02A Lesson Proper for Week 1

Historiography and Its Importance

The term historiography is the craft of writing history. It is the art of historical writing and
communicating in writing what the historian thinks he knows about the past. Thus, when we speak
of Chinese historiography, we refer to all or at least the known written histories of the people of
China, and Nigerian historiography refers to the available historical works in Nigeria. Historiography
in another aspect is preoccupied with other men’s interpretation of history; it is the study of other
people’s understanding of the historical process and the historian’s craft. Through the historical
process, the task before the historian is the trend of past events and the historian’s craft, that is, the
discovery of what happened in the past. Historiography does not deal with specific histories; history
does not seek to discover what happened in the past nor give an account of past actions. However,
it looks into what others have said about history and how they have interpreted the past. Therefore,
historiography traces the trend of historical thought in specific localities and in the world at large.

History and historiography as intertwined concepts

Historiography is the subject matter of history. In other words, without the study of the past called
history, historiography would not exist. Thus, historiography is derived from history, thereby
showing its importance. In the next portion of this study session, we shall examine the justifications
for history as an academic discipline and as a worthwhile pursuit.

Importance of History

·         Knowledge of Society. History provides societies with knowledge about themselves. A society

can know itself only by acquiring knowledge of its history. A society has to know itself and
understand its relationship with the past, other societies, and other cultures. History meets this
need; it makes people aware of the character of their own time by providing them with information
about their past that they can study and compare with other peoples' experiences.

·         Used in problem-solving. History is useful in meeting new situations and solving the

problems of the present because a full understanding of human behavior in the past allows us to
solve the problems of the present intelligently.

·         A bridge of all disciplines. As a mediating discipline, history is also useful because everything
has a history. Medicine, banking, legal practice, teaching religion, commerce, etc. have history. Thus,
history, as a discipline, covers a wide range of issues. A nurse would find a knowledge of the history
of nursing in her locality useful, while military personnel can also find the history of the force
invaluable. Therefore, history becomes a meeting ground for different disciplines, thereby making it
fascinating.

 Why Study History?

According to Peter Stearns (1998), history should be studied because it is essential to individuals and
society and harbors beauty. The real functions of the subject can be discussed in many ways
because of different historical talents and paths to historical meaning. All definitions of history’s
utility, however, rely on two fundamental facts.
 1.       History Helps Us Understand People and Societies

In the first place, history offers a storehouse of information about how people and societies behave.
Understanding the operations of people and societies is difficult, although several disciplines
attempt it. Exclusive reliance on current data would needlessly handicap our efforts. How can we
evaluate war if the nation is at peace other than using historical materials? How can we understand
genius, the influence of technological innovation, or the role that beliefs play in shaping family life if
we do not use what we know about information about past experiences? Several social scientists
attempt to formulate laws or theories about human behavior. However, even these recourses
depend on historical information, except for limited artificial cases in which experiments can be
devised to determine how people act. Major aspects of a society’s operation, such as mass elections,
missionary activities, or military alliances, cannot be set up as precise experiments. Consequently,
history must serve, however imperfectly, as our laboratory, and data from the past must serve as
our most vital evidence in the unavoidable quest to determine why our complex species behaves as
it does in societal settings. History offers the only extensive evidential base for the contemplation
and analysis of how societies function. People also need to have some sense of how societies
function simply to run their own lives.

 2.       History Helps Us Understand Change and How the Society We Live in Came to Be

The second reason why history is inescapable as a subject of serious study follows the first one
closely. The past causes the present and the future. Any time we want to know why something
happened, that is, whether a shift in political party dominance in the American Congress, a major
change in the teenage suicide rate, or a war in the Balkans or the Middle East, we have to look for
factors that took shape earlier. Occasionally, fairly recent history will explain a major development,
but often we need to look further back to identify the causes of change. We grasp how things
change, begin to comprehend the factors that cause change, and understand what elements of an
institution or a society persist despite change only through studying history.

 3.       Importance of History in Our Own Lives

The two fundamental reasons for studying history underlie specific and relatively diverse uses of
history in our own lives. A well-told history is beautiful. Many of the historians who most appeal to
the general reading public know the importance of dramatic and skillful writing, as well as of
accuracy. Biography and military history appeal in part because of the tales they contain. History as
art and entertainment serves a real purpose on aesthetic grounds but also the level of human
understanding. Well-told stories reveal how people and societies have functioned and prompt
thoughts about the human experience in other times and places. The same aesthetic and
humanistic goals inspire people to immerse themselves to reconstruct relatively remote pasts,
which are far removed from the immediate, present-day utility. Exploring what historians
occasionally call the “pastness of the past,” that is, the ways people in distant ages constructed their
lives, involves a sense of beauty and excitement and ultimately another perspective on human life
and society.

 4.       History Contributes to Moral Understanding

History also provides a terrain for moral contemplation. Studying the stories of individuals and
situations in the past allows a history student to test his or her moral sense and hone it against
some real complexities that individuals have faced in difficult settings. People who have weathered
adversity not only in works of fiction but in real, historical circumstances can provide inspiration.
"History is teaching by example” describes this use of a study of the past, that is, a study of
certifiable heroes (i.e., the great men and women of history) who successfully worked through moral
dilemmas and ordinary people who provide lessons in courage, diligence, or constructive protest.

 5.       History Provides Identity

History also helps provide identity, which is one of the reasons all modern nations encourage its
teaching in some form. Historical data includes evidence about how families, groups, institutions,
and whole countries were formed and how they have evolved while retaining cohesion. For many
Americans, studying the history of one's own family is the most obvious use of history because it
provides facts about genealogy and (at a slightly more complex level) a basis for understanding how
the family has interacted with considerable historical change. Family identity is established and
confirmed. Many institutions, businesses, communities, and social units, such as ethnic groups in
the United States, use history for similar identity purposes. Merely defining the group in the present
pales in comparison with the possibility of forming an identity based on a rich past. Nations also use
identity history and abuse it occasionally. Histories that tell the national story, emphasizing
distinctive features of the national experience, are meant to provide an understanding of national
values and a commitment to national loyalty.

 6.       Studying History Is Essential for Good Citizenship

A study of history is essential for good citizenship. This is the most common justification for the
place of history in the school curricula. The advocates of citizenship history also hope to promote
national identity and loyalty through a history spiced by vivid stories and lessons in individual
success and morality. However, the importance of history for citizenship goes beyond this narrow
goal and can even challenge it at some points.

The history that lays the foundation for genuine citizenship returns to the essential uses of the study
of the past. History provides data about the emergence of national institutions, problems, and
values because it is the only significant storehouse of such data. History also offers evidence about
how nations have interacted with other societies, providing international and comparative
perspectives that are essential for responsible citizenship. Studying history also helps us understand
how recent, current, and prospective changes that affect the lives of citizens are emerging or may
emerge and what causes are involved. Studying history also encourages habits of mind that are vital
for responsible public behavior, whether as a national or community leader, an informed voter, a
petitioner, or a simple observer.

