THE FIRST FILIPINO IN THE PHILIPPINES

 Many historians and scientists believe that the first inhabitants of the Philippine islands emerged during
the Pleistocene period.
 Two theories on where the inhabitants (first Filipinos) came from namely: Beyer’s “Migration Theory”
and Jocano’s “Evolution Theory”.
 Noted social scientist believes that Filipinos descended from different groups that came from Southeast
Asia in successive waves of migration.
 Each group had a distinct culture, with its own customs and traditions.
 Jocano believes that Asians, including Filipinos are the result of a lengthy process of evolution and
migration.

MIGRATION THEORY

DAWNMEN

 The first migrants were the “Dawnmen” (or “cavemen” because they lived in caves).
 The Dawnmen resembled Java Man, Peking Man, and other Asian Homo sapiens who existed about
250,000 years ago.
 They did not have any knowledge of agriculture, and llived by hunting and fishing.
 It was precisely in search of food that they came to the Philippines by way of the land bridges that
connected the Philippines and Indonesia.
 they eventually left the Philippines for destinations unknown.

AETAS OR NEGRITOES

 Dark-skinned pygmies called “Aetas’ or “Negritoes”.

 30,000 years ago, they crossed the land bridged from Malaya, Borneo, and until they reached Palawan,
Mindoro and Mindanao.
 They went around practically naked and were good at hunting, fishing and food gathering.
 They used spears and small flint stones weapons.
 They were already in the Philippines when the land bridges disappeared due to the thinning of the ice
glaciers and the subsequent increase in seawater level.
 This natural event “forced” them to remain in the country and become its first permanent inhabitants.

 Because of the disappearance of the land bridges, the third wave of migrants was necessarily skilled in
seafaring.
 These were the Indonesians, who came to the islands in boats. They were more advanced than the Aetas
 they had tools made out of stone and steel, which enabled them to build sturdier houses
 they engaged in farming and mining, and used materials made of brass;
 they wore clothing and other body ornaments (which symbolizes power).
MALAYS

 They were believed to have come from Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and the Malay Peninsula more than
2,000 years ago.
 Like the Indonesians, they also traveled in boats.
 Brown-skinned and of medium height, with straight black hair and flat noses.
 Their technology was said to be more advanced than that of their predecessors.
 They engaged in pottery, weaving, jewelry making and metal smelting, and introduced the irrigation
system in rice planting.

JOCANO’S THEORY

 Dr. Felipe Jocano Landa disputes Beyer’s belief that Filipinos descended from Negritoes and Malays
who migrated to the Philippines thousands of years ago.
 He said that it is difficult to prove that Negritoes were the first inhabitants of this country.
 The only thing that can positively concluded from fossil evidence, he says is that the first men who came
to the Philippines also went to New Guinea, Java, Borneo, and Australia.

 In 1962, a skullcap and a portion of a jaw - presumed to be a human origin - were found in the Tabon
Caves of Palawan by archaeologist Robert Fox and Manuel Santiago
 Carbon dating placed their age at 21,000 to 22,000 years.
 This proves, Jocano argues, that man came earlier to the Philippines than to the Malay Peninsula
 therefore, the first inhabitants of our islands could not have come from the region.
 The “Tabon Man” is said to resemble Java Man and Peking Man.
o He gathered fruits, leaves and plants for his food.
o He hunted with weapons made of stone.
o Although further research is still being done on his life and culture, evidence shows that he was
already capable of using his brain in order to survive and keep himself safe.
 Instead of the Migration Theory, Jocano advances the Evolution Theory, as a better explanation of how
our country was first inhabited by human beings
 He believes that the first people of Southeast Asia were products of a long process of evolution and
migration.
 His research indicates that they shared more or less the same culture, beliefs, practices even similar tools
and implements.
 These people eventually went their separate ways; some migrated to the Philippines, the others to New
Guinea, Java and Borneo.
 Proof, Jocano says, can be found in the fossils discovered in different parts of Southeast Asia, as well as
the recorded migrations of other peoples from the Asian mainland when history began to
unfold. Continue to Spanish Expeditions to the Philippines. Also see "About the Philippines".
THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES: WHO ARE THEY?
 The Indigenous Peoples Rights Act defines “Indigenous Peoples” as a group of people or homogenous
societies identified by self-ascription and ascription by others; who have continuously lived as an
organized community on communally bounded and defined territory and who have, under claims of
ownership since time immemorial, occupied, possessed and utilized such territories, sharing common
bonds of language, customs, traditions and other distinctive cultural traits, or who have, through
resistance to political, social and cultural inroads of colonization, non-indigenous religions and cultures,
became historically differentiated from the majority of Filipinos.

