the wedding ceremonies vary depending on the
status of the couple;
• weddings are officiated by the priestess or
babaylan
• uncooked rice is thrown on the couple after the
wedding ceremony
babaylan

Go to Religious Beliefs
 Marriage ceremony - eating
rice

Tausog wedding
ceremony
• Muslim Filipinos have similar marriage customs; the
first stage was called pananalanguni or bethrothal;
dowry was also settled by the chief (pedsungud).
• This was of seven kinds:
1. kawasateg,;
2. siwaka,
3. enduatuan, brassware or animals
4. Pangatulian or jewelry
5. Tatas
6. Langkad or money given to the girl’s parents; and
7. lekat, amount of money
• Pegkawing, or the wedding ceremony follows
• the wedding ceremony is officiated by the hadji
• After Six days of festivities followed.
Mixed Marriages, Inheritance and Succession
• mixed marriages were allowed in pre-colonial
society
• the status of children were dependent
• the status of children in mixed marriages is
divided evenly between the parents
• legitimate children inherited their parents’
property.
• in succession, the first son of the barangay
chieftain inherits his father’s position
Politics
Government
• the barangay, which consisted of from 30
to 100 families. The term came from the
Malay word balangay.
• Datu or Chieftain
• the subjects served their chieftain during
wars, voyages, planting and harvest, and
when his house needs to be built or
repaired; they also paid tributes called
buwis.
balangay
• alliances among barangays were common and
these were formalized in a ritual called
sangduguan.

Laws
• were either customary
• dealt with various subjects such as
inheritance, property rights, divorce, usury,
family relations, divorce, adoption, loans, etc.
• those found guilty of crimes were punished
either by fine or by death;
Legislation

• before laws are made, the chief consults

with a council of elders
• they are not immediately enforced until the
new legislation is announced to the village
by the umalohokan.
Judicial Process
• 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

• both took an oath

• 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

• The 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.
• among the Ifugaos, ordeal by combat was
common, i.e. bultong (wrestling), alaw (duel)
bultong
Religion
Religious Beliefs
• pre-colonial Filipinos believed in the immortality
of the soul and in life after death
• they also believed in the existence of a number
of gods
• i.e. Bathalang Maykapal (Creator), Idinayale
(god of agriculture), Sidapa (god of death),
Balangaw (rainbow god), Mandarangan (war
god), Agni (fire god) Lalahon (goddess of
harvest), Siginarugan (god of hell), Diyan
Masalanta (goddess of love), etc.
 Agni (India)

Bathala
• also showed respect for animals and
plants like the crocodile, crow,
tigmamanukin;
• diseases were thought to be caused by
the temper of the environmental spirits
• Filipinos also venerated the dead by
keeping alive their memory by carving
idols of stone, gold or ivory called likha or
larawan; food, wine and other things were
also shared with the dead
• adored idols called anitos or diwatas to
whom they made offerings
• some anitos were considered bad;
however, they made offerings to them too
in order to appease them or placate their
anger
• priestesses such as the babaylan/ baylana
or katalona acted as mediums to
communicate with these spirits
Burial
• 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
• professional mourners were hired to
accentuate the depth of mourning
• 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 is 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
• some ancients fasted and limited their
nutrition to vegetables; among the
Tagalogs, this is called sipa
• relatives of the dead who was murdered
would not end their mourning until they
have exacted vengeance or balata
• the celebration held on the ninth night after
the death of the person is called pasiyam,
in which a play called tibaw is staged to
honor the dead
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
Economic
Life
Agriculture
• main source of livelihood
• rice, coconuts, sugar cane, cotton, hemp,
bananas, oranges, and many species of
fruits and vegetables were grown
• done in two ways : kaingin system (slash
and burn) and tillage
• when the Spaniards came to the
Philippines, they noted that Cebu and
Palawan were abundant in many
agricultural foodstuffs
• agricultural productivity was enhanced
by use of irrigation ditches like those
found in the Ifugao Rice Terraces
• landholding was either public (less
arable land that could be tilled freely
by anyone) and private (rich and
cultivated lands belonging to nobles
and datus)
• some rented land and paid in gold or in
kind
• the daily fare consisted of rice and boiled
fish, or sometimes pork or venison,
carabao or wild buffalo meat
• fermented the sap of palm trees and drank
it as liquor called tuba

