SALAZAR, ROLAND CYDNEY

SOCSCI2 SUN/7AM-9AM

Prehistory of the Philippines

Philippine prehistory covers the events prior to the written history of what would become the
Philippine archipelago. The current demarcation line between this period and the early history of
the Philippines is 900 AD, which is the date of the first surviving written record to come from the
Philippines, the Laguna Copperplate Inscription. This period saw the immense change that took
hold of the archipelago from Stone Age cultures in 30000 BC to the emergence of developed
thalassocratic civilizations in the 4th century AD, continuing on with the gradual widening of
trade until 900 AD and the first surviving written records from the archipelago.

Stone-Age (c.50,000 - c.500 BC)

The first evidence of the systematic use of Stone-Age technologies in the Philippines is estimated
to have dated back to about 50,000 BC, and this phase in the development of proto-Philippine
societies is considered to end with the rise of metal tools in about 500 BC, although stone tools
continued to be used past that date. Filipino Anthropologist F. Landa Jocano refers to the earliest
noticeable stage in the development of proto-Philippine societies as the Formative Phase. He also
identified stone tool and ceramics making as the two core industries that defined the economic
activity of the time, and which shaped the means by which early Filipinos adapted to their
environment during this period.

Tabon Man (c. 24000 or 22,000 BC)

The earliest human remains known in the Philippines are the fossilized fragments of a skull and
jawbone of three individuals, discovered on May 28, 1962 by Dr. Robert B. Fox, an American
anthropologist of the National Museum. These fragments are collectively called "Tabon Man"
after the place where they were found on the west coast of Palawan. Tabon Cave appears to be a
kind of Stone Age factory, with both finished stone flake tools and waste core flakes having been
found at four separate levels in the main chamber. Charcoal left from three assemblages of
cooking fires there has been Carbon-14 dated to roughly 7,000, 20,000, and 22,000 BCE. (In
Mindanao, the existence and importance of these prehistoric tools was noted by famed Jos Rizal
himself, because of his acquaintance with Spanish and German scientific archaeologists in the
1880s, while in Europe.)

Tabon Cave is named after the "Tabon Bird" (Tabon Scrubfowl, Megapodius Cumingii), which
deposited thick hard layers of guano during periods when the cave was uninhabited so that
succeeding groups of tool-makers settled on a cement-like floor of bird dung. That the
inhabitants were actually engaged in tool manufacture is indicated that about half of the 3,000
recovered specimens examined are discarded cores of a material which had to be transported
from some distance. The Tabon man fossils are considered to have come from a third group of
inhabitants, who worked the cave between 22,000 and 20,000 BCE. An earlier cave level lies so
far below the level containing cooking fire assemblages that it must represent Upper Pleistocene
dates like 45 or 50 thousand years ago.
Physical anthropologists who have examined the Tabon Man skullcap are agreed that it belonged
to modern man, homo sapiens, as distinguished from the mid-Pleistocene homo erectus species.
This indicates that Tabon Man was Pre-Mongoloid (Mongoloid being the term anthropologists
apply to the racial stock which entered Southeast Asia during the Holocene and absorbed earlier
peoples to produce the modern Malay, Indonesian, Filipino, and "Pacific" peoples). Two experts
have given the opinion that the mandible is "Australian" in physical type, and that the skullcap
measurements are most nearly like the Ainus or Tasmanians. Nothing can be concluded about
Tabon man's physical appearance from the recovered skull fragments except that he was not a
Negrito.

The custom of Jar Burial, which ranges from Sri Lanka, to the Plain of Jars, in Laos, to Japan,
also was practiced in the Tabon caves. A spectacular example of a secondary burial jar is owned
by the National Museum, a National Treasure, with a jar lid topped with two figures, one the
deceased, arms crossed, hands touching the shoulders, the other a steersman, both seated in a
proa, with only the mast missing from the piece. Secondary burial was practiced across all the
islands of the Philippines during this period, with the bones reburied, some in the burial jars.
Seventy-eight earthenware vessels were recovered from the Manunggul cave, Palawan,
specifically for burial.