What Skills Does a Student of History Develop?

What does a well-trained student of history, schooled to work on past materials and case studies in
social change, learn how to do? The list is manageable, but it contains several overlapping
categories.

Ability to Assess Evidence. The study of history builds experience in dealing with and assessing
various types of evidence, that is, the type of evidence historians use in shaping the most accurate
pictures of the past that they can. Learning how to interpret the statements of past political leaders
helps form the capacity to distinguish between the objective and the self-serving among statements
made by present-day political leaders. Learning how to combine different kinds of evidence, such as
public statements, private records, numerical data, and visual materials, develops the ability to make
coherent arguments based on a variety of data. This skill can also be applied to information that is
encountered in our everyday life.
Ability to Assess Conflicting Interpretations. Learning history means gaining skill in sorting
through diverse, often conflicting interpretations. Understanding how societies work, which is the
central goal of studying history, is inherently imprecise, and the same is also correct for
understanding what is going on in the present day. Learning how to identify and evaluate conflicting
interpretations is an essential citizenship skill for which history, as an often-contested laboratory of
human experience, provides training. This is one area in which the full benefits of historical study
occasionally clash with the narrow uses of the past to construct identity. Experience in examining
past situations provides a constructively critical sense that can be applied to partisan claims about
the glories of national or group identity. The study of history in no sense undermines loyalty or
commitment, but it teaches the need for assessing arguments and provides opportunities to engage
in debate and achieve perspective.

Experience in Assessing Past Examples of Change. Experience in assessing past examples of

change is vital to understand the change in society today; it is an essential skill in our “ever-changing
world.” The analysis of change means developing some capacity for determining the magnitude and
significance of change because some changes are more fundamental than others. Comparing
particular changes to relevant examples from the past helps history students develop this capacity.
The ability to identify the continuities that always accompany even the most dramatic changes also
comes from studying history similar to the skill to determine the probable causes of change.
Learning history helps one determine if one main factor, such as a technological innovation or a
deliberate new policy, accounts for a change or whether because generally, several factors combine
to generate the actual change that occurs.

Hence, the study of history is crucial to the promotion of that elusive creature, that is, a well-
informed citizen. It provides basic factual information about the background of our political
institutions and about the values and problems that affect our social well-being. It also contributes
to our capacity to use evidence, assess interpretations, and analyze change and continuities. No one
can ever deal with the present as the historian deals with the past—we lack the perspective for this
feat, but we can move in this direction by applying historical habits, and we will function as good
citizens in the process.

History Is Useful in the World of Work

History is useful for work. Its study helps create good business people, professionals, and political
leaders. The number of explicit professional jobs for historians is considerable, but most people
who study history do not become professional historians. Professional historians teach at various
levels, work in museums and media centers, do historical research for businesses or public agencies,
or participate in the growing number of historical consultancies. These categories are important to
keep the basic enterprise of history going, but most people who study history use their training for
various professional purposes. History students find their experience directly relevant to jobs in a
variety of careers and in studying fields such as law and public administration. Employers often
deliberately seek students with the kinds of capacities historical study promotes. The reasons are
not hard to identify; history students acquire a broad perspective that gives them the range and
flexibility required in many work situations by studying different phases of the past and various
societies in the past. These students develop research skills, the ability to find and evaluate sources
of information, and the means to identify and evaluate diverse interpretations. Work in history also
improves basic writing and speaking skills and is directly relevant to many analytical requirements in
public and private sectors, where the capacity to identify, assess, and explain trends is essential.
Historical study is an asset for a variety of work and professional situations, although it generally
does not directly lead to a particular job slot as the students of some technical fields do. However,
history particularly prepares students for the long haul in their careers, its qualities helping
adaptation and advancement beyond entry-level employment. In our society, many people who are
drawn to historical study worry about its relevance. In our changing economy, people are concerned
about future job opportunities in most fields. However, historical training is not an indulgence; it
applies directly to many careers and can help us in our working lives.

Why study history? The answer is because we must gain access to the laboratory of human
experience. When we study history reasonably well and acquire some usable habits of mind, as well
as some basic data about the forces that affect our own lives, we emerge as people with relevant
skills and an enhanced capacity for informed citizenship, critical thinking, and simple awareness. The
uses of history are varied. Studying history can develop several “salable” skills, but its study must not
be pinned down to the narrowest utilitarianism. Some history that is confined to personal
recollections about changes and continuities in the immediate environment is essential to function
beyond childhood. Some history depends on personal taste, where one finds beauty, the joy of
discovery, or intellectual challenge. Between the inescapable minimum and the pleasure of deep
commitment comes the history that provides a real grasp of how the world works through
cumulative skill in interpreting human record.

FOUNDATION OF DATA

Primary Source(s)

·         It is a document created during the time of your research subject about your research subject.
These documents are directly connected with the events or people being researched (Concordia
University Texas Library, 2020).

·         It contains original information that is not derived from interpretation, summarizing, or
analyzing someone else’s work (Eastern Institute of Technology, nd).

·         These are first-hand accounts that are created at the time a historical event occurred or are
records of original ideas. It consists of information that has not been analyzed, commented on, or
interpreted. It can be biased, depending on the viewpoint of the author. These sources are valuable
because they give an exact account of historical events or new ideas (Westminster Giovale Library,
nd)

·         These sources are original or new materials, such as an activist giving a speech, a scientist
conducting original research, a student drawing original conclusions from others’ works, an artist
creating a piece of artwork, or your grandmother writing an autobiography. Primary sources are
firsthand and not interpreted by anyone else; they offer a personal point of view and are created by
witnesses of, or participants in, an event (except in cases of historical research written after the fact).
Researchers also create primary sources (Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, 2013).

Example of primary sources:

·         Autobiographies and memoirs

·         Books, articles, or news stories written at the time of the event

·         Diaries and journals

·         Data and original research

·         Speeches and interviews

·         Letters and memos

·         Government documents from that period

·         Census statistics

·         Organizational records from that period

·         Documentaries that rely on primary source materials

·         Photographs

·         Art (from a period)

·         Maps (from a period)

·         Personal narratives

·         Internet communications (including listservs and emails)

·         Any of the above reprinted in the original format and language

Questions to Ask When Determining If Something is a Primary Source:

·         Did the author create this research originally?

·         Is the information uninterpreted data or statistics?

·         Is the source an original work?

·         Did the information come from personal experience?

Why Use Primary Sources?

