ISLAM AND PRE-SPANISH ● Abu Bakr established a sultanate

form of government in sulu with

CULTURE AND GOVERNMENT
himself as the sultan.
● Islam spread in Mindanao in the
I. The coming of Islam in the
second half of the 15th century A.D.
Philippines
● Sherif Muhammad Kabungsuan
led a force of muslim Samals from
● In the early part of the 7th Century
Johore that landed in what is now
A.D, Islam was founded by
Cotabato.
Muhammad in Mecca, through fire
● Sherif founded the sultanate of
and sword, the followers of
Maguindanao.
Muhammad spread Islam to many
● Muslim malays traders from
parts of the world.
borneo, were spreading islam to the
● A muslim Arabian Empire arose as
native kingdoms in Manila,
many lands in both east and west
Batangas, Mindoro, and as far as
fell under Arab rule.
north as Pampanga.
● Muslim missionaries went to Java,
Sumatra, Malacca, Johore, Borneo,
II. Early Filipino customs and practices
and the nearby islands not only to
trade but also to preach Islam.
Before the imposition of Spanish
● To speed up the conversion of the
rule, Filipinos already had their own
natives, the missionaries usually
culture.
married into the families of the rich
and ruling class.
● They have developed their own
● By the 13th Century, most of the
forms of economic and social
lands in southeast asia were already
organizations.
islamized. From these newly
● They were governed by their own
converted Muslim lands, Islam
rulers under their own laws within
filtered to Mindanao and sulu.
the framework of government
● Islam arrived in the southern part of
inspired by their own perception and
the Philippines in the 14th century
environment
A.D.
● They worshiped their own Gods
● An Arab scholar, Mukdum,
● They spoke or wrote in their own
reportedly arrived in Sulu in 1380 to
languages.
preach Islam. In Simunul, Sulu,
● They even had beginnings of a
Mukdum built the first mosque.
native literature and a native art.
● Mukdum was followed sometime
around 1390 by Rajah Baginda, a
A. Personal Aspect
muslim Sumatran ruler who also
preached Islam to the Suluanos.
CLOTHING AND PERSONAL
● Around 1450, Abu Bakr, a muslim
ORNAMENTS
scholar, arrived in Sulu and married
Paramisuli, a daughter of Baginda.
- The clothes were made of cotton,
silk and plant fibers
 - The men’s clothing consisted of a
collarless , short-sleeve jacket called
“Kangan” and a “bahag”.
- The female clothing consisted of a
blouse with big sleeves called
"baro" and a short loose skirt called
" saya" or "patadyong".
- The men wore turban or putong over
their heads while women knotted
their long hair at the back of their
heads
- They wore ornaments consisting of
earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and
armlets called "Kalumbiga".
- Both females and males also
tattooed their body to enhance their
physical appearance and to show
war records.
- Both men and women did not wear
shoes.
- Each house is provided with bamboo
ladders.
B. Social organization and practices
1. The nobles or Maharlika Occupied
the highest place in society. This
class is composed of the
➔ Chief
➔ His family
➔ Relatives and elders
The class alone enjoyed all rights
and influences. This is a position of
prestige.

HYGIENE AND PERSONAL HABITS

Early Filipinos had great concern for

personal hygiene.

