Pre-Spanish Settlements Most communities were coastal, near-coastal or near the River.

This was because the principal sources of protein came from the seas and rivers, the people relying more on fishing than on hunting for sustenance. Moreover, the principal means of travel was by water. Most of the members of the community were related to one another by blood or marriage. Besides kinship, common economic interests and shared rituals formed the bases for community cohesion. The barangay was more of a social rather than a political unit. Of various linguistic groups that inhabited the archipelago at the time of Spanish conquest, the Muslims of the South had the most developed social organization. Islam had already been well established in the archipelago at the time of the conquest. This Faith was introduced in the archipelago by an Arabian missionary, Makdum, during the middle of the 14th century. If history had taken its course undisturbed, the Muslims might have Islamized the whole archipelago. They could have seized the leadership in nation building. In fact, as far as Manila in the north and its neighboring districts, Islamic influence had already been exhibited. The archipelago already had trade relations with the neighboring Asian countries: China, Japan, Siam, Borneo, and other Southern Islands. This is shown by some cultural penetrations. For one, Chinese influences: adopted Chinese customs filial piety, marriage arrangements by parents, close family ties, and many others. The use of umbrellas, porcelain, the manufacture of gunpowder, mining methods, and metallurgy were of Chinese influence. In our language, there are several Chinese and Hindu words integrated, a clear indication of cultural penetrations before the Spanish colonization. Concepts of Property The idea of personal private property was recognized in some advanced communities. However, private property in its most significant sense, in its exploitative sense, did not yet exist. In an agricultural society, land is the primary source of wealth, the principal source of production. Therefore, if the real concept of private property had existed, then land would have been privately owned. Baranganic society had one distinguishing feature: the absence of private property in land. The chiefs merely administered the lands in the same of the barangay. Each individual participated in the community ownership of the soil and instruments of production as a member of the barangay. Generally speaking, the societies that were encountered by the conquistadors were primitive economies where most production was geared to the use of producers and to the fulfillment of kinship and obligations. They were not economies geared for exchange and profits.
http://romeobacharo.com/philhistory_precolonial.html

Pre-Colonial Period
The island nation of the Philippines has a rich history. The Philippines today is a tapestry of different cultural influences, each stemming from a particular event in the

history of the islands. Examining this history provides a lot of insight into how the Philippines became the country that it is today. Philippine history can be conveniently divided into 2 different sections-before and after European colonization. To start, we will look at the cultures that existed and the events that occurred before the arrival of settlers from Spain, and how they have influenced the modern-day Philippines. The original settlers of the Philippines were a dark-complexioned Australo-Melanesian people who lived as hunter-gatherers in small bands. They arrived around 30,000 years ago. Gradually, they became small in stature to adapt to a life in the Philippine jungles. These people still survive in isolated mountainous areas of the islands, and are known today as Negritos, or the Aeta (www.ualberta.ca/~vmitchel/rev1.html). However, these hunter-gatherers were overwhelmed during a period known as the Austronesian expansion (around 2500 BC), when groups of Asian natives spread out from Taiwan and began island-hopping, forming colonies wherever they landed. These people were a horticultural people, who survived via a combination of light agriculture and fishing, and they out-competed the hunter gatherers.
http://allanrepalda88.wordpress.com/history101/pre-colonial-period/

Pre-Colonial Times (Before 16th Century)

What was the type of land ownership during the pre-Spanish time and how was it cultivated? Land was commonly owned by the community known as barangay a small unit of government consisting of 30-100 families administered by the chiefs. Land cultivation was done commonly by kaingin system or the slash and burn method wherein land was cleared by burning the bushes before planting the crops or either land was plowed and harrowed before planting. How do they practice mutual sharing of resources? Everyone in the barangay regardless of status had access on the land and mutually share resources and the fruits of their labor. They believed in and practiced the concept of stewardship where relationship between man and nature is important. What was the economic system during this period? Food production was intended for family consumption only. Later, neighboring communities where engaged in a barter trade, exchanging their goods with others. Some even traded their agricultural products with luxury items of some foreign traders like Chinese, Arabs and Europeans. Was leasing and selling of lands exercised during this period? The Maragtas Code seems to be the only recorded transaction of land sale during this

time. This tells us about the selling of the Panay island by the natives to the ten Bornean datus in exchange of a golden salakot and a long gold necklace. Although the Code of Luwaran was one of the oldest written laws of the Muslim society which contains provision on the lease of cultivated lands, there was no record how this lease arrangement was practiced.