Sources that present new research, original conclusions based on the research of others, or an
author’s original perspective are helpful and effective for your needs. The use of these resources
allows one to interpret the information instead of relying on the interpretations of others, which s is
why your instructors may require you to find original research for your assignments.

Note: Given that primary sources reflect the true meanings and ideas that were introduced by
authors, the information itself may not be completely objective, well-reasoned, or accurate.

Secondary Source(s)

·         It is a document created at a later time, which was often much later than the period of the
event being researched, by someone who did not experience the said event. These documents have
no direct personal connection with the events or people being researched, but they may benefit
from being able to put the event “in context” or perspective (Concordia University Texas Library,
2020).

·         These works have been based on primary (or another secondary) sources. These sources are
generally an interpretation, a summary, an analysis, or a review (Eastern Institute of Technology, nd).
·         It offers commentary, analysis, or interpretation of the primary sources. These sources are
written many years after an event or by people that are not directly involved in the event. These
sources are often written by people who have expertise in the field and can be biased, depending on
the viewpoint of the author (Westminster Giovale Library, nd).

·         These sources interpret, include, describe, or draw conclusions based on works written by
others. Secondary sources are used by authors to present evidence, back up arguments and
statements, or represent an opinion by using and citing multiple sources. Secondary sources are
often referred to as being “one step removed” from the actual occurrence or fact (Saint Mary’s
University of Minnesota, 2013).

Example of secondary sources:

·         Encyclopedias

·         Chronologies

·         Biographies

·         Monographs (a specialized book or article)

·         Most journal articles (unless written at the time of the event)

·         Most published books (unless written at the time of the event)

·         Abstracts of articles

·         Paraphrased quotations

·         Dictionaries

·         Textbooks

·         Webpages

·         Documentary movies

·         Analysis of a clinical trial

·         Commentaries

·         Literature reviews and meta-analyses

Questions to Ask When Determining If Something Is a Secondary Source:

·         Did the author consult multiple sources to create this work?

·         Is this information an interpretation or paraphrasing of another author’s work?

·         Did the information come from second-hand reporting?

·         Is the source a textbook, review, or commentary?

Why Use Secondary Sources?

Secondary sources are best for uncovering the background or historical information about a topic
and broadening your understanding of a topic by exposing you to others’ perspectives,
interpretations, and conclusions. However, critiquing an original information source (primary
source) is a better option if you plan to reference it in your work.

02A Lesson Proper for Week 2

THE PHILIPPINES as an archipelago

As an archipelago nation, the Philippines has more than 7,100 islands with a coastline that stretches
10,850 miles. The archipelago has no land boundaries. Taiwan is the nearest country to the north,
Brunei and Malaysia to the southwest, Indonesia to the south, Vietnam to the west, and China to the
northwest. The Philippines is surrounded by the South China Sea in the west, the Pacific Ocean in
the east, the Sulu and Celebes Seas in the south, and the Bashi Channel in the north. These tropical
and mountainous islands have a land area of 115,831 square miles. The country comprises three
major regions, that is, Luzon, which is the largest island in the north; the Visayas, which is an island
group in the center; and Mindanao, which is the largest island in the south. These regions have
distinct political, social, and cultural differences. The capital city of the country is Manila in Luzon.
The climate is always tropical and warm because the Philippines is 5° to 20° north of the equator.
The Philippines is a part of the Southeast Asian nations. Its neighboring countries are Indonesia,
Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Brunei, East Timor, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar. It has a
strategic location and open to diverse cultural influences coming from Asia and beyond. Filipinos are
mostly Malay people. The archipelago lays on the edge of the so-called Ring of Fire, which is a chain
of active volcanoes marking the intersection of two tectonic plates. The presence of the Ring of Fire
makes the possibility of an earthquake or volcanic eruption an ever-present danger. The islands are
originally volcanic and mostly mountainous. The highest point in the country is the peak of Mount
Apo in Mindanao, which is 9,692 feet above sea level, followed by Mount Pulag in Luzon, which is
9,324 feet above sea level. The worst recorded calamity in the Philippines occurred in June 1991
when Mount Pinatubo in central Luzon blew up, thereby causing widespread devastation.
The archipelago is geologically a part of the Philippine Mobile Belt, which is situated between the
Philippine Sea Plate, the South China Sea Basin of the Eurasian Plate, and the Sundra Plate. The
Mindanao Trench (also known as the Philippine Trench) is an 820-mile submarine trench that is
found in the east of the Philippine Mobile Belt and a part of a collision of tectonic plates. The
Galathea Depth, which is the deepest point in the Philippines Sea Plate, has a depth of 34,580 feet.
The Philippine Fault System consists of a series of seismic faults that produce several earthquakes
per year, most of which cannot be felt.

Source: Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps Inc. Philippine Map. Retrieved

from https://www.raremaps.com/gallery/detail/35555/Carte_Hydrographique_and_Chorographiq
ue_des_Isles_Philippines_Dediee_a_Sa/Lowitz-Homann%20Heirs.html on 25 July 2020
The Philippines is located within many of Southeast Asia’s main bodies of water, such as the South
China Sea, Philippine Sea, Sulu Sea, Celebes Sea, and Luzon Strait. The coastlines of many islands are
irregular, with numerous bays, gulfs, and inlets. Manila Bay is the most commercially important
coastline because of its naturally sheltered harbor. The largest gulfs, Leyte and Panay gulfs, are in
located the Visayan Islands. The Philippines’ large rivers are generally not navigable, except for short
portions. Streams are subject to typhoons and flooding during the monsoon season. The longest
river is the Cagayan River in north-central Luzon, which flows northward to the sea. Other long rivers
in Luzon are Agno and Pampanga rivers, which cross the central Luzon Valley. Chico River flows
through the Cordillera Central in northern Luzon and irrigates the mountainsides. Pasig River, which
is one of Luzon’s shortest rivers, flows through Manila, thereby giving it commercial significance. It
originates in the island’s largest lake, that is, Laguna de Bay, and empties into Manila Bay. Mindanao
has two main rivers. The Mindanao River (Rio Grande de Mindanao) receives the waters of Pulangi
River. Agusan Rivers flows north into the Bohol Sea. The largest lake in the Philippines is Laguna de
Bay, which is a freshwater lake located 13 kilometers (8 miles) southeast of Manila. Its surface area is
922 square kilometers (356 square miles). Sewage and toxic waste from the surrounding urban
areas contaminate its water. Taal Lake, which is 56 kilometers (35 miles) south of Manila, occupies a
huge volcanic crater and contains an active volcano. Lake Lanao is the largest lake in Mindanao and
the source of the Agusan River, which exits the lake at the Maria Christina Falls. Lake Lanao is 347
square kilometers (134 square miles) in area.

