Assessment 1: Custom of the Tagalog by Juan de Plasenscia

Direction: Answer the following questions briefly.

1. How did Plasencia describe the society of the prehispanic Filipino?

Miguel Juan de Plasencia was a Spanish friar and among the first
group of Franciscan missionaries who arrived in the Philippines on July 2,
1578, and spent most of his life here. He described that pre-hispanic Filipinos
did not possess a high level of social organization. Although they lived in
small communities called the barangays, this did not guarantee an organized
socio-political and religious network comparable to European standards nor to
the Aztecs and Incas of the Americas.

2. How did the early Filipinos earn their societal status?

During Pre-Hispanic times, Filipinos can be divided into three: Maginoo,

Timawa, Maharlika, and Alipin.

The Maginoo were the privileged class and where the Datu would come from.
The Datu is the leader of the community called a barangay though it was
unknown whether it is hereditary or elected. It is said that these people are
those who likely led the group for a new place to settle, in islands of the
Philippines.

The freeman class known as the Timawa, which probably made up the bulk
of the barangay community are free people and could acquire property, job
they want, pick their own wives, and Alipin. They were however expected to
pay taxes, and support the Maginoo class.

The Maharlika had all the rights of the Timawa, but they are specifically the
warrior class. They were well respected and were not expected to pay taxes.
They would provide protection to the barangay, and were responsible for
providing and preparing the weapons at their own expense.

The Alipin serves masters who belong to one of the classes above them. But
it does not mean that they did all the work in the barangay. The Timawa were
probably expected to do most of the work in the barangay, and the Alipin was
likely his or her servant at home such as doing house chores and cooking, or
aided the Timawa with their duties at work.

● Aliping Namamahay was a servant that lived in their own little house on
the property of their master, and Aliping Sagigilid was a servant that
lived around the house of their master. An Alipin can actually become
free, and become a Timawa provided he or she fulfilled the services of
their master.
● The people who bore the greatest stigma in society were the alipins
who were indebted to other alipins. A gigilid of an aliping namamahay
 was called a bulisik, which meant vile and contemptible. Even lower
was the bulislis who was a gigilid indebted to another gigilid. The vulgar
name meant that these alipins were so vulnerable that it was like their
genitals were exposed. In modern terms we might say they "had their
pants down", though bulislis really means, "lifted skirt".

The only people lower than the bulislis were slaves who were brought
from other communities or who were captured in war. They were
considered non-persons until they were accepted into the community.
Once accepted, they had the same rights as other alipins.

3. What were the injustices in the classification of societal status?

Some prominent historians in the Philippines believed that there was no

antagonism between the classes but only between contesting barangays.
Hence, the initial conclusion is that the ruled class completely submitted their
will to the ruling class and that there was indeed no recorded form of mature
rebellion that a group of timaguas or alipins organized to overthrow their
masters. Some say that injustices happen in the way in which the datu was
reduced to a low-ranked individual which one of the factors that contributed to
this was “desertion” because of his inability to influence the decision in the
community gathering that his followers desert him for another leader or datu.”

References:
https://kahimyang.com/kauswagan/general-blogs/726/social-structure-of-the-
lowland-filipinos-during-pre-hispanic-era-and-the-maharlika
https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/kas089_090-007.pdf
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/49600908_Domination_And_Resista
nce_In_The_Philippines_From_The_Pre-
hispanic_To_The_Spanish_And_American_Period