Migration Theories

There have been several models of early human migration to the Philippines. Since H. Otley
Beyer first proposed his wave migration theory, numerous scholars have approached the question
of how, when and why humans first came to the Philippines. The question of whether the first
humans arrived from the south (Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei as suggested by Beyer) or from
the north (via Taiwan as suggested by the Austronesian theory) has been a subject of heated
debate for decades. As new discoveries come to light, past hypotheses are reevaluated and new
theories constructed.

Beyer's wave migration theory

The first, and most widely known theory of the prehistoric peopling of the Philippines is that of
H. Otley Beyer, founder of the Anthropology Department of the University of the Philippines.
According to Dr. Beyer, the ancestors of the Filipinos came to the islands first via land bridges
which would occur during times when the sea level was low, and then later in seagoing vessels
such as the balangay. Thus he differentiated these ancestors as arriving in different "waves of
migration", as follows:

1. "Dawn Man", a cave-man type who was similar to Java man, Peking Man, and other Asian
homo sapiens of 250,000 years ago.
2. The aboriginal pygmy group, the Negritos, who arrived between 25,000 and 30,000 years ago.
3. The sea-faring tool-using Indonesian group who arrived about 5,000 to 6,000 years ago and
were the first immigrants to reach the Philippines by sea.
4. The seafaring, more civilized Malays who brought the Iron age culture and were the real
colonizers and dominant cultural group in the pre-Hispanic Philippines.
Beyer's theory, while still popular among lay Filipinos, has been generally been disputed by
anthropologists and historians. Reasons for doubting it are founded on Beyer's use of 19th
century scientific methods of progressive evolution and migratory diffusion as the basis for his
hypothesis. These methods have since been proven to be too simple and unreliable to explain the
prehistoric peopling of the Philippines.

Objections to the Land Bridges Theory

In February 1976, Fritjof Voss, a German scientist who studied the geology of the Philippines,
questioned the validity of the theory of land bridges. He maintained that the Philippines was
never part of mainland Asia. He claimed that it arose from the bottom of the sea and, as the thin
Pacific crust moved below it, continued to rise. It continues to rise today. The country lies along
great Earth faults that extend to deep submarine trenches. The resulting violent earthquakes
caused what is now the land masses forming the Philippines to rise to the surface of the sea. Dr.
Voss also pointed out that when scientific studies were done on the Earth's crust from 1964 to
1967, it was discovered that the 35-kilometer- thick crust underneath China does not reach the
Philippines. Thus, the latter could not have been a land bridge to the Asian mainland. The matter
of who the first settlers were has not been really resolved. This is being disputed by
anthropologists, as well as Professor H. Otley Beyer, who claims that the first inhabitants of the
Philippines came from the Malay Peninsula. The Malays now constitute the largest portion of the
populace and what Filipinos now have is an Austronesian culture.

Philippine historian William Henry Scott has pointed out that Palawan and the Calamianes
Islands are separated from Borneo by water nowhere deeper than 100 meters, that south of a line
drawn between Saigon and Brunei does the depth of the South China Sea nowhere exceeds 100
meters, and that the Strait of Malacca reaches 50 meters only at one point. Scott also asserts that
the Sulu Archipelago is not the peak of a submerged mountain range connecting Mindanao and
Borneo, but the exposed edge of three small ridges produced by tectonic tilting of the sea bottom
in recent geologic times. According to Scott, it is clear that Palawan and the Calamianes do not
stand on a submerged land bridge, but were once a hornlike protuberance on the shoulder of a
continent whose southern shoreline used to be the present islands of Java and Borneo. Mindoro
and the Calamianes are separated by a channel more than 500 meters deep.

