The document discusses the agricultural practices and way of life of early Filipinos. It describes how they transitioned from hunter-gatherers to cultivating plants and herding animals around 10,000 years ago, allowing them to grow in numbers and live in settled communities. It then provides details on their staple foods, styles of dress, social structure led by village chiefs or datus, and arts that developed.

1. Kaingin
The tagalog term kaingin is used to describe the upland farming systems in several
Filipino languages. Olofson (1980) notes ‘there is utter confusion in the use of the
term’, which is also used to refer to permanent hillside farming. This study explores
farmers’ own interpretations of kaingin and words from their own language,
cebuano, as the key to understanding their farming systems.
In Trinidad farmers no longer practise kaingin, which they say has evolved into
more permanent farming methods. According to them, their grandparents converted
the forest by kaingin, which means they cleared the big trees and planted maize,
then cassava, then banana and coconut. They could cultivate maize for a maximum
of three years before it was shaded out by the coconuts, or Imperata cylindrica
would invade. ‘Kaingin involves cutting trees and manual cultivation because there
are lots of stones and roots. It is only found in the forest. We call the farming
system now darohan. With darohan you can use buffalo because there are no
stumps. If you have many parcels, you can fallow the land for one year, but if you
have only a little land you have to concentrate on cropping on that land.’ In
southern Leyte, and Bohol, farmers use the cebuano term ba-ol to refer to kaingin
or forest shifting cultivation. However it is not shifting cultivation in any cyclical
sense; the end product is either perennial plantations or Imperata wastelands which
may be managed under darohan, shifting only in the sense of crop rotations and
short-term fallow.
In Matalom, farmers said that kaingin means ‘slash and burn’.
In recent years many people have stopped burning the fallow
(to conserve more organic matter) and consider that without burning, the system is

2. no longer kaingin. Like the farmers in Trinidad, they call these intensified systems
darohan.
Moving north to the more forested barangays of Baybay, kaingin is still practised
under that name. In Baybay 2 it is seen as an early form of agriculture from which
the older settlers have moved on. Only the new (poorer) settlers on the forest
margins do kaingin, which they take to mean ‘clearing and burning, then taking a
crop or two of maize and sweet potato, then planting perennial crops.’ Those who
are slashing and burning, leave the bigger trees because of their value for construction or (illegal) sale.
Before they got land title in the 1920s-30s, the early
settlers also practised kaingin, growing upland rice. With tenure security, they
began irrigating the lowland fields, which are excluded from the term kaingin.
Agricultural skills in Pre-Historic Time:
How we learn about Prehistoric Man.—
A knowledge of what prehistoric man was and what he did is indispensable to the historical student; for
the dim prehistoric ages of human life form the childhood of the race,--and the man cannot be
understood without at least some knowledge of the child.
But how, in the absence of written records, are we to find out anything about prehistoric man? In many
ways we are able to learn much about him. Thus, for instance, we may regard existing savage and semi-
savage races as representing the prehistoric state of the advanced races. As it has been put, what they
now are we once were. So by acquainting ourselves with the life and customs of these laggard races we
acquaint ourselves with our own prehistoric past and that of all other civilized peoples.
Again, the men who lived before the dawn of history left behind them many things which witness as to
what manner of men they were. In ancient gravel beds along the streams where they fished or hunted,
in the caves which afforded them shelter in the refuse heaps (kitchen middens) on the sites of their
villages or camping places, or in the graves where they laid away their dead, we find great quantities of
tools and weapons and other articles shaped by their hands. From these things we learn what skill these
early men had acquired as tool makers and to what degree of culture they had attained. [Besides these