 Indigenous Cultural Communities/ Indigenous Peoples shall likewise include peoples who are regarded
as indigenous on account of their descent from the populations which inhabited the country, at the time
of conquest or colonization, or at the time of inroads of non-indigenous religions and cultures, or the
establishment of present state boundaries, who retain some or all of their own social, economic, cultural
and political institutions, but who may have been displaced from their traditional domains or who may
have resettled outside their ancestral lands (Sec. 3 (h) Republic Act 8731, or the Indigenous Peoples
Rights Act IPRA 1997).

 Ang pangkat etniko ay grupo ng mga tao na may mga pagkakatulad o pagkakahawig sa kultura,
lengguwahe, tradisyon, at paniniwala. Ang perlas ng silangan, hindi lang mayaman sa likas na yaman
kundi mayabong din ang kultura, at malaking bahagi nito ang pangkat etniko sa Pilipinas.

 The Philippines is a culturally diverse country with an estimated 14- 17 million Indigenous Peoples (IPs)
belonging to 110 ethno-linguistic groups. They are mainly concentrated in Northern Luzon (Cordillera
Administrative Region, 33%) and Mindanao (61%), with some groups in the Visayas area. The
Philippine Constitution, in recognition of this diversity and under the framework of national unity and
development, mandates state recognition, protection, promotion, and fulfillment of the rights of
Indigenous Peoples. Further, Republic Act 8371, also known as the “Indigenous Peoples Rights Act”
(1997, IPRA), recognized the right of IPs to manage their ancestral domains; it has become the
cornerstone of current national policy on IPs.

 The Philippines is a culturally diverse country with an estimated 17 million Indigenous Peoples (IPs)
belonging to 110 ethno-linguistic groups in 2010. They are mainly concentrated in Luzon (33%),
especially in the Cordillera Administrative Region; and Mindanao (61%) with some groups in the
Visayas area (IWGIA, 2011).

 The Philippine Constitution, cognizant of this diversity within the framework of national unity and
development mandate state recognition, protection, promotion, and fulfillment of the rights of
indigenous peoples. Further, Republic Act 8371, also known as the “Indigenous Peoples Rights Act”
(1997, IPRA), recognizes the right of IPs to manage their ancestral domains which is the cornerstone of
the national policy on IPs (UNDP, 2010).
  Despite this commitment, IPs remain the poorest and most disadvantaged groups. They make up one-
third of the world’s poorest peoples, suffer disproportionately in terms of health, education, and human
rights, and regularly face systemic discrimination and exclusion (ibid). IP settlements are remote without
access to basic services leading to high incidence of morbidity, mortality and malnutrition.

 There are one hundred ten (110) major indigenous groups in the country. Most of them practice
traditional swidden agriculture in upland areas. However, these traditional cultivation activities and
fallow areas have been degraded and are further threatened by the influx of migrant non-IP farmers who
have introduced unsustainable lowland-commercial farming practices.

 Furthermore, most indigenous cultural communities do not have legal rights over their lands, limiting
their conduct of livelihood activities and denied access to other natural resources in their communities
(De Vera, 2007).

Indigenous Peoples/Indigenous Cultural Communities (IPs/ICCs) are comprised by ethnolinguistic

groups in the country

 They are located in seven (7) ethnographic areas as follows: 1) Cordillera Administrative Region and
Region I; 2) Region II; 3) Region III and the rest of Luzon; 4) Island Groups and the rest of Visayas; 5)
Northern and Western Mindanao; 6) Central Mindanao; and, 7) Southern and Eastern Mindanao.

 Prior to the arrival of Spaniards in 1521 and the introduction of a Western form of governance, the IPs/
ICCs maintained their autonomous communities in their respective ancestral domains.

 These are small and independent communities with their respective socio-political and economic
systems such as the Muslims of Mindanao with their feudal system; the Igorots of Cordillera with their
semiprimitive communal structure; and the Aetas with their primitive communal set-up. They adopt the
customary concepts and practices of land use and ownership through collectivism and assume the care
of their resources.

