Precolonial Period
quoted by elders and headmen in talking to inferiors. They
Filipinos often lose sight of the fact that the first period
of the Philippine literary history is the longest. Certain
events from the nation’s history had forced lowland
Filipinos to begin counting the years of history from 1521,
the first time written records by Westerners referred to
the archipelago later to be called “Las Islas Filipinas”.
However, the discovery of the “Tabon Man” in a cave in
Palawan in 1962, has allowed us to stretch our prehistory as
far as 50,000 years back. The stages of that prehistory
show how the early Filipinos grew in control over their
environment. Through the researches and writings about
Philippine history, much can be reliably inferred about
precolonial Philippine literature from an analysis of
collected oral lore of Filipinos whose ancestors were able to
preserve their indigenous culture by living beyond the
reach of Spanish colonial administrators.
The oral literature of the precolonial Filipinos bore the
marks of the community. The subject was invariably the
common experience of the people constituting the village-
food-gathering, creature and objects of nature, work in the
home, field, forest or sea, caring for children, etc. This is
evident in the most common forms of oral literature like
the riddle, the proverbs and the song, which always seem to
assume that the audience is familiar with the situations,
activities and objects mentioned in the course of
expressing a thought or emotion. The language of oral
literature, unless the piece was part of the cultural
heritage of the community like the epic, was the language
of daily life. At this phase of literary development, any
member of the community was a potential poet, singer or
storyteller as long as he knew the language and had been
attentive to the conventions f the forms.
Thousands of maxims, proverbs, epigrams, and the like have
been listed by many different collectors and researchers
from many dialects. Majority of these reclaimed from
oblivion com from the Tagalos, Cebuano, and Ilocano
dialects. And the bulk are rhyming couplets with verses of
five, six seven, or eight syllables, each line of the couplet
having the same number of syllables. The rhyming practice
is still the same as today in the three dialects mentioned. A
good number of the proverbs is conjectured as part of
longer poems with stanza divisions, but only the lines
expressive of a philosophy have remained remembered in
the oral tradition. Classified with the maxims and proverbs
are allegorical stanzas which abounded in all local
literature. They contain homilies, didactic material, and
expressions of homespun philosophy, making them often
are rich in similes and metaphors. These one stanza poems
were called Tanaga and consisted usually of four lines with
seven syllables, all lines rhyming.
The most appreciated riddles of ancient Philippines are
those that are rhymed and having equal number of syllables
in each line, making them classifiable under the early
poetry of this country. Riddles were existent in all
languages and dialects of the ancestors of the Filipinos and
cover practically all of the experiences of life in these
times.
Almost all the important events in the life of the ancient
peoples of this country were connected with some religious
observance and the rites and ceremonies always some
poetry recited, chanted, or sung. The lyrics of religious
songs may of course be classified as poetry also, although
the rhythm and the rhyme may not be the same.
Drama as a literary from had not yet begun to evolve among
the early Filipinos. Philippine theater at this stage
consisted largely in its simplest form, of mimetic dances
imitating natural cycles and work activities. At its most
sophisticated, theater consisted of religious rituals
presided over by a priest or priestess and participated in
by the community. The dances and ritual suggest that
indigenous drama had begun to evolve from attempts to
control the environment. Philippine drama would have taken
the form of the dance-drama found in other Asian
countries.
Prose narratives in prehistoric Philippines consisted largely
or myths, hero tales, fables and legends. Their function was
to explain natural phenomena, past events, and
contemporary beliefs in order to make the environment less
fearsome by making it more comprehensible and, in more
instances, to make idle hours less tedious by filling them
with humor and fantasy. There is a great wealth of mythical
and legendary lore that belongs to this period, but
preserved mostly by word of mouth, with few written down
by interested parties who happen upon them.
The most significant pieces of oral literature that may
safely be presumed to have originated in prehistoric times
are folk epics. Epic poems of great proportions and lengths
abounded in all regions of the islands, each tribe usually
having at least one and some tribes possessing traditionally
around five or six popular ones with minor epics of unknown
number.
Filipinos had a culture that linked them with the Malays in
the Southeast Asia, a culture with traces of Indian, Arabic,
and, possibly Chinese influences. Their epics, songs, short
poems, tales, dances and rituals gave them a native Asian
perspective which served as a filtering device for the
Western culture that the colonizers brought over from
Europe.