Controversial Territory

The Philippines’ territorial sea claims extend 100 nautical miles off the coastline all around the
country under the 1898 Treaty of Paris. A 1978 presidential decree increased the claim to 285
nautical miles into the South China Sea, encompassing the disputed Spratly Islands, which is known
as the Kalayaan (Freedom) Islands in the Philippines. The United States indicates that the claim is
excessive, thereby violating the international freedom of navigation. The Philippines also claims
sovereignty over its continental shelf, extending 200 nautical miles from its coastline, under the
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Philippines claims sovereignty over the
Spratly Islands, which is locally known as the Kalayaan (Freedom) Islands. China, Malaysia, Taiwan,
and Vietnam make similar claims. The islands at stake are those with underwater oil and natural gas
resources. The 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea eased tensions in
the Spratly Islands, but it fell short of a legal code of conduct. The national oil companies of China,
the Philippines, and Vietnam signed a joint accord in 2005 to conduct marine seismic studies in the
Spratly Islands.

The Philippines also claims Malaysia’s Sabah state. The Sultanate of Brunei granted this region to the
Sultanate of Sulu as a reward for assisting him against his enemies. The Sultanate of Sulu leased
Sabah to the British North Borneo Company in 1878 for the sum of 5,000 Malaysian ringgits annually
and weapons to defend against the Spaniards. In 1920, Sabah was made a British crown colony. In
1963, the British formally ceded Sabah to Malaysia. In 2003, violent mass deportations of Filipinos
residing in Sabah led to discussions about the claim. Malaysia still pays the annual rent of 5,000
Malaysian ringgits (approximately US$1,500) to the Sultan of Sulu’s heirs.

Topography

The Philippines lies between Taiwan and Borneo in the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea.
Nearly 3,000 islands out of the more than 7,000 islands in the Philippines are named. The 11 largest
islands account for more than 90% of the total land area. More than 70% of the population resides
on the two largest islands, that is, Luzon and Mindanao, which together comprise more than 70% of
the land area. The Philippines is divided into three regions, that is, the northern islands of Luzon and
Mindoro, the central Visayan and Palawan Islands, and the southern islands of Mindanao and the
Sulu Archipelago.

Luzon, which is the largest island, has an area of 104,690 square kilometers (40,421 square miles).
Three parallel mountain ranges run from north to south in Luzon. The longest range, which is the
Sierra Madre, is on the east coast. The Cagayan River Valley, which separates the Sierra Madre from
the western Cordillera Central range, is on the west coast. Mountainside rice terraces create deep
steps into the slope of the Cordillera Central, which is more than 6 meters (20 feet) high. Luzon’s
highest peak, that is, Mount Pulag, is 2,930 meters (9,613 feet) high. The Zambales Mountains are in
the westernmost part of Luzon and ends at Manila Bay. The southern end of the island, which is
called the Bicol Peninsula, is mountainous and has many volcanoes. Southeastern Luzon has the
low-lying Ragay Hills and a 91-meter (299-foot) deep river gorge. Luzon has two lowland areas, that
is, the Central Plain and the Cagayan Valley. Central Plain is the largest at 240 kilometers (149 miles)
long and 64 kilometers (40 miles) wide. The plain has many swamps because it is only slightly above
sea level. Cagayan Valley has an area of 10,360 square kilometers (4,000 square miles). Mindoro is
the island to the southwest of Luzon; its land area is 9,736 square kilometers (3,759 square miles). A
mountain range runs from north to south across the island with coastal plains on either side. The
highest peak, that is, Mount Halcon, is 2,587 meters (8,488 feet) high. As the largest island, it is
composed of six main regions, namely, the National Capital Region, Cordillera Administrative Region,
Ilocos (Region 1), Cagayan Valley (Region 2), Central Luzon (Region 3), Southern Tagalog (Region 4),
and Bicol (Region 5).

The Visayan island group includes more than half the Philippine islands. Seven of these islands are
populated. The group has a total land area of 61,077 square kilometers (23,582 square miles). The
major islands are Samar (13,079 square kilometers), Negros (12,703 square kilometers), Panay
(11,515 square kilometers), Leyte (7,213 square kilometers), Cebu (4,421 square kilometers), Bohol
(3,865 square kilometers), and Masbate (3,268 square kilometers). The easternmost islands of Samar
and Leyte are connected by a bridge. Samar and Leyte have dense jungle forests, and each has a
central mountain range. Southern Samar has rocky hills. Chocolate Hills, which is cone-shaped
mounds covering 52 square kilometers (20 square miles), is located southwest in Bohol. Chocolate
Hills range from 50 meters to 200 meters (164–656 feet) high and are covered in vegetation that
turns brown during summer. The rest of the island consists of plateaus. To the west is Cebu, which is
a long, narrow island with a hilly interior. Negros, which is the island to the west of Cebu, is primarily
lowlands. The volcanic rock Tablas Plateau is located in the southwest. Negros has one high volcanic
mountain range. Panay is the westernmost island in the system; it has a hilly western coast and
northern lowlands. Masbate is located in the north of Visayas and has hilly areas. Palawan is a part
of the Calamian Islands in the eastern Philippines. The total land area of Palawan is 11,655 square
kilometers (4,500 square miles), 8–48 kilometers (5 to 30 miles) wide, and more than 442 kilometers
(275 miles) long. Mountains run the entire length of the island, surrounded by a narrow coastline.
The highest peak is 2,085 meters (6,841 feet) high. The major region comprises three main regions,
namely, western (region 6), central (region 7), and eastern Visayas (region 8).

Mindanao, which is the country’s second largest island, has a total land area of 94,630 square
kilometers (36,537 square miles). The Pacific Cordillera range lies on the island’s eastern coast.
Agusan River separates itself from the Cordillera central range to the west. Mount Apo in the central
mountain system is the highest elevation in the country at 2,804 meters high (9,199 feet). The two
ranges end in the Bukidnon-Lanao Plateau, which has several deep canyons and extinct volcanoes.
The plateau has an elevation of 609 meters (1,998 feet). The Davao-Agusan Trough is a lowland area
in the east that becomes flooded seasonally. South-central Mindanao has two marshes. Western
Mindanao, which is a mountainous area, is called the Zamboanga Peninsula. The Sulu Archipelago is
southwest between the Zamboanga Peninsula and Indonesia. It comprises more than 800 small
islands with a total area of approximately 4,144 square kilometers (1,600 square miles). Mindanao
consists of the following regions:  western Mindanao (region 9), northern Mindanao (region 10),
southern Mindanao (region 11), central Mindanao (region 12), and Autonomous Region in Muslim
Mindanao.
Climate and Environment

