Philippine Indigenous Communities and Peace Education Mod 1 Lesson 2

1. Pre-history: Peopling of the
Philippines
Prepared by
Ms. Candice May B. Gamayon
College of Science and Mathematics
USTP-CDO Campus

2. Learning Outcomes
• Summarize the details of Prehistoric origin of the
Filipinos
• Trace the history of indigenous peoples in the
Philippines thru different theories

4. Theories on the origin of the Filipino people
• Legend of Malakas at Maganda
• Brownman Superiority
• Biblical: Noah to Javan
• Henry Otley Beyer’s Migration Theory
• Felipe Landa Jocano’s Core Population Theory
• Modern theories:
– Out of Taiwan
– Austronesian Expansion Theory
– Out of Sundaland
– 5 migration theories

5. Legend
• Si Malakas at si Maganda
– After a the great flood a mythical bird
rested on top of a bamboo cluster and
heard noises from a big bamboo trunk
– The mythical bird pecked and the
bamboo split into two where a man
and a woman emerged and became
the ancestor of the early Filipinos

6. Brown man Superiority
• When god created the earth, he scooped
some earth and made humans

7. “Migration Theory”
• Dr. Henry Otley Beyer (July 13, 1883 –
December 31, 1966)
– "Dean of Philippine ethnology,
archaeology, and prehistory”- A.V.H.
Hartendorp
• Filipinos descended from different
groups that came from Southeast Asia in
successive waves of migration

8. First group - “Dawnmen”
• resembled Java Man, Peking Man, and
other Asian Home sapiens who existed
about 250,000 years ago
• did not have any knowledge of
agriculture, and lived by hunting and
fishing
• came to the Philippines by way of the
land bridges that connected the
Philippines and Indonesia
• owing perhaps to their migratory nature,
they eventually left the Philippines for
destinations unknown.

9. Second group - “Aetas’ or “Negritoes”
• @30,000 YA, crossed the land
bridged from Malaya, Borneo, and
Australia until they reached
Palawan, Mindoro and Mindanao
• good at hunting, fishing and food
gathering and used spears and
small flint stones weapons
• thinning of the ice glaciers and the
subsequent increase in seawater
level “forced” them to remain in
the country and become its first
permanent inhabitants.

10. Third group - Indonesians
• came to the islands in boats
• more advanced than the Aetas in
that:
– they had tools made out of stone
and steel, which enabled them to
build sturdier houses
– engaged in farming and mining,
and used materials made of brass
– wore clothing and other body
ornaments

11. Last - Malays
• believed to have come from Java,
Sumatra, Borneo, and the Malay
Peninsula more than 2,000 years ago
• traveled in boats.
• brown-skinned and of medium height,
with straight black hair and flat noses
• technology was said to be more
advanced
• engaged in pottery, weaving, jewelry
making and metal smelting, and
introduced the irrigation system in rice
planting

12. “Core Population Theory”
• Felipe Landa Jocano (February 5, 1930 –
October 27, 2013), a Filipino anthropologist,
educator, and author known for his
significant body of work within the field of
Philippine Anthropology
– documenting and translating the
Hinilawod
– "the country’s first and foremost cultural
anthropologist” - National Artist F. Sionil
Jose
• Asians, including Filipinos are the result of a
lengthy process of evolution and migration.

13. Core Population Theory
• proposed that there weren't clear discrete waves of
migration, but a long process of cultural evolution
and movement of people
• The theory suggests that early inhabitants of
Southeast Asia were once of the same ethnic group
with similar culture, but eventually -through a
gradual process driven by environmental factors -
differentiated themselves from one another

14. difficult to prove that Negritoes were the first
inhabitants
• only thing that can positively concluded from fossil
evidence, he says is that the first men who came to
the Philippines also went to New Guinea, Java,
Borneo, and Australia
• prominent anthropologists like Robert Fox, Alfredo E.
Evangelista, Jesus Peralta, Zeus A. Salazar, and
Ponciano L. Bennagen agreed with Jocano

15. “Tabon Man”
• 1962, a skullcap and a portion of a jaw-presumed to
be a human origin-were found in the Tabon Caves of
Palawan by archaeologist Robert Fox and Manuel
Santiago
• Carbon dating placed their age at 21,000 to 22,000
years
• This proves, Jocano argues, that man came earlier to
the Philippines than to the Malay Peninsula;
therefore, the first inhabitants of our islands could
not have come from the region

16. “Tabon Man”
• said to resemble Java Man and Peking Man
• gathered fruits, leaves and plants for his (her) food
• hunted with weapons made of stone
• evidence shows that s/he was already capable of
using her/his brain in order to survive and keep
herself/himself safe.