Region Province ICC/IPs community ICC/IPs

1. ARMM Maguindanao Barangay Labungan, Datu Odin Sinsuat Téduray

2. Region IX Zamboanga del Sur Barangay Lacarayan, Tigbao Subanen
3. Region III Aurora Barangay Diteki, San Luis Dumagat
4. Region X Bukidnon Sitio Kibuwa, Barangay Impalutao Impasug-ong Bukidnon
5. Region XIII Agusan del Sur Barangay Poblacion, Loreto Manobo
6. Region VII Negros Oriental Abaca, Barangay Sab-Ahan, Bais City Ati/Ata
7. Region VII Cebu City Side B, South Reclamation Project, Barangay Mambaling Badjao
8. Region XI Davao City Sitio Pigdalahan, Barangay. Pandaitan, Paquibato District Matigsalog/
AtaManobo
9. Region XII Saranggani Sitio Wali, Maitum T’boli
10. Region VIII Northern Samar Barangay San Isidro, Las Navaz Mamanwa
11. Region XII North Cotabato Amabel, Magpet Manobo
12. Region XII Sultan Kudarat Sitio Tanansang, Barangay Palavilla, Lutayan B’laan
13. Region VI Guimaras Sitio Kati-Kati, Brgy. San Miguel, Municipality Jordan, Guimaras Ati
 14. Region VI Capiz Sitio Tag-Ao, Dumarao Ati
15. Region VI Antique Sitio Igcaputol, Poblacion North, Barangay Tobias Fornier, San Jose Ati
16. Region II Isabela Brgy Dalig Kalinga, Aurora Gaddang
17. CAR Mountain Province Brgy Caneo, Bontoc Bontok

 Throughout the Philippine History , craftmanship and its different forms have always been prevalent.
The Filipinos have an innate inclination to CREATE, EXEMPLIFYING the state of being engaged in
their craft and taking a sense of joy and pride in their work. The Filipino craftsman dedicates himself to
his art and telling the story of the Philippines, hearing its truest essence-its soul for the world to see.
 Blessed with natural resources. Filipino craftsman are able to come up with a magnificent product that
tells a million story not just about their lives but the culture of their place. Clearly, this reflects Filipino
crafts that magnify labors of love and patience. These are evident in the products of their skillful hands
and imaginative minds.

Who are indigenous peoples?

 It is estimated that there are more than 370 million indigenous people spread across 70 countries
worldwide. Practicing unique traditions, they retain social, cultural, economic and political
characteristics that are distinct from those of the dominant societies in which they live. Spread across the
world from the Arctic to the South Pacific, they are the descendants - according to a common definition
- of those who inhabited a country or a geographical region at the time when people of different cultures
or ethnic origins arrived. The new arrivals later became dominant through conquest, occupation,
settlement or other means.
 Among the indigenous peoples are those of the Americas (for example, the Lakota in the USA, the
Mayas in Guatemala or the Aymaras in Bolivia), the Inuit and Aleutians of the circumpolar region, the
Saami of northern Europe, the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders of Australia and the Maori of New
Zealand. These and most other indigenous peoples have retained distinct characteristics which are
clearly different from those of other segments of the national populations.

Understanding the term “indigenous”

 Considering the diversity of indigenous peoples, an official definition of “indigenous” has not been
adopted by any UN-system body. Instead, the system has developed a modern understanding of this
term based on the following:
o Self- identification as indigenous peoples at the individual level and accepted by the community
as their member.
o Historical continuity with pre-colonial and/or pre-settler societies
o Strong link to territories and surrounding natural resources
o Distinct social, economic or political systems
o Distinct language, culture and beliefs

Form non-dominant groups of society

 Resolve to maintain and reproduce their ancestral environments and systems as distinctive peoples and
communities.
Five Indigenous People Communities in the Philippines declare their ICCAs

 Ikalahan/ Kalanguya IPs of Nueva Vizcaya, Nueva Ecija, and Pangasinan provinces.
 Magbukun Ayta IPs of Kanawan, Morong, Bataan.
 Tongrayan IPs of Tinglayan, Kalinga.
 Agusan Manobo of Esperanza, Agusan Del Sur.
 Kalanguya IPs of Tinoc, Ifugao.

 The Indigenous People's Rights Act of 1997 (IPRA), officially designated as Republic Act No. 8371,
is a Philippine law that recognizes and promotes the rights of indigenous cultural communities and
indigenous peoples in the Philippines

Indigenous Creative Crafts

 Art was embedded in our culture since the beginning of time up to the present. It is one thing that can
never be lost in a culture no matter what it goes through. The Philippines, having a rich culture, also has
its own share of art that is discovered and practiced, and applied in the day to day living.
 Originating in the pre-colonial times, the art of weaving of the Cordillera tribal groups in the Philippine
North still exists despite the threat of the more practical, mass production of cloth.
 The natives use backstrap loom to produce blankets and articles of clothing.
 Philippine sculpture is the most familiar art form among Filipinos. The most popular woodcarving in the
Philippines are carvings of the anitos (nature gods), santos (saints), and statues of Christ and the Blessed
Mother. Philippine sculptures have undergone changes in terms of shape, size, and the medium used.