As a tropical climate country, the Philippines remains hot and humid throughout the year.
Monsoons and rain-bearing winds strongly affect the islands. The monsoons blow from the
southwest from May to October and from the northeast from November to February. Temperatures
stay constant from north to south during the year, and seasons consist of wet and dry periods. The
western part of the country has two seasons. Summer, which is the rainy season, begins in May and
ends in November. Winter, which is the dry season in most of the Philippines, starts in December
and ends in May. December through February is cool and dry, but March through May is hot and
dry. The tropical storm season lasts from June to October, with most of the storms coming from the
southeast. Typhoons annually lash out in the islands, especially those closest to the Pacific. Even a
weak typhoon can now cause flash flooding and tragic loss of human life and property because of
deforestation. An example is what happened when Typhoon Uring hit Ormoc, Leyte on November 5,
1991. The land of the Philippines is characterized by irregular coasts, alluvial plains, narrow valleys,
and rolling hills and mountains running from north to south. It used to have a lush and tropical
forest cover with a diverse ecosystem. However, deforestation reduced forests to only 19.4% by the
end of the 20th century. Deforestation occurs when lumber companies cut down all trees in the
forests in a given area without replanting trees, although they are required by law to do so at
present. Another problem is that several corrupt timber magnates and Filipino politicians conspire
in illegal timber export. Deforestation continues to be one of the major sources of ecological
damage in the country, thereby threatening all animal and plant species. Resource-rich marine
mangroves and coral reefs are also rapidly disappearing as a result of huge commercial trawling,
aquaculture, pollution, and illegal fishing practices that include the use of cyanides and dynamite to
increase the catch.

Race and Ethnicity

The most significant ethnic minority is Chinese. Many Filipinos have Chinese ancestry because of
intermarriage. The colonization of the islands by the Spaniards (1565–1898) and Americans (1898–
1946) has influenced the development of Philippine society and culture. A total of 78 different
spoken languages and 500 dialects exist across the archipelago, all belonging to the Malayo-
Polynesian linguistic family. While the majority of Filipinos can speak the national language, that is,
Tagalog or Pilipino, and they share the same national identity, each group tends to identify with the
primary language group to which it belongs. The two principal languages are Tagalog, which is
spoken in the provinces around Manila, and Cebuano, which is used throughout the Visayas and
Mindanao. Other major languages are Ilocano, Hiligaynon, Bicol, Waray, Kapampangan, and
Pangasinense. English is widely used throughout the islands and the language of education and
trade. Almost 50 other indigenous tribal groups exist in the Philippines, comprising approximately
20% of the population. These tribal groups are historically and culturally different from the
mainstream group of Filipinos and have long struggled to keep their land and cultural identity intact.
The Philippines is the only Christian nation in Asia. More than 60% of Asia’s Christian population
lives in the Philippines, and their number is increasing. In 1986, over 50 million people in the
Philippines were Christians. By the 1990s, this number reached over 65 million. Approximately 11
million people in the Philippines are non-Catholic Christians, practicing in over 350 organizations,
most of which operate under the umbrella organization of the National Council of Churches in the
Philippines. The largest denomination includes the gospel-style Philippines for Jesus Movement and
the Protestant Iglesia ni Cristo. The largest religious minority group is the Muslim population, with
Islam being a much older presence than Christianity. The estimates of the Muslim population range
between 3.9 million and 7 million or 5%–9% of the population. Approximately 94% of these Filipino
Muslims are concentrated in the western and southern parts of Mindanao, the Sulu archipelago, and
the southern part of Palawan.

Anthropologists believe that the islands of the Philippines are being inhabited for 250,000 years. The
first arrivals were the Aetas or pygmies, who crossed the land bridge from Asia approximately
30,500 years ago. After the disappearance of the land bridge, the early Malays who came by
barangays from the Indonesian Islands migrated via sea travel. Hence, the majority of the Filipinos
are of Malay descent. The tropical maritime climate is marked by high temperatures, high relative
humidity, heavy precipitation, and light winds. The northeast monsoon months are December to
February, while the southwest monsoon season is from May to October. Typhoons generally occur
during the monsoon seasons. In most areas, the maximum daily temperatures at the sea level range
from 27 °C to 28 °C, dropping to l9 °C at night. The mean relative humidity varies from 75% to 90%.
The average annual rainfall registers between 42 inches in the extreme south-western portion of
Mindanao to 180 inches in the mountains of northern Luzon. The two distinct seasons are wet and
dry. The wet season is generally the time for rice planting. The population as of the 2000 census is
76.5 million and is concentrated in 12 major islands, which constitute 95% of the available land
space. This value represents an increase of 11.5% or 7.9 million over the 1995 census count of 68.6
million people. The population grew at a rate of 2.36% annually between 1995 and 2000. If the
annual growth rate continues to increase at 2.36%, then the Philippine population is expected to
double in approximately 29 years. The life expectancy at birth for the total population is estimated
at 68.12 years. The population is made up of 86% Christian Malay, 6% Muslim Malay, 5% Chinese,
and 3% indigenous groups. Manila, which is the principal city, accounts for approximately 8% of the
national population. The greater proportion, which is only over 63%, lives in or near villages (barrios)
of less than 5,000 residents. Almost 37% of the populace is under 14 years of age. Philippine society
is a product of eastern and western cultural influences that blend into a distinctive entity. Four
cultures and two major religions have shaped the modern Philippines. Early exposure to Chinese
cultural and commercial influence, more than three centuries of Spanish colonial rule, and almost 50
years of American tutelage have altered but not obscured the Malayan character of the Philippine
society. The basic unit of the Philippine society is the nuclear family, with the father as the head; the
family includes extended relatives of husband and wife. Social stratification is governed by wealth
and education, which is a by-product of Spanish and American influences. The upper class
constitutes 11% (e.g., professionals, civil servants, teachers, and business people), and the lower
class comprises 89% (e.g., farmers, laborers, fisherman, merchants, etc.). Literacy is substantially
higher in the Philippines than in other countries in Southeast Asia. According to the 2002 census,
95% of the total population 15 years of age and over can read and write in at least one language.
Literacy ranges from 91.5% in the Greater Manila area to 55%–65% in the rural countryside.
Therefore, a large proportion of the nation’s population uses some form of mass communication. In
2003, 26 broadsheets are being released (newspapers and tabloids), 12 of which are written in the
English language. A total of 366 AM and 290 FM radio stations and 75 television and broadcast
stations also existed in 2003. The Philippine press is one of those that enjoy the most freedom
worldwide because of its propensity for muckraking, which is a legacy of American journalism.

Filipino, which is a derivative of Tagalog, is the officially designated language spoken by 46% of the
population, while English is understood by 40% of the population and serves as the lingua franca in
the government, business, mass media, and academia. We have more than or equal to 87
indigenous languages in the Philippines. However, 86% of the population belong to eight major
linguistic groups, namely, Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano, Ilongo, Bicolano, Waray-Waray, Pangasinense,
and Kapampangan. All eight major linguistic groups belong to the Austronesian or Malay-Polynesian
language family, each of which has impressive literary traditions, especially Tagalog.

