The Philippines During the Pre-colonial Period

Peopling of the Philippines

‘Land bridge’ Theory

Up to the early 1970s, it had been assumed that the

Philippines was a part of mainland China. It was

theorized that during the Pleistocene or Ice Age, the

waters surrounding what is now the Philippines fell

about 156 feet below the present levels. As a result,

a vast area of land was exposed and became sort

of land bridges to the mainland of Asia.

Dr. Voss’ study

In February 1976, however, this theory of the “land

bridges” to Asia was disputed by Dr. Fritjof Voss, a

German scientist who studied the geology of the

Philippines. According to Dr. Voss, the Philippines was

never a part of the mainland of Asia but that it arose

from the bottom of the sea and “continues to rise as

the thin Pacific crust moves below it.”

Peopling of the Philippines

As proof that the Philippines was never

a part of the Asia mainland, Dr. Voss

points to the fact that when scientific

studies were done in 1964-67 on the

thickness of the Earth’s crust it was

found out that the 35-kilometer thick

crust underneath China does not

extend to the Philippines.

Hence, the later could not have been a part or

“land bridge” to the mainland of Asia. On the

other hand, the Philippines lies “along the great

earth faults extending to deep undersea

trenches” and so through violent earthquakes

what is now Philippines rose to the surface of

the sea.

Theories on the Origin of the Filipino People

Austronesian Migration Theory

Wave Migration Theory

Jocano’s Theory

Jocano’s theory of earlier evolution and movement

Anthropologist F. Landa Jocano of the University of the Philippines contends that what fossil evidence of ancient men show is that they not only migrated to the Philippines, but also to New Guinea, Borneo, and Australia. He says that there is no way of determining if they were Negritos at all. However, what is sure is that there is evidence the Philippines was inhabited as early as 21,000 or 22,000 years ago. In 1962, a skull cap and a portion of a jaw, presumed to be those of a human being, were found in a Tabon Cave in Palawan.

Tabon

man skull

remains

Tabon

cave in

Palawan

The discovery may show that man came earlier to the Philippines than to the Malay Peninsula. If this is true, the first inhabitants of the Philippines did not come from the Malay Peninsula. Jocano further believes that the present Filipinos are products of the long process of evolution and movement of people.

Jocano’s theory of earlier evolution and movement

As to the present Filipinos, Indonesians, and

Malays of Malaysia, Jocano maintains that they

are the “end results of both the long process of

evolution and the later…..movements of people.

They stand co-equal as ethnic groups, without

any one being the dominant group, racially or

culturally. Culturally, it is likewise erroneous to

state that Filipino culture is Malay orientation.

Even our historical experiences and social

organization differ from those of the people

identified as Malays.”

The differences, according to Jocano,

are due to the differences in their

responses to their environment. On the

other hand, the similarities found among

them are due to the adjustment to their

environment. Summarizing his findings,

Jocano maintains that;

1. The peoples of prehistoric Island Southeast Asia belonged to the same population. It grew out of the combination of human evolution which occurred in Island Southeast Asia about 1.9 million years ago, as evidenced by the fossil materials recovered from different parts of the region, and of the movements of other peoples from Asia mainland during historic times.

2. This core population shared a

common cultural orientation that

included both flake and core

implements and their complex

ceramic industries… Other shared

cultural elements consist of similar

ornaments, pendants, house types,

belief systems, ritual complex, and

funerary practices.

4. None of these ancient men could be

categorized under any of the

historically identified ethnic groups

(i.e., Malays, Indonesians, Filipinos)

today. The Wetern colonizers were the

ones who fragmented the population

into ethnic groups as they partitioned

the region into their respective

colonies.

The British popularized, in scholarship, the

term Malay to characterize the group of people

they encountered in the Malay Peninsula. The

Portuguese, the Germans, and the Dutch

introduced the Indonesians to the Western

world. The Spaniards strongly worked for the

conversions of Filipinos (formerly Indios) to

Christianity. Later on the Americans came and

further differentiated the Filipinos from their

Southeast Asian cousins.

5. …. the explanation of the peopling of the Philippines through a series of wave migration, as documented by folk history like the Maragtas, has to be reconsidered. The undue credit given to the Malays as the original settlers of the region and dominant cultural transmitter must be corrected. Emerging from a common population with the same base culture, the Malays, the Filipinos, and Indonesians are coequal as ethnic groups in the region of Island Southeast Asia, without any one of them being racially or culturally dominant.