Cloth Weaving

 This is one living tradition that is kept and preserved until the present. Existed since the pre-colonial
times, this art done by the Cordillera tribes from the North is still being done even though a threat of
more practical and convenient mass production of cloth is already discovered. To make this, a back strap
loom is being used by the natives in order to create a very well-done product purely made of their hands.
One example is the Pinya Cloth of Antique, a fragile and superb hand woven cloth made of fibers that
can be extracted from the leaves of a pineapple plant. The Philippine national costume for men, Barong
Tagalog, is a famous product out of Pineapple clot

Basket Weaving

 Mainly used in the daily lives of the people in Cordillera, baskets are used for their occupation where
they keep and store their foods as they go to the mountain terraces to cultivate lands. Baskets for them
give a lot of uses: they use it for carrying grains, while fishing in the streams, or during animal hunting.
Fish traps come in baskets made of bamboo where the shape and size of the baskets depend on the kind
of fish they want to catch.

Jewelry Making

 Discovered and existed since the 16th century, jewelry making has been a common skill of the early
Filipinos since it was adopted from the Asian neighbors. A common source of livelihood in the past, this
is typically a home-based industry that includes the production of precious metal jewelries which are
made of gold and silver, and the production of nonmetal jewelries such as pearls and precious stones.
  About 500 miles off the coast of Vietnam, thousands of islands are scattered across a corner of the
western Pacific Ocean. These islands are home to over 180 ethnic groups, each with its own language
and traditions. Add to this the influences of numerous settlers, including the Spanish and Chinese, and
the result is a rich and varied cultural heritage

Traditional Arts and Crafts in the Philippines

 Arts and crafts in the Philippines stretch back thousands of years with jade carving being amongst some
of the earliest examples found dating from around 2,000 BC. While many indigenous crafts still thrive
from weaving to pottery, others that I came across, such as the religious wood carving I saw in
Pampanga, are relative newcomers, brought here by settlers from other counties.
 The variety of arts and crafts in the Philippines is not only a result of its rich cultural melting pot, it also
owes thanks to the wealth of natural materials readily available including bamboo, rattan, and coconut
shells, to name but a few

The Windowpane Oyster

 The sea too has leant its bounty to the craft industry.
 Capiz, for example, comes from the shell of the Placuna placenta mollusc, found in the seas around the
Philippines. Fishermen harvest these edible molluscs for food and use the shells in handicrafts. Nothing
is wasted!
 Capiz is delicate, translucent and naturally iridescent. In the 16th century, Spanish settlers in the
Philippines made stained glass windows in their churches out of capiz shells giving rise to the molluscs
nickname of ‘windowpane oyster’. Today, capiz shell lampshades daggling from trees in parks and
gardens is a common sight.

 Indigenous Peoples are distinct social and cultural groups that share collective ancestral ties to the
lands and natural resources where they live, occupy or from which they have been displaced.

THE IFUGAO
Ifugao Marriage and Families

 Monogamy is the norm among the Ifugao but some wealthy families practice polygyny. Incest
prohibitions extend to first cousins. Marriage to more distant cousin can only be arranged after the
payment of livestock penalties. Trial marriages between prospective couples is common. Courtship
rituals take place at the girls houses. Wealthy families have traditionally arranged marriages through
intermediaries. Families exchange gifts and maintain close ties after the marriage. Newlyweds often
spend some time living with their parents before setting up housing of their own, often near a large rice
field.

 Divorces may occur after mutual consent or with the payment of damages if contested. Grounds for
divorce include omens, no children, cruelty, desertion and change of affection. All property traditionally
goes to the children. Widows and widowers are only allowed to remarry after making a payment to the
 deceased spouse’s family. Both sexes may inherit property, with the firstborn getting te largest share.
Illegitimate children receive support from the father but do not have inheritance rights.

 The men are responsible for building maintaining the terraces while women plant, weed and harvest the
rice. Women use wooden pestles and stone mortars to pound rice into a shape dictated by ancient
tradition. Women also spend many hours weaving fabrics that are unique to their village. Children are
carried around by both men and women in scarves knotted around their bodies.

