Barangay (pre-colonial)

• Before the arrival of the Spanish colonizers in the Philippines in the 16th century, theBarangays were well-organized independent villages - and in some cases, cosmopolitan sovereign principalities, which functioned much like a city-state. The Barangay was the dominant organizational pattern among indigenous communities in the Philippine archipelago. The name barangay originated from balangay, a Malay word meaning "sailboat“.

Difference from the modern civilization

• The word Barangay in modern use refers to the smallest administrative division in thePhilippines, also known by its former Spanish adopted name, the barrio. This modern context for the use of the term barangay was adopted during the administration of PresidentFerdinand Marcos when he ordered the replacement of the old barrios and municipal councils. This act was eventually codified under the 1991 Local Government Code.

• There are a number of distinctions between the modern Barangay or Barrio, and the city-states and independent principalities encountered by the Spanish when they first arrived in 1521 and established relatively permanent settlements in 1574. The most glaring difference would be that the modern entity represents a geographical entity, the pre-colonial barangays represented loyalty to a particular head (datu). Even during the early days of Spanish rule, it was not unusual for people living beside each other to actually belong to different barangays. . They owed their loyalty to different Datus. Also, while the modern barangay represents only the smallest administrative unit of government, the barangay of precolonial times was either independent, or belonged to what was only a loose confederation of several barangays, over which the rulers picked among themselves who would be foremost - known as the Pangulo or Rajah. In most cases, his function was to make decisions which would involve multiple barangays, such as disputes between members of two different barangays. C= Internally, each datu retained his jurisdiction.

Description

• Historically, the first barangays started as relatively small communities of around 50 to 100 families. Most villages have only thirty to one hundred houses and the population varies from one hundred to five hundred persons. When the Spaniards came, they found communities with twenty to thirty people only. They also encountered large and prestigious principalities.

• Theories, as well as local oral traditions, say that the original "barangays" were coastal settlements formed as a result of the migration of these Malayo-Polynesian people (who came to the archipelago) by boat from other places in Southeast Asia (seechiefdom). Most of the ancient barangays were coastal or riverine in nature. This is because most of the people were relying on fishing for supply of protein and for their livelihood. They also travelled mostly by water up and down rivers, and along the coasts. Trails always followed river systems, which were also a major source of water for bathing, washing, and drinking.

• The coastal villages were more accessible to trade with foreigners. These were ideal places for economic activity to develop. Business with traders from other Countries also meant contact with other cultures and civilizations, such as those of Japan, Han Chinese, Indian people, and Arab people.

• In time, these coastal communities acquired more advanced cultures, with developed social structures (sovereign principalities), ruled by established royalties and nobilities.

Social Organization and Stratification

• The barangays in some coastal places in Panay,[8] Manila, Cebu, Jolo, and Butuan, with cosmopolitan cultures and trade relations with other Countries in Asia, were already established Principalities before the coming of the Spaniards. In these regions, even though the majority of these barangays were not large settlements, yet they had organized societies dominated by the same type of recognized aristocracy (with birthright claim to allegiance from followers), as those found in established Principalities. The aristocratic group in these pre-colonial societies was called the Datu Class. Its members were presumably the descendants of the first settlers on the land or, in the case of later arrivals, of those who were Datus at the time of migration or conquest. Some of these Principalities have remained, even until the present, in unhispanized[9] and mostly Islamized parts of the Philippines, in Mindanao.[10]

Social Organization and Stratification of Pre-colonial Principalities in the Visayas

• In more developed barangays in Visayas (e.g. Cebu, Bohol, and Panay) which were never conquered by Spain but were subjugated as vassals by means of pacts, peace treaties, and reciprocal alliances, [11] the datu was at the top of the social order in a sakop or haop(elsewhere referred to as barangay).[12]

• This social order was divided into three classes. The members of the tumao class (which includes the datu) were the nobility of pure royal descent,[13] compared by the Boxer Codex to the titled Spanish lords (señores de titulo).[12] Below the tumao were the vassal warrior class known as the timawa, characterized by the Jesuit priest Francisco Ignatio Alcina as "the third rank of nobility" and by theconquistador Miguel de Loarca as "free men, neither chiefs nor slaves". These were people of lower nobility who were required to render military service to the datu in hunts, land wars (Mangubat or Managayau), or sea raids (Mangahat or Magahat).[14] Aside from this, thetimawa also paid taxes and tribute (buwis or handug) and were sometimes called upon for agricultural labor to the datu, though the personal vassals of the datu may be exempt from such obligations (the latter were characterized by the Boxer Codex as "knights andhidalgos).[13] Below the timawa were the oripun class (commoners and slaves), who rendered services to the tumao and timawa for debts or favors.[13][15]

