Historical Backgrounds

• Culture and Tradition in Precolonial Period

  • The early Filipinos were believers of superstition and as such, they practiced animism. Animism is the belief that various objects, places, and creatures possess distinctive spiritual qualities.
  • Said spirits are called diwata.
• Writing System in Precolonial Period

  • Although the Filipinos knew how to read and write in their system, this was mainly used just for messages and letters.
  • Baybayin was the early Filipino script that they used.
• Social Organization in Precolonial Period

  Barangays are a number of geographically scattered, self-sufficient, autonomous communities present all over the archipelago long before the Spaniards came.
• Craftmanship in Precolonial Period

  1. Made simple tools or weapons of stone flakes

  2. Developed techniques for sawing, drilling and polishing hard stones
• Agriculture in Precolonial Period

  • They were also able to domesticate swine, goats, and fowls.
  • They grow crops such as rice, cotton, and other vegetables.
• Settlements in Precolonial period

  • Coastal areas (Manila, Mindoro, Cebu, Southern Mindanao and Sulu).
  • Mountain settlements.
• Transportation in Precolonial period

  Filipinos had also learned to build boats for the coastal trade. By the tenth century A.D., this had become a highly developed technology.

  In fact, the early Spanish chroniclers took note of the refined warship called caracoa
• Tools and Products in Precolonial period

  Produced beeswax, honey, and growing rice, vegetables and cotton.

  Tools were found in the house of Raja Soliman in Manila that proved the sophistication of the Filipinos living in the now Metro Manila.
• Trivias about Precolonial period

  They compressed their babies’ skulls for aesthetic reasons.

  Homosexuals had an important role in pre-colonial society.

  Human sacrifice was a bloody, fascinating mess.

  It was considered a disgrace for a woman to have many children.

  Celebrating a girl’s first menstruation, pre-colonial style.

  They used a “life or death” method of judgment.
• Politics in Spanish Regime

  Reduccion system used in Latin America was adopted in response to initial shortage of Spanish missionaries in the country.