Ifugao Society

 The Ifugaos have little in the way of a political system or institutionalized community. There are no
chiefs or councils. They live in clan groups that extend to the third cousin. A typical household consists
of a nuclear family. Once children are old enough to take care of themselves, they move to the boys
house or the girls house.
 Ifugao society is divided into three classes based on wealth traditionally defined in terms of rice land,
water buffalo and slaves. A class of aristocrats known as “kandangayan” also guide the village about
moral and judicial matters and lend money. Their houses are identified by a hardwood bench placed
against the stilts. They display their wealth by footing the bill for festivals and possessing important
objects such as hornbill headdresses, gold beads, swords, gongs and antique Chinese jars.
 The kandangyan are the Natumuk, who own a little land, and the very poor. These groups are often
forced to borrow from he kandangyan at high interest rates and become indentured to them. The
“nawatwar” are the poorest of the poor. Most work as tenant farmers and servants to kandanyan.

Ifugao Clothes, Food and Crafts

 Ifugao and Ilocano women have traditionally worn short, tight-fitting, hand-woven skirts with colorful
horizontal stripes, with a white short-sleeve blouse and a loose striped jackets. They have traditionally
gone barefoot and sometimes tied a colored band around their head. Some men still wear loincloths and
go everywhere barefoot. They are quite sure-footed on mountain trails. Their toes and feet grip on to
rocks like the hand of a pitcher grasping a baseball.

 In 1912, Cornélis De Witt Willcox wrote in “The Head Hunters of Northern Luzon”: “ As elsewhere,
but few clothes are seen: the women wear a short striped skirt sarong-wise, but bare the bosom.
However, they are beginning to cover it, just as a few of them had regular umbrellas. They leave the
navel uncovered; to conceal it would be immodest.

 The men are naked save the gee-string, unless a leglet of brass wire under the knee be regarded as a
garment; the bodies of many of them are tattooed in a leaf-like pattern. A few men had the native
blanket hanging from their shoulders, but leaving the body bare in front. The prevailing color is blue; at
Campote it is red.

 The hair looked as though a bowl had been clapped on the head at an angle of forty-five degrees, and all
projecting locks cut off. If the hair is long, it means that the wearer has made a vow to let it grow until
he has killed someone or burnt an enemy’s house.
  We saw such a long-haired man this day. Some of the men wore over their gee-strings belts made of
shell (mother-of-pearl), with a long free end hanging down in front. These belts are very costly and
highly thought of. Earrings are common, but apparently the lobe of the ear is not unduly distended. Here
at Kiangan, the earring consists of a spiral of very fine brass wire. [Source:“The Head Hunters of
Northern Luzon” by Cornélis De Witt Willcox, Lieutenant-Colonel U.S. Army, Professor United States
Military Academy, 1912 ]

Banaue Rice Terraces

 The Banaue area (six hours from Manila by bus) contains magnificent rice terraces that have been
described as the eighth wonder of the world. Originally constructed by the Ifugao people, who still
maintain them, the terraces rise from the steep river gorges and ascend—and sometimes engulf— the
mountains like green amphitheaters. The rice terraces around Banaue were designated a World Heritage
Site by UNESCO in 1995
 There is some evidence that the first rice terraces may have been carved out of the mountains as early as
1000 B.C. Most were built in the last four centuries. By some estimated the rice terraces would extend
for 11,400 miles if placed from end to end. Among the Ifugao, a man’s status is based on his rice fields.
Ownership of the paddies and terraces, and the responsibility for taking care is passed down from one
generation to the next. The system, allows the Ifugao to live in fair dense concentrations.
 Irrigation is achieved through a network of dikes and sluices. The size of the fields range from a few
square meters to more than one hectare, with the average size being 270 square meters. In rocky terrain
the terraces are built from the top down, by first hollowing out the top of a mountain and surrounding
the outside with narrow platforms. Stones that are removed from the fields are used to construct the
terrace walls, whose cracks are filled with chalk-base plaster. The platforms are then filled with earth. In
this fashion the terraces are built down the mountain until the reach the valley
 According to UNESCO: “For 2,000 years, the high rice fields of the Ifugao have followed the contours
of the mountains. The fruit of knowledge handed down from one generation to the next, and the
expression of sacred traditions and a delicate social balance, they have helped to create a landscape of
great beauty that expresses the harmony between humankind and the environment. The terraces are
located in the remote areas of the Philippine Cordillera mountain range on the northern island of Luzon.
While the historic terraces cover an extensive area, the inscribed property consists of five clusters of the
most intact and impressive terraces, located in four municipalities. They are all the product of the Ifugao
ethnic group, a minority community that has occupied these mountains for thousands of years.

Ifugao arts and crafts

 They offer keychains, woven bags and wallets, wood carvings, and Ifugao textiles like Ikat runners, bed
covers and blankets. The Ifugao textiles being sold here are made at the back of the hotel, where tourists
can see for themselves how each textile product is made.