02A Lesson Proper for Week 3

Prehistory of the Philippines and Southeast Asia

The early history of the Philippines has a remarkable blend of the antiquity of Southeast Asia due to
the modern delimitation of the region and is connected with the prehistoric times of China. It was
distinct to its geographical area, which includes Burma, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos,
Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Many questions about the study of precolonial
settlements in the Philippines are unanswered. A considerable number of the early evidence of the
coastal communities that may have existed and could have been used by modern archaeologists to
learn more about these settlements was washed away when the seas rose due to global warming at
the end of the last ice age approximately 17,000 years ago. The warm and humid climate in the
tropical zone has a disintegrating effect on bamboo and other plant-like materials that were used by
early inhabitants to build their homes, make tools, and write. Different ethnolinguistic and cultural
groups have been unevenly studied by ethnographers. American archaeologists of the colonial era
(1898–1946) tended to interpret their findings in terms of a continuous spread and overlay of
human settlements that reached into the distant past. In the south, the Sunda Shelf connected the
Philippines with the islands of Borneo, Java, and Sumatra, with the entire peninsula of Malaysia,
Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia. Northern Luzon was linked to Taiwan and formed the entryway
to a broad land corridor leading into China. We know that people lived in Java and China around the
mid-Pleistocene or during the ice age approximately 300,000 years ago as their remains, along with
stone implements and the bones of extinct animals, were found. Similar sites of stone tools and
fossil remains of large prehistoric animals were found in the Cagayan Valley in northern Luzon. At
the end of the ice age, when the seas began to rise again, the Philippines became an archipelago
that is surrounded by water. It was already inhabited by small groups of hunters and gatherers who
were self-supporting and self-sufficient.

Approximately 7,000 years ago, food crops such as rice, millet, and legumes began to be developed
in northeastern India, Burma, Thailand, and China, which is one of the earliest cradles of the
Neolithic or agricultural revolution. Linguists have studied the movement of these migrating
populations by tracing the spread of their language, that is, Austronesian, which refers to a related
group of languages spoken by the peoples of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Taiwan, as well as
in parts of Vietnam. It is also the language of Polynesians found in the Micronesian islands and
some of the Melanesian groups. The recovery of the widely separated Austronesian language must
have a common source that preceded the discovery of the Indo-European language family. Moving
beyond Austro-Tai into Austronesian proper, the reconstruction of linguistic prehistory, which is
most widely used today, is based on a family tree of subgroups and a hierarchy of protolanguages
extending from Proto-Austronesian. Reduced to its essentials, Blust’s (1984) reconstruction favors a
geographical expansion beginning in Taiwan (the location of the oldest Austronesian languages,
including PAn), then encompassing the Philippines, Borneo and Sulawesi, and finally bifurcating, one
branch moving west to Java, Sumatra and Malaya, the other moving east into Oceania. The
reconstructed Proto-Austronesian vocabulary, which is generally related to this early Taiwan-Luzon
phase, indicates an economy that is well-suited to marginal tropical latitudes with the cultivation of
rice, millet, and sugarcane; domestication of dogs and pigs; and the use of watercraft. As a result of
further colonizing movements through the Philippines into Borneo, Sulawesi, and the Moluccas, the
Malayo-Polynesian (MP) subgroup eventually separated into several lower-order Western and
Central-Eastern branches. The break-up of the Central-Eastern MP probably occurred initially in the
Moluccas, and Eastern MP contains all the Austronesian languages of the Pacific Islands apart from
some in western Micronesia. The vocabulary of Proto-MP, which is a linguistic entity that might have
been located somewhere in the Philippines, is of considerable interest because it contains several
tropical economic indicators that were absent in the earlier and more northerly Proto-Austronesian
stage (Bellwood, 2006).

Several proto-Austronesian speakers carried the rice culture across the sea to northern Luzon,
Philippines from Taiwan at approximately 3,000 B.C.E. Essentially, rice is a tropical and subtropical
crop whose cultivation depends on water. Southeast Asia is in a monsoon zone and has soggy soil
that is well suited for rice farming. Rice can be cultivated in two ways, as follows. Dry rice cultivation
is a form of shifting agriculture that involves planting rice on the dry ground either by sowing in the
wind or planting seeds in holes punched by digging sticks after the existing vegetation has been cut.
Wet rice cultivation involves the use of germinated seeds that are planted in a seedbed. When these
rice plants are approximately a foot high, they are transplanted. Fields are often plowed with the
help of a carabao, which is a buffalo-like animal in the Philippines. Considering that wet rice
irrigation and planting involve remarkable cooperation between many groups of people, it
expanded upon the earlier settlement patterns and increased the population. Most of the
descendants of the MPs were seafarers, who carried their traditions through the entire expanse of
the Pacific Ocean. Many theories exist about the movement of peoples of the Pacific from the coast
of South Asia through the major archipelago of Southeast Asia in the western borders of the Pacific
in Neolithic times. Most of these theories are based on the existence of cultural traits or artifacts of
material culture that exhibit similar characteristics as reported from archaeological sites in these
areas. The close relationship between the early peoples of the Philippines and Polynesia is
demonstrated by the similarities in the types of stone tools and pottery they used. Other similar
artifacts made from shells have been found in profusion in the archaeological sites of Oceana.
Domesticated plant and animal evidence are also conclusive. One of the oldest domesticated plants
is the taro. The differentiation and distribution of this plant have been traced by archaeologists as
moving from south Asia going north to Japan and south into New Caledonia, New Zealand, and Fiji.
Only three animals, that is, dog, pig, and chicken, are domesticated from Southeast Asia to
Polynesia. These animals have originated from Southeast Asia. Thus, the early Southeast Asian
seafarers were highly skilled canoe builders and navigators who sailed across the Pacific by using
their bodily senses as their compass at a time when almost all of the Europeans thought such travel
was impossible. In the last 2,000 years, we can see archaeological and linguistic evidence for the
existence of a world maritime trade economy, which was similar to that of the Mediterranean (only
much larger in scale) and connected the Philippines to China, India, and the Arab and Persian lands.
Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian influences were absorbed and transformed in the
Philippines through an interactive process of adoption and adaptation. At approximately 1,200 C.E.,
Islam began to spread to Southeast Asia as several sultanates also developed in the Philippines,
especially southern Mindanao. 

