PRE COLONIAL PERIOD

State

PRE- COLONIAL PERIOD Scientific and technological development inthe Philippines

began in the pre-colonial period. Even before the Spaniards came to the Philippine
islands, early Filipino settlers were already using the certain plants and herbs as
medicines. Systems of farming and animal-raising were also implemented. Moreover,
early Filipinos had also developed different modes of transportation, whether
terrestrial or maritime.

Contribution

Filipinos were already aware of the medicinal and therapeutic properties of plants
and the methods of extracting medicine from herbs. They already had an alphabet,
number system, a weighing and measuring system and a calendar.

Filipinos were already engaged in farming, shipbuilding, mining and weaving. The
Laguna Copperplate Inscription shows the use of mathematics in precolonial
Philippine societies.

A standard system of weights and measures is demonstrated by the use of precise

measurement for gold, and familiarity with rudimentary astronomy is shown by fixing
the precise day within the month in relation to the phases of the moon. Shipbuilding
showed geometric thinking and mastery of convexity, concavity, and the proper
proportion between ship breadth and length to ensure sailing efficiency.

The practice of constructing as much as twelve ships and boats to fit inside each
other, not unlike matryoshka dolls containing each other, can be interpreted as large
three-dimensional wooden demonstration of sets, subsets, volumes, and ordinality.
The Banaue Rice Terraces are among the sophisticated products of engineering by
pre-Spanish era Filipinos.
 Norms

Among the cultural achievements of the native people's belief systems, and culture
in general, that are notable in many ethnic societies, range from agriculture, societal
and environmental concepts, spiritual beliefs, up to advances in technology, science,
and the arts.

 Development and expertise in indigenous martial arts and warfare

 Development of an organized system of communities, with laws enacted to promote
social welfare and to protect nature, the spirits, and the people
 Expansion of indigenous educational systems and writing systems through focusing
on belief systems, epics, and other mediums that exhibit good values of an
egalitarian society
 Widespread literacy in the indigenous writing systems, such as Baybayin writing
system, by both men and women

Implications

The colonization of the Philippines contributed to growth of science and technology

in the archipelago. The Spanish introduced formal education and founded scientific
institution. During the early years of Spanish rule in the Philippines.

Parish schools were established where religion, reading, writing, arithmetic and
music was taught. Sanitation and more advanced methods of agriculture was taught
to the natives. Later the Spanish established colleges and universities in the
archipelago including the University of Santo Tomas.

Accounts by Spanish friars in the 1580s showed that astronomy was already known
and practiced. The accounts also give the local names of constellations, such as
Moroporo for the Pleiades and Balatik for Ursa Major among others.

In 1687, Isaac Newton included an explicit reference to the Philippines in his classic
Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica by mentioning Leuconia, the ancient
Ptolemaic name for the Philippines.The study of medicine in the Philippines was given
priority in the Spanish era, especially in the later years. The Spanish also contributed
to the field of engineering in the islands by constructing government buildings,
churches, roads, bridges and forts.

Biology is given focus. Contributors to science in the archipelago during the 19th
century were botanists, Fr. Ignacio Mercado., Dr. Trinidad Pardo de Tavera and Dr.
Leon Ma Guerrero, chemist Anaclento del Rosario, and medicine scholars Dr. Manuel
Guerrero, Dr, Jose Montes and Dr. Elrodario Mercado.

A complicated engineering feat was achieved by the natives of the Cordilleras when
they built rice terraces by hand. Through these terraces, the people were able to
cultivate crops on the mountain sides in cold temperatures. They incorporated an
irrigation system that uses water from the forests and mountain tops to achieve an
elaborate farming system. the rice terraces of the cordilleras, which are still
functional show the innovative and ingenious way of the natives to survive in an
otherwise unfriendly environments.