- They bathed regularly

- Rinsed their mouth and cleaned their
teeth using fibrous husk of the betel
nut for toothbrush and salt for
- This picture shows a tagalog couple
toothpaste.
of the Maharlika nobility caste
- Women washed their hair with water
depicted in the Boxer Codex of the
mixed with sweet-smelling herbs,
16th Century.
aloe and “gogo”
2. The Freeman of Timawa is a class
HOUSES
consisting of free-born persons and
emancipated slaves. They are the
- They built houses made of wood,
middle class composed of warriors
bamboo, and nipa palm, commonly
or soldiers, merchants, craftsmen,
known as "nipa hut" or "bahay
artisans, engineers and scribes.
kubo"
- These houses were elevated above
3. The Dependents or Alipin is the
the ground and supported by
lowest social class. A Filipino would
wooden or bamboo poles
become a :
 ➔ Slave through birth
➔ Inability to pay debts,
purchase, punishment for
crimes or by captivity of war.
Dependents were divided in two
kinds: the Aliping Namamahay and
the Aliping Saguiguilid.
★ The Aliping Namamahay, they
enjoyed certain privileges like the
➔ right to own a property
➔ the right to marry
➔ the right to work for any
masters.
They usually became slaves
because of the failure of paying
debts. However, Aliping
Namamahay could buy back his
freedom from his master and can
even marry a timawa or freeman.
★ The Aliping Saguiguilid, they did not
enjoy any rights and freedom. They
became slaves because of captivity
of war and purchase. They could not
➔ Marry without the master's
consent
➔ Cannot own properties.
MARRIAGE CUSTOMS
Early Filipinos practiced arranged
marriages
- Parents would choose lifetime
partners for their children. The
groom would provide a dowry,
which included gold, slaves, and
land.The groom would also serve in
the bride's house for a specific
period of time.
DIVORCE
- Divorce was recognized and socially
accepted under certain conditions,
such as
➔ Adultery
➔ Desertion
➔ Loss of affection
➔ Cruelty
➔ Insanity or prolonged
sickness
➔ The wife's incapacity to bear
a child.
C. Political Organization
- During the arrival of the spaniards,
they found the native Filipinos living
in a settlement called “barangay”
- Each barangay consists of 30 to 100
families.
- Several barangay would settle near
each other to form a single town or
to help each other in case of war.
- Confederations are established to
protect the interest of the member
barangays.
- The head of the Barangay was
called the "Datu". At first the
position of the Datu was hereditary.
Later, any member of the barangay
could aspire to be the Datu on the
basis of talent and ability.
- The principal duty of the Datu was to
rule was to
➔ Rule the barangay wisely
➔ Promote its well being
➔ Protect the barangay from its
enemies.
In return, the people had to pay
tribute to Datu, to help him till the
land and to fight for the barangay in
case of war.
The Datu was a powerful official D. Religion
➔ He made and enforced laws
of the barangay. HIGHEST GOD AND FORMS OF
➔ He had a council of elders to WORSHIP
advise him. The elders were
consulted whenever the Datu - Our ancestors were
wanted a law to be made. polytheists
- The law was written - They worshiped several
down and announced gods such as
to the entire barangay ➔ Idiyanale, the
by a carrier called Tagalog goddess of
“Umalohokan”. agriculture
- Laws that time were ➔ Sidapa, the Visayan
severe and harsh. god of death
- Criminals who ➔ Apolaki, the
committed serious Pangasinan god of
crimes such as war
insult, sorcery, ➔ Dallang, the Ilocano
witchcraft, and goddess of beauty
trespassing were ➔ Malyari, the Zambal
punished from god of strength
heavy fines to
slavery or even - However, they also
death. recognized a supreme God
- While minor crimes known as "Bathala"
were punished like - They worshiped
small fines,flogging, environmental spirits called
or being exposed to anito or Diwata
ants. - They worshiped objects of
➔ He was also the barangay nature like the sun, moon,
judge. Trials are held in trees, stones, waterfalls,
public. rivers, and even animals.
- Trial by ordeal was - They have native priests or
reported in criminal priestesses known as
cases to find out who "Babaylan".
the guilty person was.
- The most common DEATH AND BURIAL
trials by ordeals are CUSTOMS
the river ordeal,
boiling water ordeal, - Early Filipinos believed in life
and the candle after death.
ordeal. - The carved idols or
larawan to preserve the
 memories of the dead
relative.
- They have a clear conception
about heaven (kalualhatian)
and hell (kasamaan).
- They believed that the soul of
a person goes to the other
world. This is why they
practiced “pabaon” because
they believed that man’s
needs when he was still alive
were the same in his second
life.
- The body is preserved and
kept inside the house, in a
cave, or a place facing the
sea.
- During his burial, his
clothes,foods, weapons, and
even slaves were buried with
him to accompany him on his
journey.
- According to Loarca, the
death of a Datu means
suspension of all activities
and even wars.
E. Education and System of writing
- For early Filipinos, education is a
mixture of academic and vocational
training.
- Children were taught the three R's
(Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic),
music, religion, and customs.
- The educational process was
informal, with parents or tribal tutors
and elders serving as teachers.
- The early Filipinos belonged to
different ethnic groups and spoke
different languages. There were at
least 87 dialects spoken during
ancient times.
- The Filipino language originated
from the Malayo-Polynesian family
or Austronesian.
- Despite belonging to different ethnic
groups and speaking various
languages, early Filipinos had a
common writing system known as
baybayin, alibata, or abakada.
- This ancient syllabary consisted of
17 letters broken into 13 vowels and
14 consonants.
- This early system of writing is said to
have originated from India.
- Writing was done on bark or banana
leaves using a sharp, pointed piece
of iron or a tool called sipol.
- Arts were found in expressions in
the carvings of likha or larawan in
wood, gold, stones, and ivory.
- Their knowledge of mathematics is
shown by the fact that they could
count up to 100,000,000 and could
add, subtract, divide, and multiply
particularly in business transactions
- They also have their own weights
and measures. For weighing dry
goods, they used talaro, a kind of
balance with scales, and for heavier
things they used the sinantan,
weights equivalent to 20 ounces
each. Their measure of capacity
were the kaban (25 gantas), the
salop (one ganta), the pitiis or
kagitna (½ ganta) and the gatang
(one chupa)
- For length measurements, they used
their fingers as their basic
instrument: Dangaw- length of the
thumb and that of the middle finger
when extended; the arms-length was
equivalent to one english fathom.
- The early Filipinos were fascinated
by the movement of the heavenly
bodies, and based on their crude
 knowledge of astronomy, they
measured time.
- Their calendars differed in certain
regions: the Ifugao had 13 months
in a year, each month having 28
days or 364 a year; the Visayans
had 356 days a year divided into 12
months of 30 days except the last
month had 26 days.
- Day and night time measurements
were done on the basis of the
movement of the sun and their usual
activities.
- As for the visayans, buntag adlaw
was for dawn, tig-ilitlog, about noon
when hens lay their eggs;
tupong-tupong, for high noon,
tigbalahug, about 4:00 PM when it
was time to feed their hogs;
tig-iyapun, about 8:00 PM, which
was time for supper, and the
tig-baranig, about 10:00 PM, the
time to spread the mats and go to
sleep.