17. Modern Theories
Out of Sundaland Theory
• Ancient land mass
theory of the SW that
connected the islands
of Borneo and
mainland Indochina
Out of Taiwan Theory
• Suggested that
Austronesians the
settled in the
Philippines either came
from Taiwan to the
north and sailed to the
Philippines

18. Out of Taiwan Model

19. • The “Out of Taiwan” model is a migration
theory put forward by archaeologist Peter
Bellwood that suggests the Philippines was
populated as a result of the migration of
people of Austronesian ancestry.
• Austronesian people (or Austronesian-
speaking people) are a group of people
across Southeast Asia, East Africa and the
Pacific who speak Austronesian languages.
According to the “Out of Taiwan” model,
ancestors of these people originated on the
island of Taiwan following the migration of
pre-Austronesian-speaking people from
continental Asia between 10,000 - 6,000 BC.

20. • The migration to Taiwan purportedly
took place during the Neolithic period,
which began in around 6,500 BCE and
continued until around 3,500 BC.
• According to the “Out of Taiwan” model,
it was after this point that the large-scale
growth of the Austronesian-speaking
people.

21. • The model suggests that in around 3,000
BCE, Austronesian-speaking people
began to experience significant
population growth, which continued for
more than 1,000 years. This is thought to
have led to increase migration, with
some of the first settlers believed to
have landed in and around Luzon in the
Philippines.

22. • Austronesian people began to mingle and
intertwine with Australo-Melanesian people,
who are thought to have inhabited the
islands around 23,000 years earlier. Over the
next 1,000 years, they slowly spread to the
rest of the Philippines and continued to
migrate further, to areas including Borneo,
Polynesia, Madagascar, New Zealand and
Easter Island.
• This theory is heavily based on findings that
suggest people of Austronesian origin have
been found in all of these locations, as has
evidence of Austronesian languages and
culture.

23. The Austronesian expansion theory
• (also known as the Austronesian Migration Theory) suggests
that the growth of the population of the Philippines is a result
of a group of people from Asia known as the Austronesians.
• The Austronesians are Austronesian-speaking people who
have been found to populate areas in Southeast Asia,
Oceania and East Africa.
• These include Taiwanese aborigines and the majority of
people on smaller islands such as Micronesia and Melanesia.
• There are various theories that explain their spread across
the world, including the Out of Taiwan model, but the
Austronesian Expansion Theory builds on this to specifically
attempt to explain the populating of the Philippines.

24. The Austronesian expansion theory is created
based on the accepted spread of migrants
across Austronesia

25. • According to the theory proposed by Peter Bellwood,
professor of Archaeology and Anthropology at the
Australian National University, the Austronesians
travelled into the Pacific 6,000 years ago from the
Chinese mainland.
• First, they reached areas in and around China, which
they managed to populate by 3,500 BC.
• After this, they began to travel further, and it was just
500 years later that they managed to reach the
Philippines.
• After the Philippines had been reached, many
Austronesians continued their travels, reaching
Sumatra and Java by 2,000 BC, Northern New Guinea
by 1,600 BC, Samoa by 1,200 BC, and Easter Island,
Hawaii and Madagascar by 500 AD.
• However, the initial settlers left to establish
themselves in the Philippines were, according to
Bellwood, the first permanent residents the
archipelago and the foundation of the population
that thrives there today.

26. • According to Bellwood, this theory not only explains how
people came to settle in the Philippines, but also why
there are so many similarities in terms of culture,
physical features and language between so many distant
countries.
• Cultural similarities between the groups, for example,
include the art styles and rituals they seemed to
demonstrate, as well as some of the traditions they
adopted, such as tattooing.
• Language was a little more complex, with the two main
branches of Austronesian languages (Malayo-Polynesian
and Formosan) being split up into more than 500 further
sub-branches. However, the fact that cultures as far
removed in terms of distance as the Philippines and
Madagascar shared elements of these languages does
work in favour of Bellwood’s theory.
• Today, there are 87 Austronesian languages still spoken in
the Philippines, providing support for both Bellwood’s
theory and the more general Out of Taiwan theory.

