RELIGION IN PRE-COLONIAL ERA

Animism was widely practiced in the pre-colonial Philippines. This is a

collection of beliefs in the idea that the world is inhabited by spirits and supernatural
entities, both good and bad, and that respect must be accorded to them through
worship. These entities are commonly called the anitos, referring to spirits including
household deities, deceased ancestors, nature-spirits, nymphs, and diwatas also
known as minor gods and demigods.
Tagalog supreme deities include Bathala and his children Adlaw, Mayari, and
Tala, or the Visayan deity Kan-Laon. Folk healers were called the babaylan or
shamans and spiritual leaders, and mananambal the medicine men. In 1380, Arabian
trader Karim Al Makhdum reached the Sulu and later established Islam and the first
Muslim Mosque in Barangay Tubig Indangan on Simunul Island in Tawi-Tawi.
Their belief principally lies the unity of God (‘Allah’ in Arabic), and Muhammad as
his final messenger in a series of revelations.

POLITICS

The majority of the political system in the early Philippines was led by leaders
called Datus (ruling class, chief) are responsible for ruling autonomous groups called
barangay or dulohan. A barangay is the smallest administrative division in the
Philippines and is the native Filipino term for a village, district or ward. In colloquial
usage, the term often refers to an inner-city neighborhood, a suburb or a suburban
neighborhood.
 The social structure was as follows Datu are Maginoo. The Maginoo were the
ruling class, the educated class, the royal class, and the privileged class. Maharlika
were the feudal warrior class in ancient Tagalog society in Luzon, the Philippines.
The Spanish translated the name as Hidalgos. They belonged to the lower nobility
class similar to the Timawa of the Visayan people. Timawa were the feudal warrior
class of the ancient Visayan societies of the Philippines. They were regarded as
higher than the uripon but below the Tumao in the Visayan social hierarchy. They
were roughly similar to the Tagalog Maharlika caste The term later lost its military
and nobility connotations and was demoted to mean "freemen" during the Spanish
conquest of the Philippines. During which, the word was also introduced to the
Tagalogs, who incorrectly used the term to refer to freed uripon and commoners in
general. Eventually, the meaning of timawa in modern Visayan languages was
reduced to an adjective for "impoverished". Alipin The alipin refers to the lowest
social class among the various cultures of the Philippines before the arrival of the
Spanish in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the Visayan languages, the equivalent
social classes were known as the oripun, uripon, or ulipon.

Philippines: Pre-Colonial Period Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com