Bellwood's Austronesian Diffusion Theory

The popular contemporary alternative to Beyer's model is Peter Bellwoods Out-of-Taiwan

(OOT) hypothesis, which is based largely on linguistics, hewing very close to Robert Blusts
model of the history of the Austronesian language family, and supplementing it with
archeological data.

This model suggests that Between 4500 BC and 4000 BC, developments in agricultural
technology in the Yunnan Plateau in China create pressures which drive certain peoples to
migrate to Taiwan. These people either already have or newly develop a unique language of their
own, now referred to as Proto-Austronesian.
By around 3000 BC, these groups have started differentiating into three or four distinct
subcultures, and by 2500 to 1500 BC, one of these groups starts migrating southwards towards
the Philippines and Indonesia, reaching as far as Borneo and the Mulluccas by 1500 BC, forming
new cultural groupings and developing unique languages as they go.

By 1500 BC, some of these groups start migrating east, reaching as far as Madagascar around the
first millennium AD. Others migrate west, settling as far as Easter Island by the mid-thirteenth
century AD, giving the Austronesian language group the distinction of being one of the widest
distributed language groups in the world, in terms of the geographical span of the homelands of
its languages.

According to this theory, the peoples of the Philippines are the descendants of those cultures who
remained on the Philippine islands when others moved first southwards, then eastward and
westward.

Solheim's Nusantao Maritime Trading and Communication Network (NMTCN) or Island

Origin Theory

Wilhelm Solheim's concept of the Nusantao Maritime Trading and Communication Network
(NMTCN), while not strictly a theory regarding the biological ancestors of modern Southeast
Asians, does suggest that the patterns of cultural diffusion throughout the Asia-Pacific region are
not what would be expected if such cultures were to be explained by simple migration. Where
Bellwood based his analysis primarily on linguistic analysis, Solheim's approach was based on
artifact findings. On the basis of a careful analysis of artifacts, he suggests the existence of a
trade and communication network that first spread in the Asia-Pacific region during its Neolithic
age (c.8,000 to 500 BC). According to Solheim's NMTCN theory, this trade network, consisting
of both Austronesian and non-Austronesian seafaring peoples, was responsible for the spread of
cultural patterns throughout the Asia-Pacific region, not the simple migration proposed by the
Out-of-Taiwan hypothesis. Solheim 2006

Solheim came up with four geographical divisions delineating the spread of the NMTCN over
time, calling these geographical divisions "lobes." Specifically, these were the central, northern,
eastern and western lobes.

The central lobe was further divided into two smaller lobes reflecting phases of cultural spread:
the Early Central Lobe and the Late Central Lobe. Instead of Austronesian peoples originating
from Taiwan, Solheim placed the origins of the early NMTCN peoples in the "Early Central
Lobe," which was in eastern coastal Vietnam, at around 9,000 BC.

He then suggests the spread of peoples around 5,000 BC towards the "Late central lobe",
including the Philippines,via island Southeast Asia, rather than from the north as the Taiwan
theory suggests. Thus, from the Point of view of the Philippine peoples, the NMTCN is also
referred to as the Island Origin Theory.

This "late central lobe" included southern China and Taiwan, which became "the area where
Austronesian became the original language family and Malayo-Polynesian developed." In about
4,000 to 3,000 BC, these peoples continued spreading east through Northern Luzon to
Micronesia to form the Early Eastern Lobe, carrying the Malayo-Polynesian languages with
them. These languages would become part of the culture spread by the NMTCN in its expansions
Malaysia and western towards Malaysia before 2000 BC, continuing along coastal India and Sri
Lanka up to the western coast of Africa and Madagascar; and over time, further eastward towards
its easternmost borders at Easter Island. Thus, as in the case of Bellwood's theory, the
Austronesian languages spread eastward and westward from the area around the Philippines.
Aside from the matter of the origination of peoples, the difference between the two theories is
that Bellwood's theory suggests a linear expansion, while Solheim's suggests something more
akin to concentric circles, all overlapping in the geographical area of the late central lobe which
includes the Philippines.

