CUSTOMS OF THE

TAGALOGS
B Y: J UAN DE P L ASENC I A
QUESTION #1

Who was the intended audience of

this document “Customs of the
Tagalogs”?
 DESCRIPTION OF
THE AUTHOR ABOUT
PHILIPPINE SOCIETY
DURING PRE-
H I S PA N I C P E R I O D
OUTLINE
1. Community (Barangay, Dato and three Castes)
2. Property
3. Marriage Customs
4. Worship (Religion)
12 Priests of the Devil
5. Superstition
6. Burying the Dead
THE COMMUNITY
S O C I A L S TAT U S
O F T H E E A R LY
FILIPINOS
 SOCIAL CLASSES

CHIEFS
(DATOS)

NOBLES
(MAHARLICA)

The 3 castes COMMONERS

(ALIPING NAMAMAHAY)

SLAVES
(ALIPING SAGUIGUILIR)
Datu or Dato
.
❖ chieftain, captain of wars, whom governed,
obeyed and reverenced.

❖ The subject who committed any offense

against them, or spoke but a word to their
wives and children, was severely
punished.

❖ The chiefs ruled over a few people;

sometime as many as hundred houses,
sometimes even less than thirty.

❖ This tribal gathering is called in Tagalog a

Barangay or Dulohan.
 .
Nobles or Maharlika
❖ Free-born, they do not pay taxes or
tribute to the dato, but must
accompany him in war, in their own
expense.
❖ The chief offered them beforehand a
feast, afterward they divided the
spoils.
❖ If the dato built a house, they helped
him, and had to be fed up for it.
Commoners or Aliping
Namamahay

❖ They may marry, and served their

master, whether he be a dato or
not, with half off their cultivated
lands, as was agreed upon in the
beginning.
❖ They live on their own houses and
are lords of their property and
gold.
❖ Their children inherit it, and enjoy
their property and lands.
 .
Slaves or Alipin Saguiguilir

❖ They serve their master in his house

and his cultivated lands and may be
sold.
❖ The master grants them, should he
see fit, and providing the he has
profited through their industry, a
portion of their harvests, so that they
may work faithfully.
❖ Servants who are born in the house of
their master are rarely, if ever, sold.
 Difference between the Aliping Namamahay and
the Aliping Saguiguilir
COMMONERS OR ALIPING SLAVES OR ALIPING
NAMAMAHAY SAGUIGUILIR
• Can choose who they will marry • Cannot be married without the
permission of his master
• Can live in their own house • Don’t have their own house, they
lived in their master’s house
• Cannot be sold • Can be sold

• Can have his own property • Do not own any property

• Is being payed for the services • Serving without payments

rendered
A person become slaves by:
• Captivity in war
• Reason of debt
• Inheritance
• By purchase
• By committed a crime

Slaves can be emancipated through:

• By forgiveness
• By paying debt
• By condonation
• By bravery (where a slave can possibly become a Dato)
or marriage
QUESTION #2

Are there injustices in the

classification of societal status? If
there is please cite and explain.
PROPERT Y
 PROPERTY
• The land area was divided among the
whole barangay, especially the irrigated
portions.
• No one from a different barangay could
cultivate land unless they inherit or buy
the land
• The lands on the tingues, or mountain
ridges, are not divided but owned by the
barangay as a whole.
• At the time of rice harvest, any individual
(regardless of their barangay) that starts
to clear any land area may sow in it.
MARRIAGE
CUSTOMS
 SITUATION 1
Those who are maharlikas on both the
father’s and the mother’s side continue to
be forever, and if happens that they should
become slaves, it is through marriage.
 SITUATION 2
If maharlikas had children among their
slaves, their children and their mothers
became free.
 SITUATION 3
If the maharlikas had children by the slave-
woman of another, the slave-woman was
compelled when pregnant, to give her
master half of a gold tael.
 SITUATION 4
If a free woman had children by a slave,
they were all free, provided he were not her
husband.
 SITUATION 5
If two persons married, of whom one was a Maharlika and
the other a slave (namamahay or saguiguilir) the children
were divided.

Belong to the father- odd birth order (1st, 3rd, 5th…)

Belong to the Mother- even birth order (2nd, 4th, 6th…)
Only Child – half free, half slave
 SITUATION 6
Maharlika could not, after marriage, move from one
village to another, or from one barangay to another,
without paying a certain fee in gold as arrange among
them.
 SITUATION 7
When one married woman of another village, the
children were afterwards divided equally between the
two barangays.
BEFORE MARRIAGE
Dowries are given by men to the women's parents before marriage.
If the women’s parents are both alive, they both enjoy the use of it.
At their death, provided the dowry has not been consumed, it is
divided like the rest of the estate, equally among the children., except
in the case the Father should care to bestow something additional
upon their daughter.