Livestock
• Pre-colonial Filipinos raised chickens,
pigs, goats, carabaos, and small native
ponies
Fishing
• was a thriving industry for those who live
in the coast or near rivers and lakes
• various tools for fishing such as nets, bow
and arrow, spear, wicker basket, hooks
and lines, corrals and fish poisons were
used
• pearls fisheries also abound in Sulu
 Fishing
with bow
& arrow

Mining
• comparatively developed before the coming of the
Spaniards
• the ancients mined gold in many parts of the archipelago
and were traded throughout the country and with other
countries
Lumbering and Shipbuilding
• were flourishing
industries
• Filipinos were said to be
proficient in building
ocean-going vessels
• all kinds of boats or
ships were built, which
the Spaniards later call
banca, balangay, lapis,
caracoa, virey, vinta and
prau
 Weaving

• home industry
that was
dominated
by women
• using crude
wooden looms,
textiles such as
sinamay from hemp, medrinaque from
banana, cotton, linen, and silk, were woven
Trade
• was conducted between or among barangays,
or even among the islands
• there was trade too with other countries such as
China, Siam, Japan, Cambodia, Borneo,
Sumatra, Java, and other islands of old Malaysia
• did not use any currency but conducted trade
through barter
• sometimes, goods were priced in terms of gold
or metal gongs
• Chinese traders noted that Filipinos were very
honest in their commercial transactions
Culture
Philippine pre-colonial culture was basically
Malayan in structure and form. They had
written language which was used not just
for communication but also for literary
expression. They also had music and
dances for almost all occasions and a wide
variety of musical instruments that shows
their ingenuity.
Languages
• there are more than one hundred
languages in the Philippines, eight of
which are considered major languages.
They are: Tagalog, Iloko, Pangasinan,
Pampangan, Sugbuhanon, Hiligaynon,
Samarnon or Samar-Leyte, and
Magindanao
• these languages are descended from
Austronesian or Malayo-Polynesian
language
• the differences might be accounted for the
need to forming new words and phrases to
fit the new environment
• many of the words or terms in Filipino
languages were derived from Malayan
System of Writing
• before the arrival of the Spaniards,
Filipinos used a syllabary which was
probably of Sanskrit or Arabic provenance
• the syllabary consisted of seventeen
symbols, of which three were vowels and
fourteen consonants
• no one is certain about the direction of
writing
• Fr. Pedro Chirino’s theory is that the
ancients wrote from top to bottom and
from left to right
• pre-colonial Filipinos wrote on bark of
trees, on leaves and bamboo tubes, using
their knives and daggers, pointed sticks or
iron as pens and the colored saps of trees
as ink
• only a few of this writings survive into the
present because early Spanish
missionaries destroyed many manuscripts
on the ground that they are the work of the
Devil himself
• some pieces of literature, however, have
been handed down to us orally
Laguna Copperplate Inscription
By Hector Santos
http://isanghamahal.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_archive.html