Jocano's Local Origins Theory

Another alternative model is that asserted by anthropologist F. Landa Jocano of the University of
the Philippines, who in 2001 contended that what fossil evidence of ancient men show is that
they not only migrated to the Philippines, but also to New Guinea, Borneo, and Australia. In
reference to Beyer's wave model, he points out that there is no definitive way to determine what
the race to which the fossils belonged, and that all that is sure is that the discovery of Tabon Man
proves that the Philippines was inhabited as early as 21,000 or 22,000 years ago. If this is true,
the first inhabitants of the Philippines would not have come from the Malay Peninsula. Instead,
Jocano postulates that the present Filipinos are products of the long process of evolution and
movement of people. He also adds that this is also true of Indonesians and Malaysians, with none
among the three peoples being the dominant carrier of culture. In fact, he suggests that the
ancient men who populated Southeast Asia cannot be categorized under any of these three
groups. He thus further suggests that it is not correct to attribute the Filipino culture as being
Malayan in orientation.

Genetic studies

A Stanford University study conducted during 2001 revealed that Haplogroup O3-M122 (labeled
as "Haplogroup L" in this study) is the most common Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup found
among Filipinos. This particular haplogroup is also predominant among Chinese, Koreans, and
Vietnamese. Another haplogroup, Haplogroup O1a-M119 (labeled as "Haplogroup H" in this
study), is also found among Filipinos. The rates of Haplogroup O1a are highest among the
Taiwanese aborigines, and Chamic-speaking people. Overall, the genetic frequencies found
among Filipinos point to the Ami tribe of Taiwan as their nearest genetic ancestors. These
findings are consistent with the theory that ancestors of the Filipino people have originated on
continental East or Southeast Asia before migrating to the Philippines via Taiwan. A 2002 China
Medical University study indicated that Filipinos shared genetic chromosome that is found
among Asian people, such as Taiwanese aborigines, Indonesians, Thais, and Chinese. A variety
of research study by the University of the Philippines, genetic chromosome were found in
Filipinos which are shared by people from different parts of East Asia, and Southeast Asia. The
predominant genotype detected was SC, the Southeast Asian genotype.

These indigenous elements in the Filipino's genetic makeup serve as clues to the patterns of
migration throughout Philippine prehistory. After the 1500s, of course, the colonial period saw
the influx of genetic influence from Europeans. A recent study conducted by Stanford University
Asia-Pacific Research Center, stated that 3.6% of the Philippine population has varying degrees
of European ancestry from Spanish, and American colonization.

Early Metal Age (c.500 BC - c.1 AD)

The earliest metal tools in the Philippines were said to have first been used somewhere around
500 BC, and this new technology coincided with considerable changes in the lifestyle of early
Filipinos. The new tools brought about a more stable way of life, and created more opportunities
for communities to grow, both in terms of size and cultural development.

Where communities once consisted of small bands of kinsmen living in campsites, larger villages
came about- usually based near water, which made traveling and trading easier. The resulting
ease of contact between communities meant that they began to share similar cultural traits,
something which had not previously been possible when the communities consisted only of
small kinship groups.

Jocano refers to the period between 500 BC and 1 AD as the incipient phase, which for the first
time in the artifact record, sees the presence of artifacts that are similar in design from site to site
throughout the archipelago. Along with the use of metal tools, this era also saw significant
improvement in pottery technology.

First Appearance of Metals

The earliest use of copper in the Philippines was for ornaments, rather than tools. In fact, even
when copper and bronze tools came to be commonly used, they were often used side by side with
stone tools. Metal only became the dominant material for manufacturing tools with the
introduction late in this era, which itself would lead to an entirely new phase in cultural
development.

Bronze tools from the Philippines' early metal age have been encountered in various sites, but
they were not apparently widespread. This has been attributed to the fact that is no local source
of the tin which would have had to be combined with copper to produce bronze. Robert Fox
notes: "There is, for example, no real evidence of a "Bronze Age" or "Copper-Bronze Age in the
archipelago, a development which occurred in many areas of the world. The transition, as shown
by recent excavation, was from stone tools to iron tools."