Trade and Rise of Local Rulers

The warm and tropical monsoon winds, blowing from the northeast in northern winter, and the
southeast during the northern summer contributed to the development of a prosperous and
growing regional trade economy. Considering that these winds have regularly reversed direction
every season, the early Southeast Asians learned to plan their seafaring journeys following the
changing winds. They could sail with relative ease across a large expanse of ocean to visit trading
partners and relatives. Then, after resting for a while, they ride home with the wind. The relative
ease and safety with which people could travel encouraged increases in material and cultural
exchanges. The tropically rich vegetative cover and congenial topography of the islands made it
relatively comfortable to walk on foot or sail. Many islands around the archipelago are
interconnected by landfills and waterways with well-sheltered bays and protected harbors. Trade
over land and sea brought new people in contact with one another, ranging from upland hunters
and gatherers and horticulturalists to the complex chiefdoms and states of South, Southeast, and
Northeast Asia. Maritime trade encouraged widespread social, cultural, and economic changes
throughout the region. It introduced new people to different religious and political backgrounds who
shaped, as they were shaped by, the development of local histories and hierarchies.

The geographical boundaries between these communities or mandalas were porous and fluid;
foreigners could become friends or even family if they marry by engaging in trade or an
apprenticeship to share sacred knowledge. New leaders who recognized a potentially powerful
trade partner who promised to bring in prestige goods could arise. These rulers occasionally took
Indic titles, such as rajah, which was derived from Sanskrit, to distinguish their descendants as
members of a royal lineage. They traded valuable heirlooms, such as legendary swords, icons, and
relics that accorded a spiritual essence that filled them and their people with sacred power.
However, although rajahs could pass down their titles and wealth to their children, they could be
usurped from power when strong leaders emerged. Thus, the office of rajah or chief could be either
inherited or achieved through competition in early Philippine society. Kinship still played an integral
role in the development of local hierarchies. In contrast to Northeast Asia (e.g., China, Korea, and
Japan), a large and impersonal state bureaucracy never developed in the Philippines; instead,
numerous competing centers of power whose rulers strove not to colonize their neighbors but to
include them in their networks of kith and kin were established. Communities of relatives and
friends were developed as children grew up and got married, thereby building their homes adjacent
to parents on either side of the family. The boundaries separating these communities were in a state
of fluidity and shifted as new alliances were formed, histories coalesced, and new leaders emerged. 

Local leaders were distinctive because they can entice followers who cooperated in religious and
scholarly, ritual, agricultural, commercial, and military matters. Such leaders replaced or
incorporated the previous ancestral line of the community into their own by achieving the title of
village ancestor. These leaders cultivated followers by engaging in reciprocal exchanges. They have
divine spiritual energy that enabled them to keep social relations within and between communities
and between the earth and the cosmos in balance. Social confusion resulting from a rupture in the
network of reciprocity and exchange or chaos occurring in times of natural calamity was indicative of
a ruler’s decline, at which people moved to follow a new authority. In Southeast Asia, personal
power was perceived by the local people differently than in the Western worldview. Power was not
an abstraction as it is in Western social thought but an existential reality. Indigenous signs indicated
a powerful ruler. A powerful leader was perceived as pure not in a moralistic sense but rather in
terms of his or her ability to concentrate and diffuse power. A person’s inner self and their capacity
to control the environment are directly related. The following are the apparent signs of a leader: one
had “radiance” about them, one who was sexually fertile, and one who had surrounded oneself with
sacred objects, and people who held unusual power to absorb it vicariously. Leaders wore and
distributed “magic” amulets, uttered formulaic prayers, and believed that their weapons and
personages, were invincible in times of battle. Conversely, defeat in battle or the diminishment of a
ruler’s wealth was perceived by local people to be a sign of a leader’s dwindling inner strength.
Hence, the projection and recognition of charismatic leadership and authority around the Philippine
archipelago were a local matter. Social transformations occurred as foreign influences were
selectively reinvented, and they were specific to the conventions of a particular community. 

Indian and Chinese Influences

Some of the earliest known influences came from Hindu and Buddhist traders and monks who
exchanged textiles and other sacred gifts for local and Chinese wares. They introduced new religious
rituals and political forms of behavior. However, the inhabitants of the Philippine islands did not
blindly accept the Hindu belief system and way of life; instead, they selectively integrated what they
perceived to be useful Hindu notions into their already existing animistic beliefs and practices. Early
local rulers adopted Hindu titles, such as rajah, and accompanying accouterments to enhance their
spiritual and political power. The term Visaya (Vijaya), which seemed to refer to the central group of
the islands in the Philippines, is suggestive of her place in the Hindu tributary system. Few known
Hindu artifacts include the 1,790-gram 21-karat gold Hindu goddess of Agusan, which is on display in
the Chicago Natural History Museum. The scarcity of ancient Hindu, Buddhist, or shamanistic scripts
and material remains may be attributed to the fact that Spanish colonizers destroyed pagan icons
and books in their wake. In contrast to Bali, Indonesia, Hindu temple complexes were never built in
stone in the ancient Philippines. However, substantial archaeological and historical evidence
indicated the existence of many small trading centers that specialized in the production of prestige
goods (e.g., potteries, textiles, medicinal plants, and decorative plumes) for trade and exchange as
tributes. One of the earliest known maritime Southeast Asian states to do business with traders in
the Philippines was the Sri-Vijaya Empire from Indonesia, which controlled east-west trade through
the Strait of Malacca for 400 years from 700 C.E. to 1,100 C.E. Sri-Vijaya was close to southern
Philippines and located at the southernmost tip of Sumatra, inland along the Musi River, which flows
out into the Malacca Strait, at the crossroads of sea trade. The Sri-Vijaya had a powerful navy that
punished pirates and protected foreign ships by allowing them safe passage through the straits. Sri-
Vijaya became one of the most important clearinghouse centers for exchange and export to the
west. The river provided inhabitants with access to a wide variety of products and offered them a
safe and secure harbor. At first, this community was self-sufficient in food production. However,
over time, the population multiplied and expanded its territory further upriver to the coasts. 

Sri-Vijayans formed a pact with the Javanese, who then supplied them with rice. Although these two
communities did not always agree with each other and even fought occasionally, they mostly
prospered together in peace and harmony through marriage and trade alliances. The Sri-Vijaya
Empire began to decline in the 1400s when the Chinese came to dominate Southeast Asian sea
trade. A sudden increase in the population during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644 C.E.) in combination
with the frequent outbreaks of infectious diseases, such as the measles and smallpox epidemics in
1407, 1410, 1411, and 1413, may have further instigated the Chinese to search for additional
sources of supplies, especially medicinal herbs. Famous mariners, such as General Zheng He, who
commandeered the emperor’s fleet of 48 treasure ships in 1409, began to develop an elaborate set
of tributary networks through the use of diplomacy; force, if needed; and the giving of tribute to
local rulers, who acknowledged China’s supremacy in return. Local ambassadors and dignitaries
were escorted back with the tribute missions to pay homage to the Chinese emperor. They were
treated with remarkable hospitality and accorded the full dignity and splendor of their rank and title.
Only local rulers who were recognized by the Chinese emperor were allowed to participate in its
expanding network of trade and exchange. Thus, local and competing Philippine leaders could build
up their power and notoriety with their place in the celestial order of the Middle Kingdom. 

