Culture in the Unhispanized Philippines

Hispanization even though being rejected by many was a useful term for scholars in
distinguishing conditions of the three-century Spanish domination in the Philippines from the
time when socioeconomic lifestyle of the Filipino people had not been affected. The indigenous
Filipino cultures in areas where the Spaniards did not govern remained still. They were not
Christianized moreover because they were completely isolated from what was happening on their
neighbours and thus may be considerably called “unhispanized”.
Filipinos living in the unhispanized Philippines do not allocate the same social structure.
Consequently, four social structures are categorized and described as what the anthropologists
refer to as the ethnographic present.
Classless societies, the first category are characterized so because they discern no group
which exerts authority or advantage over other groups by virtue of approved or acclaimed status.
These includes Hanunoo, Mangyans in the mountains of Mindoro, Ilongots of Nueva Ecija,
Nueva Vizcaya and Isabela, the Tiruray of Cotabato, the Sulod of Panay, the Bataks of Palawan,
the Negritos of Luzon, Negros, Panay and Mindanao, Dumagat along coasts of Luzon, Magahat
in Negros Oriental, Mamanua in highlands of Mindanao, and the Ikalahan of Nueva Vizcaya.
These societies produce little or no surplus from their environment. Some live by gathering
forest products, some by hunting and gathering, some by exchanging game or forest products for
foodstuffs; others live by combined hunting, gathering and limited cultivation. Most do not make
war since they do not have weaponry, memories of military valour, or warrior traditions. Yet
others remained to be the most notorious headtakers. Various level of economic development
and no coup-counting practice might be reasons for the existence of wars.
Societies in the second category are typified by a distinct warrior class, in which
membership is won by personal achievement, entails privilege, duty and prescribed norms of
conduct, and is requisite for community leadership. The Manobo of Agusan and Cotabato, the
Mandaya, Bagobo and Tagakaolo of Davao, and the Bilaan of the Davao-Cotabato and the
Isnegs and Kalingas of Northern Luzon belong to this grouping. Although economic data are
unavailable for assessing overall productivity, empirical observations suggest that warrior
societies generally possess more imported trade items as heirloom wealth than any of the
societies of type 1, and those in Mindanao have rich traditions of metallurgy and weaving
unequalled in the classless societies. Like most of type 1 societies, these warriors also do not
own, inherit, mortgage, exchange, alienate, or bestow real property.
Petty plutocracies, the third category are called so because they are dominated socially
and politically by a recognized class of rich men who attain membership through birthright,
property, and the performance of specified ceremonies; and “petty” because their authority is
localized, being extended by neither absentee landlordism nor territorial subjugation. These
societies are found only on the Cordillera Central of Northern Luzon, and the wealthy class is
called kadangyan in the Ifugao, Bontoc, and Kankanay languages, and baknang in Ibaloy. It is
difficult to resist the conclusion that type 3 societies are former warrior societies whose intensive
farming of irrigated terraces has produced a land-owning and inheriting class which takes
precedence over military veterans and which must rank as one of the most sharply defined
classes in ethnographic literature.
Principalities, the fourth category are dominated by a recognized aristocracy with
birthright claim to loyalty and commitment from followers which produces local overloads with
individual political titles who, in turn, recognize the birthright claim of one among them to
adherence and faithfulness from all the others of their class. All societies in this category profess
Islam, for which reason they were called moros in Spanish, and are found only in the Sulu
Archipelago, the flood plain of the Pulangi River valley, the Lanao lake region between Illana
and Iligan Bays, and a few outlying islands like Cagayan de Sulu. The economic base of the type
4 societies is much broader than that of type 3, for, in addition to practicing sedentary
agriculture, they have upper classes that engage in more or less maritime trade, and enjoy a
certain amount of slave labour. Yet their elite are literally defined as a ruling class, for datu is the
root of the verb, “to rule”.
Even before the Spaniards came, Filipinos had already a civilization of their own. An
assortment of aspects of this progress came partly from Malays who settled in the country. The
customs and traditions, the government and mode of living have come down to the present and
may be found in remote rural areas which have so far succeeded in resisting the impacts of
modern civilization.
Among the ancient Filipinos, the male and female attire was composed of the upper and
lower parts. It seemed that the colours of their jackets indicated the societal rank of the wearer.
Men, women and children walked about barefooted. Men had putong at which the color showed
“manliness of a man”, for an instance, a red one signified that the wearer had killed a man in
war. The early Filipinos had a weakness for personal adornment, for women and men burdened
themselves with such trappings as armlets, pendants, bracelets, gold rings, earrings, and even
leglets. Since gold was abundant commodity, it was also used into fillings between the teeth. The
ancient house made of wood, bamboo, and nipa palm had basically no difference with present
barrio house. Philippine society was divided into three classes: the nobles who enjoyed exclusive
rights, the freemen (mahadlika) and occupying the lowest stratum were the dependents (alipins).
Dependents were either aliping namamahay with his own family and house, and the aliping
sagigilid with no property on his own and couldn’t marry without master’s consent. There were
gradations among them. Women enjoyed unique position in the society, had the right to be at par
with men. As sign of deep respect, the men, when accompanying women, walked behind them.
Marriage custom in which a man belonging to one class should marry only woman of the same
class was not strictly followed. A man’s legitimate wife was called asawa and other women in
relation with the man were called “friends”. Legitimate children were only those given the right
to inherit properties from their legitimate father. If the married couple belonged to different
classes, their children were equally divided among the parents in so far as social status was
concerned. The barangay derived from the Malay balangay (a boat), was the unit of government
and consisted of from 30 to 100 families. Each barangay was independent and was ruled by a
chieftain. Laws were either customary (handed down orally from generation to generation) or
written (promulgated by the chieftains from time to time). The medieval European had no
monopoly of the trial by ordeal, for the ancient Filipinos practised it under certain circumstances
to determine the guilt of a person resorted in order to show that God would favour the innocent.
They believed in the immortality of the soul and in life after death. They had Bathalang
Maykapal as their deity and creator of the earth. In burial, the deceased relative was placed in a
wooden coffin and buried under the house, complete with cloth, gold, etc. Ancient Filipinos put
very much stock in divination, auguries, and magic charms. They believe in the supernatural and
production of anting-anting and agimat became vast. Economic life during pre-colonial days was
not much different from that found today in many remote barrios.
Many of early customs and practices of the pre-colonial Filipinos are still operative in
many parts of the country, a circumstance that is, in a sense, advantageous for it offers an
observer first hand materials for the reconstruction of the distant past. (FROM UPD-KAS1 READINGS)