The lack of tin has led most anthropologists to believe that the bronze implements were imported
to the country. But the bronze smelting technology has been found in sites in Palawan, which
indicates that the bronze brought in through import would at some point have been resmelted and
remolded.

Introduction of Iron

When Iron was introduced to the Philippines, it became the preferred technology for crafting
tools, overshadowing early use of copper, bronze, and largely drawing the use of stone tools to a
close. But there is some question among anthropoligsts as to the exact source of Iron in the
Philippines during this era. Beyer thought that it was mined locally, but other scholars point out
that no artifactual evidence of iron smelting has been found, such that iron tools were probably
imported rather than produced locally.

Metalsmiths from this era had already developed a crude version of modern metallurgical
processes, notably the hardening of soft iron through carburization.

Expansion of Trade (1st Century - 14th Century AD)

Jocano refers to the time between the 1st and 14th Century AD as the Philippines' emergent
phase. It was characterized by intensive trading, and saw the rise of definable social organization,
and, among the more progressive communities, the rise of certain dominant cultural patterns. The
advancements that brought this period were made possible by the increased use of iron tools,
which allowed such stable patterns to form. This era also saw the development of writing. The
first surviving written artifact from the Philippines, now known as the Laguna Copperplate
Inscription, was written in 900 AD, marking the end of what is considered Philippine prehistory
and heralding the earliest phase of Philippine history - that of the time between the first written
artifact in 900 AD and the arrival of colonial powers in 1521.

The emergence of Barangay city-states and thassalocratic trade (200AD-900AD)

Since at least the 3rd century, the indigenous peoples were in contact with other Southeast Asian
and East Asian nations.

Fragmented ethnic groups established numerous city-states formed by the assimilation of several
small political units known as barangay each headed by a Datu, who was then answerable to a
Rajah, who headed the city state. Each barangay consisted of about 100 families. Some
barangays were big, such as Zubu (Cebu), Butuan, Maktan (Mactan), Irong-Irong (Iloilo), Bigan
(Vigan), and Selurong (Manila). Each of these big barangays had a population of more than
2,000.

Even scattered barangays, through the development of inter-island and international trade,
became more culturally homogeneous by the 4th century.Hindu-Buddhist culture and religion
flourished among the noblemen in this era.

By the 9th century, a highly developed society had already established several hierarchies with
set professions: The Datu or ruling class, the Maharlika or noblemen, the Timawa or freemen,
and the dependent class which is divided into two, the Aliping Namamahay (Slave) and Aliping
Saguiguilid (Serfs).

Many of the barangay were, to varying extents, under the de-jure jurisprudence of one of several
neighboring empires, among them the Malay Sri Vijaya, Javanese Majapahit, Brunei, Melaka
empires, although de-facto had established their own independent system of rule. Trading links
with Sumatra, Borneo, Thailand, Java, China, India, Arabia, Japan and the Ryukyu Kingdom
flourished during this era. A thalassocracy had thus emerged based on international trade.

In the earliest times, the items which were prized by the peoples included jars, which were a
symbol of wealth throughout South Asia, and later metal, salt and tobacco. In exchange, the
peoples would trade feathers, rhino horn, hornbill beaks, beeswax, birds nests, resin, rattan.

In the period between the 7th century to the beginning of the 1400s, numerous prosperous
centers of trade had emerged, including the Kingdom of Namayan which flourished alongside
Manila Bay, Cebu, Iloilo, Butuan, the Kingdom of Sanfotsi situated in Pangasinan, the Kingdoms
of Zabag and Wak-Wak situated in Pampanga and Aparri (which specialized in trade with Japan
and the Kingdom of Ryukyu in Okinawa).