27. Nusantao Maritime Trading and
Communication Network
• The Nusantao Maritime Trading and Communication
Network (NMTCN) is a concept put forward by
anthropologist Wilhelm Solheim as part of his theory of
how Austronesians and the Austronesian languages
spread in the Asia-Pacific region.
• The NMTCN theory is an alternative to the widely
accepted “Out of Taiwan” theory by Peter Bellwood,
which also attempts to explain how the Philippines came
to be populated.
• Unlike the “Out of Taiwan” model, this theory aims to
explain the spread of people during this time by looking
closely at their cultural traits, rather than by focusing on
languages a Bellwood has.

28. • Solheim argues that the NMTCN better explains the
diffusion of cultural traits around the Asia-Pacific
region than any other theory, with the pattern for
this spread not being matched by other projections
that offer a more simplistic explanation.

29. A diagram depicting the development of the
boats used by Austronesians to travel along
trading routes

30. • Solheim argues that the spread of
Austronesians throughout the Asia-Pacific
region would have been primarily in a single
direction if it had been the result of migration
alone. However, cultural diffusion around the
region actually demonstrates significant spread,
suggesting it may have moved as part of some
sort of trading network.
• According to Solheim, who introduced the
concept in 1964, the NMTCN would have first
appeared in around 5,000 BC during the
Neolithic period. The concept of the NMTCN is
based on the movement of “the Nunsantao”,
who were defined by Solheim as people who
made up the maritime-oriented trade network
but spoke a variety of languages including pre-
Austronesian and non-Austronesian languages.

31. • This maritime network, according to
Solheim, provides an explanation for the
spread of Austronesians throughout
Southeast Asia, including the Philippines.
However, Solheim does suggest that the
maritime network could stretch as far
back as 30,000 BC, as indicated by the
discovery of potentially related artefacts
from this time in countries including the
Philippines, Vietnam, China,Taiwan,
Korea and Japan.

32. 5 waves of migration
• https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.202613211
• Multiple migrations to the Philippines during the last
50,000 years: 2021 study
• Analyzed the genetics of various groups in the
Philippines
• 70,000-60,000 YA – East Africa

35. East Africa
West =
Europe/midd
East =
Sundaland
North
Basal Australasians
South
Basal Sunda

36. First Wave = 50 000 ya
Basal Sunda
Northern route – Palawan and Mindoro
Islands
Northern Negritos
Southern route – Sibutu straight to
Mindanao
Southern Negritos

37. Second Wave = 15 000 ya
Basal East Asians
Descendants of those who travelled
north to the Himalayan Mountains
Went into Sundaland and the
surrounding area

38. Third wave = 12 000 ya
• Ice age started to melt
• Ancestral Manobos went to the Philippines
• Ancestral Cordillerans went to China
• Ancestral Austro Asiatic went to shrinking
Sundaland

39. Fourth Wave = 12 000 to 8 000 ya
• Austroasiatics migrated to SW Philippines –
ancestors of Sama groups (Ancestral Sama)
– Sama Davao
– Sama Dilaut, are a small ethnic Sama group
(Bajao, Bajaw, Samal Laut, Pal’au, Orang Laut,
Badjau, Lutao, Sama Dilaut, Sama Jengngeng)
commonly known as “sea gypsies”

40. Fifth Wave = 10 000 to 7 000 ya
• Ancestral Cordillerans = Basal East Asians that
arrived in China (12 000 ya) not the Chinese we know
today
• Triggered by global warming (land bridge from China
to Taiwan submerged by rising sea levels)
• Arrival of Ancestral Cordillerans/Austronesians
resulted in mixing with the groups that arrived
earlier and language that they spoke became the
dominant influence
• Filipino language = Malayo-Polynesian branch

42. Sources:
• Multiple migrations to the Philippines during the last
50,000 years Full Article -
https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073... Summary
Report of Article (easier to understand)-
https://www.larenalab.com/post/report... Philippine
Folk Tales: Malakas and Maganda -
https://books.google.com.ph/books/abo... (p.187-
188) Sea levels for maps -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Past_se...
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK1WAUI3Wsw

43. Quiz time!