5. ORNAMENTS
Tattoos
For men, tattoos were signs of
valor and many attributes
For women, it enhanced beauty
The most tattooed were the
ancient Bisayans, who were
called Pintados and the Visayas
as Islas de los Pintados
6. HOUSES The nipa house,
made of wood,
bamboo, nipa palm
and/or cogon grass
Generally elevated
from the ground,
the lower portion
were storage for
tools and enclosure
for their animals
7. HOUSES
Some built it on treetops
Bajaos or Sea Gypsies of Sulu made their houses
on boats
Lowland: linear in character
Upland: scattered and distant from each
other
8. SOCIAL CLASSES
Four types of social organizations (William
Henry Scott, 1994)
1. Classless Society (Hanunuo, Ilongot, Tiruray,
Sulod, Batak)
2. Warrior Society (Manobo of Agusan and
Cotabato, Mandaya, Bagobo, Kalinga, and so
on)
3. Petty Plutocracy (Ifugao, Bontok, Kankaay,
Ibaloy)
4. Principalities (Sulu and the flood plains of
Pulangi River, Cotabato)
9. SOCIAL CLASSES
Nobles(gat or lakan)
Freemen
(maharlika or timawa)
Dependents(alipin, ulipon, or adipen)
Social classes of the rest of the Philippine
society
10. SOCIAL CLASSES
Types of dependents (Tagalogs)
1. Aliping namamahay – slaves that had
property, lived in their houses and could
without their master’s consent, and could not
be sold
2. Aliping sagigilid – slaves who owned
no property, lived in their master’s houses,
could not marry without their master’s
consent, and could be sold anytime
11. SOCIAL CLASSES
Types of dependents (Bisayans)
1. Tumataban – worked in their master’s
house when told to do so
2. Tumarampuk – worked one day for his
master
3. Ayuey – worked three days for his lord
12. WOMENS’ POSITION IN
THE SOCIETY
Occupied a high position
Laws and custom were equal
with men
1. Could own and inherit property
2. Could engage in trade and
industry
3. Could inherit the chieftancy
and rule barangays if they were
daughters of datus with no sons
4. Occupied the prestigious position of babaylan
5. Could demand that their husbands use penis
pins or penis rings
Could name her children
Men should walk behind women
13. PERSONAL HABITS
Were clean and neat
Bath regularly
Took good care of their hair by using gogo and
anointing perfumed oils
Rinse their mouths and cleaned their teeth. Used
betel nut as tootbrush and salt and water as
toothpaste
Regularly cleaned their homes
14. MARRIAGE CUSTOMS
A man belonging to one class married a
woman of the same class but this custom was
not rigid
Except Muslims, they practiced monogamy
but in some cases, a man could marry as
many as he could but only the first wife was
considered legitimate spouse
Fixed marriage
Two prerequisites to marriage: (1) lover’s
servitude to the girl’s family and (2) dowry
given by man to the girl’s parents
16. GOVERNMENT
Patriarchal in form. Two models:
1. Barangay was a socio-quasi
political/administrative unit
2. Sultanate system
Barangays were independent, each
consisted of 30-100 families and ruled by a
datu or rajah
The datu exercised all government
functions assisted by the elders who
advised him on important matters
17. GOVERNMENT
Maintains inter-baranganic relations to avoid
wars
Causes
of war
When one goes
to another
village killed
someone
without cause
When wives or
husbands are
stolen from
them
When going to
another village
in the guise of
friendship
18. LAWS
Customary and written laws
Covered subjects
• Family relations, property rights, inheritance, contracts,
partnerships, loans, usury, crimes and their punishment, adoption
and divorce.
Major crimes
• Rape, incest, murder, witchcraft, insult, trespassing, sacrilegious
acts, and larceny.
• Punishment: death
Minor crimes
• Misdemeanours like adultery, cheating, petty theft, perjury,
disturbance of peace at night by singing, and destroying
documents
• Punishment: exposure to ants, small fine, flogging, cutting the
fingers of one hand, swimming for a number of hours
20. JUDICIAL PROCESS
Dispute between datus or between residents
of different barangays were sometimes
settled by arbitrtaion
When the case is not readily decided by the
barangay court, a trial by ordeal was
resorted to.
In Muslim communities, civil or criminal
cases were decided upon by the local Islamic
court. Feuds and disputes, however, involved
protracted bloody confrontations between
families and clans
21. JUDICIAL PROCESS
Trial by ordeal
River ordeal,
suspects plunge
into the river with
spears and who
rises first is guilty
Boiling water
ordeal, suspects
pick a stone in a
pot of boiling
water and he
whose arm or
hand is burned
the most is guilty
Candle ordeal,
suspects are given
lighted candles of
the same sizes
and the owner of
the candle that
died out first is
guilty
23. RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AND PRACTICES
They were animistic.
Worshipped a supreme god, called Bathala
by the Tagalogs
Believed in spirits called anitos or diwatas
24. RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AND PRACTICES
Religious leaders were called
babaylan, baylana, or
katalona. For Muslims, it is
imam or pandita.
Worshippers of nature and
ancestors
Believed in afterlife and
heaven and hell
Disease or illness was
attributed to the
environmental spirits and the
soul-spirits of dead relatives.
25. DIVINATION OR MAGIC CHARMS
Fond of interpreting signs in
nature as good or bad omens
depending upon circumstances
Believed in black magic and
manogbarang or manoghiwit
Believed in aswang or witches
and many more
Believed in the efficacy of
anting-anting or amulets as
well as lumay or gayuma
26. ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES
Agriculture as the main source of livelihood.
Two types of cultivation: kaingin or slash-and-burn
and wet rice farming
Less arable lands were public property while
productive lands were private properties of
datus and nobles
Fermented the sap coconuts and nipas into tuba
and vinegar
Aside from fishing and agriculture, other
industries were poultry, stock-raising, lumbering
and boat-building, mining, pottery making, and
weaving.
Used barter system in business transactions
27. LANGUAGE AND SYSTEM OF
WRITING
More than a hundred languages and dialects
exist
A syllabary made of 17 symbols, 3 vowels and
14 consonants
Wrote on bark of trees, leaves, and bamboo
nodes, using knives, daggers, pointed stick or
iron as pens and colored sap of trees and
fruits as ink.
29. LITERATURE
Had oral and written literature
Consisted of proverbs, sayings,
riddles, epics, myths, and
legends
30. MUSIC AND DANCE
Had their own musical
instruments, songs, and
dances
Most popular musical
instument: kudyapi
Songs included love songs,
religious songs, rice
planting songs, harvesting
songs, rowing songs, battle
songs, vending songs, and
others.
Had colorful folk dances
31. Native artistry was found in beads, amulets,
bracelets, earrings, and other body ornaments made
of gold, green jade, red carnelian, and other
attractive stones
Dyed and ornamented their clothes with
designs and picturesque colors
Evident in tattoos of early Filipinos
Carves statues of anitos in wood, gold, ivory,
stone, and crocodile’s teeth
32. Fanciful carvings on handle of bolos,
knives, daggers, and on shields and boats
Maranao Muslims had excellent woven
products and creative ornamental
and decorative brass art.
