The Philippines during the precolonial period

1. The Philippines During the
Pre-colonial Period

2. 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.

3. Peopling of the Philippines
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.”

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. Theories on the Origin of the
Filipino People
Austronesian Migration Theory
Wave Migration Theory
Jocano’s Theory

7. 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.

8. Tabon
man skull
remains
Tabon
cave in
Palawan

9. Jocano’s theory of earlier
evolution and movement
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.

10. 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.”

11. 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;

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. 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.