3. material things which can be seen and handled, there are many immaterial things, as, for instance,
language, which light up for us the dim ages before history.]
The Domestication of Plants.—
Long before the dawn of history those peoples of the Old World who were to play great parts in early
historic times had advanced from the pastoral to the agricultural stage of culture. Just as the step from
the hunting to the pastoral stage had been taken with the aid of a few of the most social species of
animals, so had this second upward step from the pastoral to the agricultural stage been taken by
means of the domestication of a few of the innumerable species of the seed grasses and plants growing
wild in field and wood.
Wheat and barley, two of the most important of the cereals. were probably first domesticated on the
plains of Babylonia and from there carried over Asia and Europe. These grains, together with oats and
rice, have been, in the words of Tylor, "the mainstay of human life and the great moving power of
civilization." They constituted the basis of the earliest great states and civilizations of Asia and Europe.
The domestication of plants and the art of tilling the soil effected a great revolution in prehistoric
society. The wandering life of the hunter and the herder now gave way to a settled mode of existence.
Cities were built, and within them began to be amassed those treasures, material and immaterial, which
constitute the precious heirloom of humanity. This attachment to the soil of the hitherto roving clans
and tribes meant also the beginning of political life. The cities were united into states and great
kingdoms were formed, and the political history of man began, as in the valleys of the Nile and the
Euphrates.
Early man seems to have realized how much he owed to the art of husbandry, for in the mythologies of
many peoples some god or goddess is represented as having taught men how to till the soil and to plant
the seed. It seemed to man that for so great a boon he must be beholden to the beneficence of the
gods. [So thorough was prehistoric man's search for whatever in the plant world could be cultivated for
food that historic man has not been able during the last 2000 years from the tens of thousands of wild
plants to discover any species comparable in value to any one of the staple food-plants selected and
domesticated by primeval man (De Candolle, Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 451) . It is interesting further
to note that while early man exploited the organic kingdoms, that is to say the animal and vegetable
realms, he made few and slight requisitions upon the forces of the inorganic world. It was reserved for
the men of the later historic age to domesticate, so to speak, the powerful agents steam and electricity
and by their utilization to effect revolutions in modem society like those effected in prehistoric times by
the domestication of animals and plants.]
(http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/Prehist.html)

4. Hunters and Gatherers
The Ancient Greeks had an explanation for the arrival of diseases and illnesses known as Pandora's box.
Judaeo-Christianity has a similar account with the Garden of Eden. They both tell of a golden age when
man lived in a paradise where there were no earthly concerns or illnesses. Actually, there is an element
of truth in these stories. Hunters and gatherers had a surprisingly healthy lifestyle. They exercised a
great deal, they ate fresh food and cleanliness was not a problem as their nomadic lifestyle meant that
could leave any mess behind them. The major medical problems they had to deal with were how to deal
with cuts, bruises and broken bones from everyday accidents such as falls and fights. It should be said
that these could be very serious, especially if infection or gangrene set in. However, early man seems to
have escaped the worst ravages of disease and sickness.
There were two main reasons why pre-historic man seems to have escaped from the pathogens and
parasites that cause disease: A low population density and a lack of agriculture. These nomads lived in
very small groups of people that wandered from place to place. The micro-organisms that carry diseases
such as the measles and small pox require large population densities otherwise they would kill their
hosts before they could successfully pass it on to another host. Living in small, mobile groups helped
man to avoid the worst aspects of disease.
As we will examine in the next section, agriculture introduced a variety of opportunities for man to catch
new diseases. Therefore, the lack of agricultural skills was actually helpful to man in avoiding parasites
and pathogens.
The Agricultural Revolution
The agricultural revolution started in about 12 - 10,000 BC. Whether the agriculture practiced was the
growing of crops or the taking care of livestock, the consequences of the agricultural revolution would
be profound.
Probably the most important impact of agriculture on human health was that it introduced a proximity
to animals. Living with cows, chickens or even dogs, humans were exposed to the diseases that these
animals carried. Back in their hunting and gathering days, humans were only ever exposed to animals for
very short bursts of time. With the domestication of animals and the building of farms, humans lived
side by side with animals for 365 days a year. It became much easier for micro-organisms to pass from
one species to the other.