• To maintain purity of bloodline, the tumao usually marry only among their kind, often seeking high ranking brides in other barangay, abducting them, or contracting brideprices in gold, slaves and jewelry. Meanwhile, the datu keep their marriageable daughters secluded for protection and prestige.[16] These well-guarded and protected highborn women were called binokot (literally "veiled" or "swaddled"), and the datu of pure descent (at least for four generations) were called potli nga datu or lubus nga datu.[17]

Social Organization and Stratification of Pre-colonial Principalities in the Tagalog Region

• The different type of culture prevalent in Luzon gave a less stable and more complex social structure to the pre-colonial Tagalog barangays of Manila, Pampanga and Laguna. Enjoying a more extensive commerce than those in Visayas, having the influence of Bornean political contacts, and engaging in farming wet rice for a living, the Tagalogs were described by the Spanish Augustinian friarMartin de Rada as more traders than warriors.[18]

• The more complex social structure of the Tagalogs was less stable during the arrival of the Spaniards because it was still in a process of differentiating. A Jesuit priest Francisco Colin made an attempt to give an approximate comparison of it with the Visayan social structure in the middle of the 17th century. The term datu or lakan, or apo refers to the chief, but the noble class to which the datubelonged to was known as the maginoo class. Any male member of the maginoo class can become a datu by personal achievement.[19]

• The term timawa referring to freemen came into use in the social structure of the Tagalogs within just twenty years after the coming of the Spaniards. The term, however, was being incorrectly applied to former alipin (commoner and slave class) who have escaped bondage by payment, favor, or flight. Moreover, the Tagalog timawa did not have the military prominence of the Visayan timawa. The equivalent warrior class in the Tagalog society was present only in Laguna, and they were known as the maharlika class.[19]

• At the bottom of the social hierarchy are the members of the alipin class. There are two main subclasses of the alipin class . Thealiping namamahay who owned their own houses and serve their masters by paying tribute or working on their fields were the commoners and serfs, while the aliping sa gigilid who lived in their masters' houses were the servants and slaves.

Hispanization

• Upon the arrival of the Spanish, smaller ancient barangays were combined to form towns. Every barangay within a town was headed by the cabeza de barangay (barangay chief), who formed part of the Principalía - the elite ruling class of the municipalities of the Spanish Philippines. This position was inherited from the datu, and came to be known as such during the Spanish regime. The Spanish Monarch ruled each barangay through the cabeza, who also collected taxes (called tribute) from the residents for the Spanish Crown.

Religion(pre-colonial)

• There is little evidence remaining of the nature of religion in pre-colonial Philippines. The possibilities include animism, Philippine mythologies such as Anito, and influences from Hinduism or Buddhism. The earliest pieces of evidence that exist are archaeologicalfinds including gold statues of Hindu or Buddhist mythology. The earliest written evidence comes from the Laguna Copperplate Inscription , dated to around 900 CE, which uses the Buddhist-Hindu lunar calendar. With the arrival of Islam in the 14th century, the older religions gradually disappeared, and after the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 Christianity became the dominant religion. However, some of the indigenous Philippine tribes continue to practice animism today, and many of the traditions in Anito have been Christianized and turned into Folk Catholicism.

Animism• Animism (from Latin animus, -i "soul, life")[1] is the religious worldview that natural

physical entities—including animals, plants, and often even inanimate objects or phenomena—possess a spiritual essence.[2][3] Specifically, animism is used in the anthropology of religion as a term for the religion of someindigenous tribal peoples,[4] especially prior to the development and/or infiltration of colonialism and organized religion.[5] Although each culture has its own different mythologies and rituals, "animism" is said to describe the most common, foundational thread of indigenous peoples' "spiritual" or "supernatural" perspectives. The animistic perspective is so fundamental, mundane, everyday and taken-for-granted that most animistic indigenous people do not even have a word in their languages that corresponds to "animism" (or even "religion");[6] the term is an anthropological construct rather than one designated by the people themselves. Largely due to such ethnolinguistic and cultural discrepancies, opinion has differed—ever since SirEdward Tylor's 19th-century popularization of the term—on whether animism refers to a broadly religious belief or to a full-fledged religion in its own right.[note 1]

Anito

• Anito is a collective name for the pre-Hispanic belief system in the Philippines. It is also used to refer to spirits, including the household deities, deceased ancestors, nature-spirits nymphs and diwatas (dryads). Ancient Filipinos kept statues to represent these spirits, ask guidance and magical protection. Much of the tradition has been Christianized and incorporated into Folk Catholicism.

