The Evolution of Philippine Society and Culture

Pre-Colonial Culture, was it Indigenious Culture or

Civilization?

• Defines civilization as the advanced state of human society in which a high level of

Webster

Jocano

• ‘’The Vision of our Future must be rooted in our Image of the Past,’’ however, strongly contends that: ‘’Filipinos possessed an elaborate civilization in the past. This achievement did not become part of Filipino consciousness, even today, because of the advent of colonization during which a systematic distortion of our perspectives about ourselves was carried out.’’

Egyptian Pyramid

Great Wall of China

Cambodian Angkor Wat

Origin of the

Philippines

Earlier accepted theories about the origin of the Philippines

The Filipino Race

H. Otley Beyer (eminent anthropologist of the American period

• The racial mixture of the Filipinos is as follows:– Malay (40%)– Indonesian (30%)– Negrito (10%)– Chinese (10%)– Indian (8%)– American (3%)– Arab (2%)

The Earliest People

• Dr. H.O. Beyer’s migration theory arranged the peopling of the Philippines with the coming of the Dawn Man, the prehistoric cousin of the Java man and Peking man of 250,000 years ago.

Asian Migrations

• According to Prof. Beyer, three Asian peoples are:

–Negritos

–Indonesians

–Malays

Negritos

Indonesians

The Malays

Came in three waves;

First: brought their mining and smelting technology, and their agricultural system. They were headhunters who chiefly depended on hunting, fishing, and fruit gathering. They developed terrace agriculture with elaborate irrigation systems.

• Second wave: brought their syllable system of writing. They were known as the alphabet-using Malays.

• Third wave: the Muslim Malays introduced Islam in the Philippines.– More advanced culturally and economically than

the Indonesians.– Their culture belonged to the Iron and Porcelain

periods.– Lived in organized communities and had domestic

and foreign barter trade, wet agriculture, and industries.

Malays

The First Filipino

• Tabon Man (22,000-30,000 years ago) – who lived in Palawan.– The skull cap of this Stone Age human was

discovered by Dr. Robert Fox inside Tabon Cave in 1962.

– Medium height, and had a high eyebrow and sloping forehead,.

– Depend on forest fruits, roots and edible plant, and by hunting wild animals.

First Filipino Communities• Barangays

– Units of social organization with broader political, economic, and religious features than the family (Jocano 1975).

– 30-100 families had distinct culture of their own.– As political organization, it was a consultative

monarchy and was considered the barangays carried on trade and commerce not only among themselves, but also with other foreign entities.

– They concluded treaty of friendship and alliance with each other through ritual sanduguan (blood compact).

Social Classes

• Traditional history divided pre-Spanish cosiety into three classes:– The nobles or upper class

• The chiefs (Datu or Rajah), their families and relatives

– The freemen or middle class• Free-born or freed slaves constituted the majority of the

social classes

– The dependents or alipins• Aliping namamahay – owned house and properties• Aliping sagigilid – had no right, could be sold anytime by his

master, generally they were captives of war

Spanish Colonial Society

• Ferdinand Magellan – The first European to reach the Philippines– A Portuguese explorer commissioned by the Spanish

ruler to search for the Spice Islands.

• Villalobos– Named the islands “La Felipinas” in honor of Prince

Philip, who later became the King of Spain.

• Legazpi (1565)– Successfully established the first Spanish settlement in

Cebu.

Roy Lopez de Villalobos

Encomienda System

• Established a feudalistic society which was characterized by a master-slave relationship between the conquistadores and the Indios (natives).

Doctrine of Limpieza de Sangre (purity of blood)• Creating a social ranking among various

groups.

Peninsulares

Insulares

Indio

Frailocracy (Quasi-Theocratic Society)

• “Frailocracia” – “rule of the friars”

American Colonial Society

• Education– The main vehicle of peaceful pacification through

education was the establishment of the Public School System by the American-controlled Second Philippine Commission under Taft.

– The Commission’s Act No. 74 provided initially for free primary education with English as the medium of instructions.

• Pensionado system or the scholarship grant to the United States – Another subtle device created by the Americans

to project better their benevolence.– It was recorded that by 1912 more than 200 of

this pensionados or “Americanization trainees” had obtained their university degrees in the United States.

Politics

• Introduction of democracy– Cooper Act– Jones Law– Tydings-McDuffie Law– Bill of Rights

Economic Relations

• Free trade relations with the United States made the Philippines economically dependent on the United States.

Miseducation and Colonial Consciousness • Colonial or “Stateside mentality

Literature-Agent of DeculturizationLiterature during this period was divided into two

schools of thought:• reactionary school – whose clientele were the

collaborators or “Americanistas”•progressive school – whose proponents were

from the “irreconcilables”