5. The loss of a nomadic lifestyle was also important, hygiene became an issue. Pollution of nearby water
sources would became important. As was the issue of where to go to the toilet. These were problems
that did not concern nomads.
Another major impact of the agricultural revolution is that it allowed higher population densities to live
in a smaller area. Especially, when agricultural surpluses led to the formation of towns and markets. The
higher the population density became, the larger the potential reservoir of hosts was for the micro-
organisms that carry diseases.
Of course, the agricultural revolution also brought many advantages, not least the guarantee of food.
But it is possible to see why the Ancient Greeks and the Bible both talked about a golden age of paradise
that was ruined by man. It was not deliberate, but something similar did occur.
Medical Procedures
It seems as if pre-historic man was able to do some simple medical procedures. The most common
example is that of setting broken bones. There is archaeological evidence that broken bones were
successfully set.
One medical procedure that has always been required is that of childbirth. The size of a human baby's
head has made this a very dangerous procedure right up until the very recent past. It is likely that many
women died during the process of giving birth or were severely weakened by the experience. More than
any other reason, it is probably the complications of childbirth that helped to keep the life-expectancy of
women to a much lower average than for men.
Perhaps the most unusual (and dangerous) medical procedure peformed by pre-historic man is that of
Trepanation (sometimes called trephining). This is the procedure of drilling a hole into someone's skull.
It is not known why this procedure was performed. Theories vary from relieving headaches to the idea
of casting out evil spirits. Amazingly, it seems as if some of these operations were successful. There are
examples of skulls which show an element of healing after the operation. Right up until relatively
recently, there have been examples of similar operations being performed in aboriginal societies from
South America to Africa.
(http://www.britishempire.co.uk/boniface/humanities/history/year10/prehistoric.htm)

6. The earliest humans lived by hunting, fishing, and collecting wild plants. Only some 10,000
years ago did they learn to cultivate plants, herd animals, and make airtight pottery for storage.
These discoveries transformed them from gatherers to producers and allowed them to grow in
number and to lead a settled life.
Throught the Filipino ingenuity, farmers improved. They developed watering techniques via
irrigation from abundant water resources. With enough food, Lumad Filipinos even more grew
in number in settled communities. Arts, weaving, pottery, woodcarving, and metal or non-
metal crafts also come into being. The art of trading was also developed. Later, socio-cultural
achievements are learned through continuous activites, passing oral traditions and repeating
constant rituals.
The early Filipinos had simple taste in food. Their staple food was rice cooked in clay pots,
bamboo tubes or banana leaves. Rice was eaten with fish, shrimp, vegetables, fruits, meat of
poultry, hogs, cows, ducks, goats, birds, turtles and carabaos; clams, mussels, seaweeds,
sugar, root crops and spices. Food was placed on clean banana leaves. Filipinos ate their hands
or with wooden spoons and forks. Cleaned coconut shells served as drinking glasses of water.
Filipinos, even in ancient times were very particular about their manner of dressing. Their
clothes were made of cotton, silk and plant fibers. The men's clothing consisted of a collarless,
short-sleeved jacket called cangan and a strip of cloth wrapped around the waist and between
the legs called bahag. Women's clothing consisted of a blouse with big sleeves called baro and
a loost skirt called saya or patadyong. A tapis or a piece of colored cloth was wrapped around
the waist.
The men also wore a headdress called putong or turban while the women knotted
their hair at the back of their heads. They usually wore a salakot or a wide-brimmed hat when
walking under the sun or rain.
To further enhance their personal appearance, women adorned themselves with various types
of jewelry such as rings, earrings, bracelets, armlets and necklaces made of gold, silver, agates,

7. pearls, beads and other precious stones.
The early barangays were independent of each other. The head was called datu and
was the chief executive, legislator, judge and military commander. He made laws, enforced
them and judged all cases and trials brought by the villagers. However, he had a council of
elders who assisted him in his administration. A person could become a datu through
inheritance, wealth, wisdom and bravery.