Hinduism

• Hinduism is the majority religion[1][2] of the Indian subcontinent, particularly of Nepal and India. Hinduism includes Shaivism, Vaishnavism and Śrautaamong numerous other traditions. Among other practices and philosophies, Hinduism includes a wide spectrum of laws and prescriptions of "daily morality" based on karma, dharma, and societal norms. Hinduism is a categorisation of distinct intellectual or philosophical points of view, rather than a rigid, common set of beliefs.[3]

Buddhism

Buddhism• Buddhism is a religion indigenous to the Indian subcontinent that

encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, who is commonly known as the Buddha, meaning "the awakened one". The Buddha lived and taught in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE.[1] He is recognized by Buddhists as an awakened or enlightened teacher who shared his insights to help sentient beings end their suffering (dukkha) through the elimination of ignorance (avidyā) by way of understanding and the seeing of dependent origination (pratītyasamutpāda) and the elimination of craving (taṇhā), and thus the attainment of the cessation of all suffering, known as the sublime state of nirvāņa.[2]

Islam• Islam (/ˈɪslɑːm/;[note 1]Arabic: اإلسالم, al-ʾIslām IPA: [ælʔɪsˈlæːm] ( listen)[note 2]) is a

monotheistic and Abrahamic religion articulated by the Qur'an, abook considered by its adherents to be the verbatim word of God (Arabic: الله Allāh) and by the teachings and normative example (called the Sunnah and composed of Hadith) of Muhammad, considered by them to be the last prophet of God. An adherent of Islam is called a Muslim.

• Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable and the purpose of existence is to love and serve God.[1] Muslims also believe that Islam is the complete and universal version of a primordial faith that was revealed at many times and places before, including through Abraham, Moses and Jesus, whom they consider prophets.[2] They maintain that the previous messages and revelations have been partially misinterpreted or altered over time,[3] but consider the Arabic Qur'an to be both the unaltered and the final revelation of God.[4] Religious concepts and practices include the five pillars of Islam, which are basic concepts and obligatory acts of worship, and following Islamic law, which touches on virtually every aspect of life and society, providing guidance on multifarious topics from banking and welfare, to warfare and the environment.[5][6]

Christianity

• Christianity (from the Ancient Greek translation Χριστός, Christos of the Hebrew יח��ש�מ, Mašíaḥ, meaning "the anointed one"[1] and the Latin suffixes ianand -itas) is a monotheistic[2] and Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings as well as the Old Testament. Most adherents of the Christian faith, known as Christians, believe that Jesus is the Son of God, fully divine and fully human and the savior of humanity prophesied in the Old Testament. Consequentially, Christians commonly refer to Jesus as Christ orMessiah.

• The foundation of Christian theology is expressed in the early ecumenical creeds which contain claims predominantly accepted by followers of the Christian faith. These professions state that Jesus suffered, died, was buried, and was subsequently resurrected from the dead in order to grant eternal life to those who believe in him and trust him for the remission of their sins. They further maintain that Jesus bodily ascended into heaven where he rules and reigns with God the Father. Most denominations teach that Jesus will return to judge all humans, living and dead, and grant eternal life to his followers. He is considered the model of a virtuous life, and his ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection are often referred to as the gospel, meaning "Good News" (a loan translation of the Greek: εὐαγγέλιον euangélion).

Folk Catholicism• Folk Catholicism is any of various ethnic expressions of Catholicism as

practiced in Catholic communities around the world, typically in developing nations. Practices that are identified by outside observers as "folk Catholicism" vary from place to place, and often depart from the official teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.

• Some forms of folk Catholic practices are based on syncretism with non-Catholic beliefs and may involve the syncretism of Catholic saints and non-Christian deities. Some of these folk Catholic forms have come to be identified as separate religions, as is the case with Caribbean and Brazilian syncretisms between Catholicism and West African religions, which include Haitian Vodou, Cuban Santería, and Brazilian Candomblé. Similarly complex syncretisms between Catholic practice and indigenous or Native American belief systems, as are common in Maya communities of Guatemala andQuechua communities of Peru to give just two of many examples, are typically not named as separate religions; their practitioners generally regard themselves as "good Catholics."