 The Philippines Before the Conquest Philippine history writing started during Spanish

time when Ferdinand Magellan landed in the Philippine archipelago in the year 1521,
followed by Filipinos like Dr. Jose Rizal who annotated Antonio Morga’s book “Sucesos
De Las Islas Filipinas” (Events of the Philippine Islands) and Americans.

 And if you have read the Rizal’s annotation on Morga’s book, we can tell that there
was already an organized Let us take a look at the life of the native people of the
Philippine archipelago before the arrival of the Spaniards. 

 The Early Philippine Society There was a group of people that the historians believed
they existed here in the Philippine Islands before the colonization period. They are as
follow: 1. Tabon Man. The Tabon Man skull cap was discovered by Dr. Robert Fox an
American Anthropologist within the Tabon subside Palawan in 1962. 

 According to research, this Man lived on the first days called Stone Age and inside the
cave.

 Negrito. Henry Otley Beyer, a known anthropologist introduced the “Theory of

Migration” that the first Human who came to the Philippine Archipelago through the
Lan Bridges were Negritos, the ancestors of the Aetas, but many anthropologist and
experts opposed and disproved the belief.

 3. Callao Man. Dr. Armand Mijares of the University of the Philippines led the team of
Archeologist in 2007. They found a foot bone inside the Callao cave in Cagayan. They
said this man existed 20,000 years older than the Tabon man. They needed to
consume almost three years to determine the age of the bone. They used the method
called Uranium Series Dating conducted in France. 

 The early Filipinos started building their communities along with the mouth of the river
or coastal areas. They choose the place because of economic opportunities wherein
they access the land and the water for their everyday routines of life.

 Their community was a Barangay setup with 50 or 2000 people as residents.

 There are social classes in the barangay namely: 1. Maharlika (Noble People) 2.
Timawa (Freemen) 3. Alipin (Slaves) - Aliping Namamahay - Aliping Saguiguilid The
early Filipinos used caves for their housing until they learned to build houses outside
using wood or bamboo and nipa leaves or cogon grass for their roofing suited for our
tropical climate. Later on, they called Bahay Kubo.

 There were places in the Philippines particularly in the mountainous areas where
people make their houses at the top of the tree (treehouse). This is to protect them
from wild animals that can hurt them. For those people residing beside the sea like the
Badjao or sea gypsies, their boats already serve as their houses. 
 Early Filipinos did not have religion, but they believed that there is a powerful being
from the sky and that they called God.

 They were pagans, they believe in different gods and goddesses. Even before the
coming of the Spaniards, Filipinos were already believers of superstitious beliefs. 

 Among them include aswang, kapre, dwende, tiyanak, and tikbalang which until now
still exist especially in the remote places of different provinces. 

 The discovery of archeological artifacts in the Philippines manifested that during the
Neolithic means the last age of the Stone Age and the beginning of Human
development in technology.

 Since the beginning in the Philippines, rice was already the principal crop aside from
hunting, trapping animals, and fishing. Traditional music and dance are the reflections
of life and culture of people of one place. In music, we have instruments like kudyapi,
kalaleng, a tingguian Nose flute, slit drum. 

 Primitive dances of the early Filipinos were linked with rituals and to their daily lives.
Preservation of the Pre-Hispanic Culture and Traditions It is not new to us that even
before to the arrival of the Westerners, the early people of the Philippine archipelago
had already built and established their unique customs and traditions. As we observe
in the present time, there are still some groups of Indigenous tribes who are preserving
their culture that we can call ours and not brought by the colonizers.