PRE-SPANISH CULTURE

Philippine History with Politics and

Governance
CLOTHING
 Male
Upper part:
 Collarless, short-

sleeved jacket
Lower part:
 balang

Headgear:
 putong
CLOTHING
 Female:
Upper part:
 baro or kamisa

Lower part:
 saya (Tagalogs)

and patadyong
(Visayan)
Tapis
 ORNAMENTS

 Jewels
 Gold,carnelian, pearl, beads
and colored glass
 Ornaments
 Armlets, pendants, bracelets,
gold rings, earrings, and
leglets
ORNAMENTS

 Tattoos
 For men, tattoos were signs of
valor and many attributes
 For women, it enhanced beauty
 The most tattooed were the
ancient Bisayans, who were
called Pintados and the Visayas
as Islas de los Pintados
HOUSES  The nipa house,
made of wood,
bamboo, nipa palm
and/or cogon grass

 Generally elevated
from the ground,
the lower portion
were storage for
tools and enclosure
for their animals
HOUSES
 Some built it on treetops
 Bajaos or Sea Gypsies of Sulu made their
houses on boats
 Lowland:linear in character
 Upland: scattered and distant from each other
SOCIAL CLASSES
 Four types of social organizations (William
Henry Scott, 1994)
1. Classless Society (Hanunuo, Ilongot, Tiruray,
Sulod, Batak)
2. Warrior Society (Manobo of Agusan and
Cotabato, Mandaya, Bagobo, Kalinga, and so
on)
3. Petty Plutocracy (Ifugao, Bontok, Kankaay,
Ibaloy)
4. Principalities (Sulu and the flood plains of
Pulangi River, Cotabato)
 N
o
SOCIAL CLASSES
bl
e
s
Freemen (gat,
maha
(timawa)
rlika
or

Slaves
lakan
)

(alipin, ulipon, or adipen)

Social classes of the rest of the Philippine

society
SOCIAL CLASSES
 Types of dependents (Tagalogs)
1. Aliping namamahay – slaves that had
property, lived in their houses and could
without their master’s consent, and could not
be sold
2. Aliping sagigilid – slaves who owned
no property, lived in their master’s houses,
could not marry without their master’s
consent, and could be sold anytime
SOCIAL CLASSES
 Types of dependents (Bisayans)
1. Tumataban – worked in their master’s
house when told to do so
2. Tumarampuk – worked one day for his
master
3. Ayuey – worked three days for his lord
WOMENS’ POSITION IN
THE SOCIETY
 Occupied a high position
 Laws and custom were equal with
men
1. Could own and inherit property
2. Could engage in trade and industry
3. Could inherit the chieftancy and
rule barangays if they were
daughters of datus with no sons

4. Occupied the prestigious position of babaylan

5. Could demand that their husbands use penis pins
or penis rings
 Could name her children
 Men should walk behind women
PERSONAL HABITS
 Were clean and neat
 Bath regularly
 Took good care of their hair by using gogo and
anointing perfumed oils
 Rinse their mouths and cleaned their teeth. Used
betel nut as tootbrush and salt and water as
toothpaste
 Regularly cleaned their homes
MARRIAGE CUSTOMS
 A man belonging to one class married a
woman of the same class but this custom was
not rigid
 Except Muslims, they practiced monogamy
but in some cases, a man could marry as
many as he could but only the first wife was
considered legitimate spouse
 Fixed marriage
 Two prerequisites to marriage: (1) lover’s
servitude to the girl’s family and (2) dowry
given by man to the girl’s parents
MARRIAGE CUSTOMS
Grounds
for
divorce

Lack of Adultery
sexual or
satisfaction desertion

Loss of
Childi
shness
affectio
n
Any divorce
couple could
remarry
Insani Cruel
ty ty
GOVERNMENT
 Patriarchal in form. Two models:
1. Barangay was a socio-quasi
political/administrative unit
2. Sultanate system
 Barangays were independent, each
consisted of 30-100 families and ruled by a
datu or rajah
 The datu exercised all government
functions assisted by the elders who
advised him on important matters
GOVERNMENT
 Maintains inter-baranganic relations to avoid
wars
Causes
of war

When going to
another village in
the guise of
friendship

When one goes to

When wives or
another village
husbands are
killed someone
stolen from them
without cause
LAWS
Customary and written laws

●
Family relations, property rights, inheritance, contracts, partnerships, loans, usury, crimes and their
punishment, adoption and divorce.