AT THE TIME OF HER MARRIAGE

- If the wife has neither father, mother, nor grandparents, she enjoys
her dowry—which in such a case, belongs to no other relative or
child.
- It should be notice that a married woman can own NO property, in
land or dowry, for the result of all their labors accrues to their
parents.
 IN CASE OF A DIVORCE
--before the birth of the children, if the wife left the husband for the
purpose of marrying another, all her dowry and an equal additional
amount fell to the husband; but if she left him, and did not marry
another, the dowry was returned.
--When the husband left his wife, he lost half of the dowry, and the
other half was returned to him. If he possessed children at the time
of his divorce, the whole dowry and the fine went to the children,
and was held for them by their grandparent or other responsible
relatives.
WORSHIP AND
BELIEFS
(RELIGION)
❑There were no temples or sacred
places in which Filipinos would
worship

❑The word simbahan means a place

to worship which is constructed at a
large house of the chief where people
of the tribe go to celebrate festivals
(aka pandot or worship)

❑They beat large and small drums

successively during the feast which
usually lasted four days
❑nagaanitos - worship; (anito -
soul or spirit of ancestors)
❑sibi - a temporary shed, made
on each side of the chief’s house,
for the assembled people.
❑Bathala - one of their many
idols, whom they specially
worshipped.
❑sun - almost universally respected
and honored because of its beauty;
❑moon - they would rejoice, especially
when new
❑stars - they did not name them
except for the morning star, which
they called Tala
“Seven little goats” - the Pleiades; a
star cluster
Balatic - the Greater Bear constellation
Mapolon - the change of seasons
❑ lic-ha - idols; images with different shapes;
❑ Dian masalanta - an idol; patron of lovers
and generation
❑ Lacapati and Idianale - idols; patrons of
the cultivated lands and husbandry;
❑ buaya or crocodiles – water-lizards they
paid reverence for fear of being harmed by
them; they were even in the bait of offering
these animals a portion of what they
carried in their boats, by throwing it into the
water, or placing it upon the bank.
❑ Divination – a practice to see whether the
weapons, such as dagger or knife, were
useful and lucky for their possessor
whenever occasion should offer.
❑ Catalonans- male or female officiating
priest.
❑ The objects of sacrifice were goats,
fowls, and swine, which were flayed
decapitated and lair bare before the idol
SUPERTITIONS
SUPERSTITION
They find omens in events they
witness (i.e. when someone sneezed,
met on their way a rat or serpent, or
the Tigmamanuguin bird sang they
would go home in fear that evil would
befall them if they continued their
journey)

Tigmamanuguin – a bird singing on

a tree belief that something evil will
happen if they heard it sung. This
song has two different forms: evil
omen and the good omen.
 BURIAL
PRACTICES
THEIR MANNER OF BURYING THE
DEAD WERE AS FOLLOW:
The deceased was buried beside his house;
And, if were a chief he was placed beneath a little house or porch
which they constructed for this purpose. Before interring him, they
mourned him for four days, and afterwards laid him on boat which
served as a coffin or bier. Placing him beneath the porch, where guard
kept over him by a slave.
THEIR MANNER OF BURYING THE
DEAD WERE AS FOLLOW:
❖If the deceased had been a warrior, a living slave was tied beneath his
body until in this wretched way he died. In course of time, all suffered
decay; and for many days the relatives of the dead man bewailed him,
singing dirges, and praises of his good qualities, until finally they
wearied of it. This grief was also accompanied by eating and drinking.
TERMINOLOGIES ABOUT DEATH
❖Maca
❖Casanaan
❖Bathala
❖Sitan
❖Vibit
❖Tigbalaang
❖Patianac
R E L E VA N C E O F
THE DOCUMENT
TO THE PRESENT
TIME
• Plasencia’s Customs of the Tagalogs is a very
popular primary source as it vividly describes
the way of life of the Filipinos before Spanish
and Christian influences.
• It contains insights that can help and inspire
priests and missionaries to become effective
evangelizers.
• Scholars like it because it covered numerous
topics that are relevant in many disciplines.
• Through historical writings also disprove the
claim of some Spaniards that when they arrived
in the Philippines, Filipinos were still uncivilized
and lacking of culture.
• It is written in a document that Filipino’s were
already politically and economically organized
including the functioning government, tax
system, set of laws, criminal justice system,
indigenous calendar, and long standing customs,
and traditions.
• Based on the Plasencia’s custom of the
tagalog they already had a concept of
having a supreme being or what they
called “ Bathala”, practice burial customs,
and believed in life after death.
QUESTION #3

•What is the important connection of

the document (the Customs of the
Tagalog by Juan de Plasencia) to your
recognition and appreciation of the
Tagalog customs?
THANK YOU