Pre Colonial Life and Culture in the Philippines

3. “The Filipinos possessed an elaborate civilization
in the past. This achievement didn’t become part
of the Filipino consciousness, even today,
because of the advent of colonization during
which a systematic distortion of our perceptive
about ourselves was carried out.”
- The Vision of Our Future Must Be Rooted On Our Image of the Past
By: Prof. Landa F. Jocano

4. CRITERIA FOR CLASSIFYING SOCIETIES
INTO CLASSIFIED OR NON-CLASSIFIED:

5. CRITERIA FOR CLASSIFYING SOCIETIES
INTO CLASSIFIED OR NON-CLASSIFIED:

10. of

11. GOLD ACCESSORIES
BARO / CAMISA
SAYA / PATADYONG

12. PUTONG
KANGGAN
BAHAG
GOLD ACCESSORIES

25. • Composed of 30 – 100 families
• Derived from the Malay word “balangay” meaning boat
• Ruled by a chieftain called Datu, Hari or Raja (in Muslim
communities)

26. • Barangays concluded a treaty of friendship and alliance
through this ritual

27. • One of the earliest examples of the written laws

28. • Trial by ordeal
• Trial by combat

30. Early Filipinos worshipped a Supreme Being they
called Bathalang Maykapal.
Minor deities they worshipped:
• Idianale – god of agriculture
• Sidapa – god of death
• Agni – god of fire
• Mandarangan – god of war
• Lalahon – goddess of harvest
• Siginarugan – god of hell

31. The pre-Spanish Filipinos worshipped nature, the sun,
the moon, the animals, the birds and even old trees.
They believed in ancestral spirits called anitos by the
Tagalogs and diwatas by the Visayans.
The babaylan and katalona are priestesses who
perform ritual offerings of sacrifice.

34. • Pre-Spanish Filipinos performed circumcision of
their sons, a special rite done “for their health and
cleanliness”
• Among the Visayans, it was puberty that men
“skilfully made a hole in their virile member near
its head, fastened it with a peg of the same
material”.
• Young girls from the age of 6 and upward were
“gradually opened” by certain men tasked to such
function

35. • The Tagalogs had a different form of puberty
rituals. Young girls who had their menstruations
were blindfolded for four nights. Then a feast was
given to friends and relatives. The Katalona bathe
the young girl in the river and remove the
blindfold.
• Filipinos also used potions for sexual
malfunctioning.

36. and

37. • Mourning for a dead chieftain was called Laraw; for a dead man
Maglahe; for a dead woman Morotal.
• Early Filipinos believed that the tattoo was a passport to the
other world.
• Sudden death of a man killed by sword, lightning or crocodile
were considered honourable and his soul went straight to
Caluwalhatian by means of a rainbow.

39. • Their alphabet, from Asokan (Indian) origin consisted of
17 letters with 3 vowels and 14 consonants.
• They used iron-pointed pens and wrote on tree boards,
bamboo tubes and leaves of plants.

41. The eight major languages spoken by the
ancient Filipinos were Tagalog, Ilokano,
Pangasinense, Kapampangan, Sugbuhanon,
Hiligaynon, Samarnon and Maguindanaw.
Malayo-Polynesian language is
the mother tongue of
Malay and Pacific races

43. • Kudyapi
• Tulogan
• Silbay
• Kutibeng

44. and
• Balitaw - Visayan folk song
• Dandansoy – Visayan tuba dance
• Kumintang – Tagalog love dance
• Mahinhin – Tagalog courtship dance
• Kinnotan
• Tadek – Tinggian love dance

46. • Agriculture was the main source of livelihood of the Filipinos.
• Two systems of land cultivation:
 Kaingin System (upland)
 Tillage System (lowland)
• Two systems of land holding:
 Private
 Public

47. • Other industries were mining, shipbuilding, fishing, lumbering, weaving,
poultry and livestock.
• Inter- baranganic trade and commerce was carried through the water
system.
• Early Filipinos traded with countries like Japan, Thailand, India, Old
Malaysia and Indonesia.
• The system of weights facilitated their commercial transactions.

48. Legaspi concludes that the natives were lazy and that they
did not have the motivation to accumulate wealth. He did not
understand that precisely, this was the nature or character of
subsistence economy where everyone just worked for what he
immediately needed and that was all. Besides, there was no
parasitic class to exploit the labor of others for its benefit.