Covered subjects

●
Rape, incest, murder, witchcraft, insult, trespassing, sacrilegious acts, and larceny.
●
Punishment: death

Major crimes

●
Misdemeanours like adultery, cheating, petty theft, perjury, disturbance of peace at night by singing, and destroying documents
●
Punishment: exposure to ants, small fine, flogging, cutting the fingers of one hand, swimming for a number of hours

Minor crimes
JUDICIAL PROCESS

Plaintiff and Witnesses Barangay

Trials were defendant took an oath court favors a
held in public plead their to tell the litigant with
case truth more proofs
JUDICIAL PROCESS
 Dispute between datus or between residents
of different barangays were sometimes
settled by arbitrtaion
 When the case is not readily decided by the
barangay court, a trial by ordeal was
resorted to.
 In Muslim communities, civil or criminal
cases were decided upon by the local Islamic
court. Feuds and disputes, however, involved
protracted bloody confrontations between
families and clans
JUDICIAL PROCESS

Trial by ordeal

Boiling water
Candle ordeal,
River ordeal, ordeal, suspects suspects are given
suspects plunge pick a stone in a lighted candles of
pot of boiling
into the river with the same sizes and
water and he
spears and who the owner of the
whose arm or hand
rises first is guilty candle that died
is burned the most
out first is guilty
is guilty
BOILING WATER ORDEAL
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AND
PRACTICES
 They were animistic.
 Worshipped a supreme god, called Bathala
by the Tagalogs
 Believed in spirits called anitos or diwatas
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AND
PRACTICES
 Religious leaders were called
babaylan, baylana, or katalona.
For Muslims, it is imam or
pandita.
 Worshippers of nature and
ancestors
 Believed in afterlife and heaven
and hell
 Disease or illness was attributed
to the environmental spirits and
the soul-spirits of dead relatives.
DIVINATION OR MAGIC CHARMS
 Fond of interpreting signs in
nature as good or bad omens
depending upon circumstances
 Believed in black magic and
manogbarang or manoghiwit
 Believed in aswang or witches
and many more
 Believed in the efficacy of
anting-anting or amulets as
well as lumay or gayuma
ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES
 Agriculture as the main source of livelihood.
 Twotypes of cultivation: kaingin or slash-and-burn and
wet rice farming
 Less arable lands were public property while
productive lands were private properties of datus
and nobles
 Fermented the sap coconuts and nipas into tuba
and vinegar
 Aside from fishing and agriculture, other industries
were poultry, stock-raising, lumbering and boat-
building, mining, pottery making, and weaving.
 Used barter system in business transactions
LANGUAGE AND SYSTEM OF
WRITING
 More than a hundred languages and dialects
exist
 A syllabary made of 17 symbols, 3 vowels and
14 consonants
 Wrote on bark of trees, leaves, and bamboo
nodes, using knives, daggers, pointed stick or
iron as pens and colored sap of trees and
fruits as ink.
EARLY FILIPINO ALPHABETS
LITERATURE
 Had oral and written literature
 Consisted of proverbs, sayings,
riddles, epics, myths, and
legends
MUSIC AND DANCE
 Had their own musical
instruments, songs, and
dances
 Most popular musical
instument: kudyapi
 Songs included love songs,
religious songs, rice planting
songs, harvesting songs,
rowing songs, battle songs,
vending songs, and others.
 Had colorful folk dances
ARTS
 Native artistry was found in beads, amulets,
bracelets, earrings, and other body ornaments made
of gold, green jade, red carnelian, and other
attractive stones
 Dyed and ornamented their clothes with
designs and picturesque colors
 Evident in tattoos of early Filipinos
 Carves statues of anitos in wood, gold,
ivory, stone, and crocodile’s teeth
ARTS
 Fanciful carvings on handle of bolos,
knives, daggers, and on shields and boats
 Maranao Muslims had excellent woven
products and creative ornamental
and decorative brass art.
THANK YOU!
THANK YOU!