Antoon Postma, a Dutch national who has lived most of his life among the Mangyans
in the Philippines and the director of the Mangyan Assistance & Research Center in
Panaytayan, Mansalay, Oriental Mindoro, was able to translate the writing. His effort
is all the more remarkable when you consider that the text was in a language similar
to four languages (Sanskrit, Old Tagalog, Old Javanese, and Old Malay) mixed
together…
The text was written in Kavi, a mysterious script which does not look like the ancient
Tagalog script known as baybayin or alibata. Neither does it look similar to other
Philippine scripts still used today by isolated ethnic minorities like the Hanunóos and
the Buhids of Mindoro, and the Tagbanwas of Palawan. It is the first artifact of pre-
Hispanic origin found in the Philippines that had writing on copper material…
Postma's translation provides a lot of exciting surprises. Like most other copperplate
documents, it gives a very precise date from the Sanskrit calendar which
corresponds to 900 A.D. in our system. It contains placenames that still exist around
the Manila area today. It also lists the names of the chiefs of the places mentioned.
The placenames mentioned prove the Philippine connection of the LCI. The names
are still recognizable today although almost eleven centuries have passed since the
document was issued. The placenames are Pailah (Paila), Tundun (Tundo), Puliran
(Pulilan), Binwangan (Binwangan), Dewata (Diwata), and Medang (Medang)…
Laguna copperplate inscription
Literature
• pre-colonial literature may be classified into :
floating or oral and written literature
• Tagalogs have the bugtong (riddle), suliranin
and indulanin (street songs), sabi (maxim),
sawikain (saying), talindaw (boat songs), diyuna
(song of revelry), kumintang (war song which
evolved into a love song), dalit and umbay
(dirge), tagumpay, balikungkong, dupayinin and
hiliraw (war songs), uyayi and hele (lullabies),
ihiman (bridal song), tagulaylay (mournful song),
tigpasin (rowing song), tingad (household song),
and kutang-kutang (couplets usually chanted by
the blind)
• songs, dance and the drama probably
developed simultaneously
• most of the pre-colonial drama was held in
the sambahan or places of worship
• these dealt with various subjects including
love, war, legends, the memory of the
deceased, and war heroes
• dramas developed into different forms
such as the pagbati, karagatan, tagayan,
pananapatan, sabalan, and tibaw
• the karagatan was a debate in verse in
which a problem is resolved; it developed
into the duplo during the Spanish period
and then into the balagtasan in 1924
during the American period
• tibaw on the other hand is perform during
the pasiyam
• Maranaw literature, inspired by Islam,
consisted of tutul (folk tale), tubad-tubad
(short love poems), pananaro-on (sayings
and proverbs), sowa-sowa-i (drama),
antoka (riddle or puzzle), and darangan
(epic poetry)
• Ilocano literature, for its part, has many
kinds of songs sung on different
occasions; this include dal-ot (song during
baptismal party, wedding, or a feast),
badeng (love song sung in a serenade),
and dung-aw (dirge)
• Filipinos were fond of composing epic
poetry, which is why the country is unique
for having more than twenty epic poems.
Examples of this are Hudhud and Alim
(Ifugao), Biag ni Lam-Ang (The Life of Lam-
Ang / Ilocano), Bantugan, Indarapatra at
Sulayman, and
Bidasari
(Moslems)
Igorots
reciting
Hudhud
 Princess
Lanawen
to be won
by Prince
Bantugan

Princess Bidasari story is like Snow White’s

Indarapata &
Sulayman
Music and Dance

• Filipinos are naturally fond of both music

and dance, and usually, whenever music
is played, it is accompanied by dance
• some examples of pre-colonial musical
instruments include kudyapi (Tagalog), bansic
or a cane with four holes and gangsa or a small
guitar (Negritos of Luzon), abafii a Malay music
instrument (Igorots), gongs, Jews harp, bamboo
flute, kutibeng or a guitar
with five strings (Ilocano),
kalaleng or a nose flute
and diwdiw-as or pan
pipe made of seven
bamboos reeds
(Tinguians)
• examples of the native dances, which
depict different events include Potato
Dance, Torture Dance, Duel Dance,
Lovers Dance (Negritos); macasla dance
(Tagbanua), kinnotan or ant’s dance and
the kinnallogong or hat dance (Ilocano);
balitaw and dandansoy (Visayan);
balatong, dalit, hiliraw, kutang-kutang,
lulay, indulanin, kumintang, salampati,
tagulaylay, subli, barimbaw, and tagayan
(Tagalog)
• this shows that Filipinos
have songs and dances for
almost all occasions and
because of their frequent
association, their social
organization was more well-
knit than it is today
Art
• first glimpse can be seen in primitive tools
and weapons that were polished along the
lines of leaves and petals of flowers
• can also be seen in beads, amulets,
bracelets, and other ornaments made of
jade, red cornelian, and other stones
• dyed and ornamented their barkcloth with
designs of attractive colors
• in the Iron Age, aside from armlets,
bracelets, rings, and headbands, tattoos
also became fashionable; metals and
glass also came into use; weaving
became a preoccupation for women;
weapons were manufactured with designs
on their handles; pottery with incised
designs were made; and carvings made of
wood, bone, ivory or horn were also done
not only for the use of the living but also of
the dead
Sarimanok

utensils

gangsa
• the zigszag designs on ancient lime tubes
and the ornamental carvings on combs
reflect Negrito influence
• Indonesian influence can be seen in the
apparel of the Kalingas, Maranaos,
Manobos and Bagobos
• Malay influence can be traced to the wood
carvings found in utensils, boats, and
wooden shields of the people of Sulu,
Mindanao and Mountain Province
Igorot
shields
• Islamic influence can be gleaned from the
ornamental and decorative art of the
Lanao Muslims; most represent geometric
and plant designs because Islam is
iconoclastic
• Ifugao art deals with human and animal
representations but not fish and plant
forms; Ifugao art is functional
Igorot
bamboo
art
End