FR IDAY , MAY

22, 2009

The Pre-Colonial Period

THE PRE COLONIAL PHILLIPNES

GOVERNMENT

BARANGGAY- FILIPONOS EARLIEST FORM OF GOVERNMENT EACH BARANGAY IS RULED BY CHIEFTAINS (DATU) CHIEFTAINS (DATU) RULE AND GOVERN HIS SUBJECTS AND TO PROMOTE THEIR WELL BEING. IN TIMES OF PEACE, HE WAS THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE, LEGISLATOR, AND THE JUDGE.

LAWS WERE MADE BY CHIEFTAINS AND THE ELDERS

RELIGION

BELIEVE IN ANITOS, PRIMORDIAL FORCES OF NATURE THAT COULD ACOMMPANY OR POSSESS PEOPLE

THEY BELIEVE ILLNESS IS CAUSE BY EVIL SPIRITS

BATHALA- THE MOST POWERFULL GOD PRAISE MANY GODS& GODDESSES

ECONOMY

Not much different from that found today in many remote barrios. During those halves- forgotten days, life was placid and characterized by less economic and social pressure than it is today..

Agriculture the main source of livelihood. There was an abundance of rice, coconuts, sugar cane, etc.

Land cultivation Productivity was increased by the use of irrigation ditches, as evidenced by the world- famous Ifugao rice terraces of mountain province.

There was a system of landholding which was public and private. Mining was comparatively developed lumbering and shipbuilding were flourishing industries in those pre- colonial days weaving was a home industry There were probably more commerce and business transactions along the waterways than along pathways.

There was foreign trade, too, with china, Japan, Siam, Cambodia, Borneo, Sumatra, Java and other islands of the old Malaysia.

ARTS

The first glimpse of the artistic sense of the primitive inhabitants of the Philippines can be had in the remains of their tools and weapons

With the advance of the New Stone age the primitive inhabitants began to show signs of artistic improvement in the form of beads, amulets, bracelets and earings

In the early Iron Age, the artistic variety of the ancient Filipinos reached its apogee. Ornaments with different forms and sizes began to appear.

There were several influences on Filipino primitive art which are apparent in the surviving artifacts.
TECHNOLOGIES AND INFRASTRUCTURE

Negritos

Homes- temporary sheds made of jungle leaves and branches of trees Made fire by rubbing two dry sticks together to give them warmth Didnt know how to cook food Used bow and arrow as weapon and for hunting.

Indones

More advanced Lived in grass-covered homes built above the ground or on top of trees. Practiced dry agriculture Clothing was made from beaten bark and decorated designs Cooked food in bamboo tubes

Implements: polished stone axes, adzes and chisels Weapons: Bow and arrows, spears, shield and blow guns (sumpit). Malays

Culturally more advanced that Negritos and Indones possessed the Iron Age culture introduced into the Philippines both lowland and highland methods of rice cultivation, including the system of irrigation

domestication of animals (dogs, fowls, and carabaos) manufacture of metal tools and weapons; pottery and weaving

Weapons: bows and arrows, spears, bolos, daggers, krises (swords), sumpits (blowguns), shields and armors made of animal hide and hardwood, and lantakas (bronze cannons).

SOCIAL CLASSES

Divided into three social classes. Nobles, Freemen and the dependents. Nobles:

consist of chiefs and their families Wielded tremendous influence in the baranggay Enjoyed rights that were not usually enjoyed by the other members of the society. In tagalong region, usually carried the title of Gat or Lakan. Lakan Dula Gat Maitan

Freemen:

Called Mahadlika by the tagalogs. Composed of free men and dependents who earned their freedom.

Dependents:

Occupying the lowest stratum Known as alipin among the Tagalogs. Acquired his status in society by inheritance, by captivity in war, failing to pay his debts by purchase or by committing a crime.

Among the tagalogs, alipin may be namamahay orsagigilid. The namamahay had his own family and properties an served his master during planting and harvest seasons.

The sagigild lived with his master, had no property of his own and could not marry without the latters consent.
SYSTEM OF WRITING

Considered tagalog as the richest among the other languages Filipinos before the arrival of Spaniards had a syllabary which was probably of Sanskrit or Arabic provenance.
Syllabary consisted of seventeen symbols. Three were vowels and fourteen were consonants.

http://tabonwoman.blogspot.com/2009/05/pre-colonial-period_22.html

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

http://philippineculture.ph/filer/PHILIPPINEHISTORY-Pre-Colonial-Period.ppt