Archeological Sources

Philippine history and anthropologists had only until very recently been limited to the rare
artifacts that were discovered after the Spanish period, which had seen many artifacts from the
pre-Hispanic era destroyed or reconverted. A good example of which is the Spanish walled city
of Intramuros in Manila, whose stone bricks were ripped from the original fortified city wall
(known in Malay/tagalog as a Kota/kuta) of pre-Hispanic Maynila. This explains the
development of numerous theories about the prehistory of the Philippines over the course of the
20th up to the present, as new evidences present themselves.

REACTION:

Different foreigners who came to our country before have a big part in Filipino culture especially
the Spaniards. They gave us influence in religion, technology even in politics. All of these are
just theories, it is important to study how or what is the prehistory of the Philippines, how it
became Philippines. These theories can answer our questions, it depends on us if what theory are
we going to believe because we have no evidence or proof on how everything happened very
long time ago. For me, some of these theories are good, some are not convincing but the
important thing is we manage to think to care on where we came from to study the prehistory and
possibly be knowledgeable of what may happen in the future.
Regional Traits
Ilokano or Samtoy
The small pice of land that they cultivate does not yield sufficient crops. Such situation
produces who are..
1. adventurous
2. industrious
3. hardworking
4. patient
5. frugal people
Because of Economic Pressures he has no choice than to migrate to Mindoro, Hawaii. or other
parts of the U.S. He is not the one who stay put in a locality which he thinks does not give him
any progress in life. For this reason they are found in any part of the Philippines. Their frugality
is because they earn money in the hard way.
Central Plains Tagalog Belt
The center of cultural and commercial life. It is this accident that makes him feel superior to
the other Filipinos.
1. He is neither thrifty nor extravagant.
2. He is not a wandering person.
3. He stay put in his locality and tries to make the most out of his life.
4. He developed the strongest tendency to live with his parents or in laws even after
marriage.
Bicol Region
1. He is known for his mild temper and religiosity.
2. He knows how to enjoy life.
3. He is fond for spicy food with hot pepper and coconut.
4. If he is not enjoying his life, he finds his way to seminary or the convent.
5. Many Filipino dancers and priests come from the Bicol Region
Muslim Land
The fiercest lover of freedom.
1. He is Adventuruos.
2. He is man of honor who sticks to his words.
3. He braves the danger just to redeem his province.
4. He is easily the best friend one have and certainly the worst enemy.
5. He is the best pearl diver and seafarer in the world.
Visayas
1. They are extravagant, carefree, happy go-lucky guy.
2. They love nice clothes,fine jewelry and gay parties.
3. They prefer a good time than to hard work
4. They are willing to spend their last centavo to enjoy life.

MINORITIES IN THE PHILIPPINES

By one count there are 75 different ethnic groups in the Philippines. The main
ethnic and regional groups are: Tagalog (28.1 percent), Cebuano (13.1 percent),
Ilocano (9 percent), Bisaya/Binisaya (7.6 percent), Hiligaynon Ilonggo (7.5
percent), Bikol (6 percent) and Waray (3.4 percent). To give you some idea how
diverse and fragmented the Philippines is ethnically other groups make up 25.3
percent of the population. [Source: 2000 census]
 The dominant ethnic group both politically and culturally is the Tagalogs. There
are social division between the Christian majority in the lowlands and the
indigenous people in the highlands. The Christian lowlanders are found mostly on
Luzon, Samar, Leyte, Cebu, Bohol, Siquijor, Panay and Negros islands. Most
Christian Filipinos on Mindanao are recent immigrants.

Minority Etiquette: 1) Many hill tribes fear photography. Dont photograph anyone
or anything without permission first. 2) Show respect towards religious objects
and structures. Dont touch anything or enter or walk through any religious
structure unless you are sure it is okay. If in doubt ask. 3) Dont interfere in
rituals in any way. 4) Dont enter a village house without permission or an
invitation. 5) Error on the side of restraint when giving gifts. Gifts of medicine
may undermine confidence in traditional medicines. Gift of clothes may
encourage them to abandon their traditional clothes.