Ma. Christina C.

Ortega
BSED major in PE

ASSIGNMENT: COMPARE THE CUSTOMS OF TAGALOGS BEFORE AND NOW

The Tagalogs or Filipino traditions, beliefs, practices, and governance before and now is quite different.
According to Heraclitus, “The only thing that is constant is change”. It is true because as the time goes by, the
customs of tagalogs are changing.

Governance
The early Filipinos lived in settlements called barangays before the colonization of the Philippines by
the Spaniards. As the unit of government, a barangay consisted from 30 to 100 families. It was headed by a
datu and was independent from the other groups. Nowadays, we also have the barangays. The head of
barangay is called the barangay captain. In the old days, a datu had a council of elders to advise him, especially
whenever he wanted a law to be enacted. Today these council of elders are called the barangay councils that
helped the barangay captain in decision making and making laws.

Social status
Before the Tagalogs have 3 caste which is the nobles, commoners or Aliping Namamahay and slaves
which the Alinping sa Guiguilir. These are the status of early Filipino that defines who they are and what is
their positions in their community. Nowadays, we also have the different caste, the upper class, they are the
wealthy people who is more powerful than other ordinary filipinos. The second one is the middle class, they
have higher educational attainment, which is why more of them have better-quality jobs. Their families are
smaller with fewer children. Middle-class families spend more on their children’s education. The last is the
lower class, they are the the poor and less fortunate filipinos. Usually they are the farmers who are living in
provinces.

Traditions and culture

The houses of early Filipinos are made up of wood, bamboo and nipa palm. Unlike today our houses
are made up of concrete. The mode of dressing is also different, the female and male tagalogs before are
wearing kanggan, bahag and for the women is the baro or camisa and saya. In today’s generation, the mode of
dressing is very different because of the influence of western countries like US. It is quite revealing than
before. The native filipinos also have their tattoos and accessories and ornaments. The modern filipinos wear
different kind of accessories just like the early filipino but the different is the style and materials.

Language and System of Writing

 The system of writing of native tagalog is the baybayin alphabets consisted of 3 vowels and 14
consonants. But because of the influence of Spaniards, we are using their alphabet called the modern filipino
alphabet. The modern Filipino alphabet is made up of 28 letters, which includes the entire 26-letter set. The
native tagalogs they used tap of tress as ink and pointed stick as pencil. They wrote on large plant leaves.
Unlike today we are using a lot of pens and different pad papers.

Economic Life
The agriculture sector is the backbone of economy of native tagalog which provides the basic needs of
Filipinos. Planting of rice, corn, banana, coconut, sugar canes and other kinds of vegetables is the basic
source of food supply of the barangay and fishing in river and sea. Today, I admit agriculture is our major
source of food supply but today it is not the only thing that can support our family, community and our
economy.