Coming of Islam

Islam was transmitted to Sumatra and Java by Arab and Persian traders and missionaries in the
13th century, although earlier Muslim trading sites existed in the region. As Islam began to spread
rapidly after the death of Prophet Muhammad in 632, Arabia emerged as one of the most important
centers of commerce and culture. Arab and other Muslim traders and sailors were the
intermediaries between Asian merchants and European traders. As these Muslims converted local
rulers and their retainers, their trade networks also expanded. One of the earliest rulers to convert
to Islam was the banished prince of Palembang origin, Parameswara, who ran away from the
Javanese court to settle in a small fishing village on the island of Malacca. In 1405, he swore his
allegiance to the Chinese emperor, for which he had rewarded a seal of investiture, thereby
recognizing Malacca as an independent kingdom. Parameswara’s maneuver infuriated the Javanese
and Siamese; the latter royal courts claimed that the island was their territory, but they felt helpless
to do anything about it for fear of antagonizing the powerful Chinese. Afterward, Malacca became a
favorite stopover for Muslim traders to sit out the long monsoon season. In 1414, they encouraged
the prince to adopt Islam and form a marriage alliance with one of the Muslim princesses of Pasai.
Malacca soon became one of the greatest sea emporiums in Southeast Asia, overshadowing its
neighboring ports.

Courtly demeanors and the court language, that is, Malay, which once served as the language of
trade and communication throughout much of Southeast Asia, began to be replaced by Arabic as
Arabic beliefs and practices gained in ascendance. However, the Vijayan courtly demeanor that is
based on loyalty, marriage alliances, and trade never went away but remained alongside new Islamic
forms. Therefore, one of the earliest sultanates to develop in the Philippines was the Sulu island
chain, which was off the coast of Borneo. Islam was introduced there by early Chinese traders and
Muslim missionaries during the Ming dynasty in the 14th century. However, in 1450, the Sumatran
sultan, Sayyid Abu Bakhr, married a local princess that Sulu became a prominent center of Muslim
trade and culture. Rulers living across the sea on Mindanao and elsewhere in the Philippines soon
realized that they could benefit by participating in the growing Muslim trade networks. They could
gain wealth and further solidify their power by surrounding themselves with large armies and slaves,
which strengthened their ability to collect tribute and build new alliances. Although Muslim rulers
believed that all were equal in the eyes of one God and did not believe in slavery, and only debt
bondage and freed slaves once converted, they still believed they could capture and enslave non-
Muslims. While this created a new dichotomy between Muslims and non-Muslims, the division
between slaves and masters existed long before the arrival of Islam in Southeast Asia. 

Ancient Asian Slavery Systems

Diverse religious and philosophical traditions exerted influence over the formation of different
slavery systems in Southeast Asia. While the institutionalization of slavery may have nothing to do
with Buddhism and Confucianism as envisioned by the founders, namely, Buddha and Confucius,
respectively, Confucianism and Buddhism still advocated a specific social order of hierarchy, that is,
that of serving the king. While Buddhism diverged from Hinduism, it continued to be informed by
Hindu cultural ideas and practices. The Buddhist occupation with merit making and harmonious
coexistence with all life forms, coupled with Hindu notions of caste and hierarchy, coalesced with
the open system of slavery as practiced in ancient Thailand. In comparison, the Chinese Confucian
interest in following lines of authority through kinship that ranked people according to age level and
that placed ancestors over the living, seniors over juniors, males over females, and male scholars
over commoners, fit with the closed system of slavery in ancient Vietnam. Hinduism, Buddhism, and
Chinese Confucianism influenced the development of different Southeast Asian systems of slavery.
This was the case in the precolonial Philippines, where a mixture of Hindu/Buddhist, Confucian, and
Islamic notions was selectively integrated into already existing systems of debt bondage. A basic
understanding of the distinctive differences between Buddhism and Confucianism, as illustrated by
the way of ancient Thailand and China, is important to understanding this chapter’s closing
discussion on the early Philippine system that already existed in contrast to Spanish colonial
Christianity.  

Thai Buddhist Slavery

Thai history has long been influenced by Buddhist and Hindu social teachings. In contrast to India or
China, where genealogical links are largely traced through the male lines, genealogies are traced
bilaterally through the male and female side of the family in Thailand. Thai daughters, not sons, are
expected to take care of their parents when they get old. This horizontal status accorded to both
sexes is offset thus far as Thai females always were considered a property of either their father’s
household or husband’s household. Female slaves were definitively valued for their contribution to
sexual reproduction and as second wives and concubines, although a father or husband who sold
his daughter or wife into bondage in times of starvation or financial hardship in former times could
keep her at home as long as he paid the interest on the loan. A free person previously had to
demonstrate that he was over his head in debt and desperately poor before he could legally sell any
member of his household or himself into slavery; otherwise, he would be severely punished
according to the law. Buddhism also mitigated some of the harsher effects of slavery as it was
viewed as meritorious, and slaves had some rights against owners who transgressed the boundaries
of their sexual rights. Slaves could also possess private properties, some of which were entrusted in
positions of authority over other slaves and free clients. Historically, Thais practiced an open-ended
form of slavery that was theologically oriented around Buddhist ideas of a galactic order, and even
the king of Siam was said to be a slave of Buddha. Similar to India, Thailand has a philosophy of a
coming of a just and righteous king. In times of judicious and benevolent kingship, social life is said
to be replete with a bountiful harvest and harmonious relationships that produce a popular feeling
of well-being. Conversely, duplicitous, selfish kingships mark times of bad harvest and social
disruption. The ancient system of slavery in Thailand, similar to precolonial Philippines albeit in a
different guise, was a form of debt slavery; men and women could “buy” their freedom. 

Laws that guaranteed basic rights are in place. Free clients and slaves were often perceived to be
living on the same level in terms of status. Occasionally, slaves (e.g., temple slaves) held substantially
higher stations than those who were free of bondage. The king held most slaves and divided them
between princes (and leading monks) in exchange for their loyal service in governing the kingdom.
Slaves were a symbol of luxury and wealth, but Thai society was not oriented around slavery as an
economic system because slaves worked alongside free clients. Typically, freemen and their families
were self-sufficient subsistence farmers who worked the king’s land and who could be called, within
reasonable guidelines, by royal administrators to provide food and labor on construction projects
for the kingdom. The Thai system of slavery might be “feudal” in nature. The slave had many of the
same modes of entry into slavery that were found in China, that of conquest, war, capture, and
being “sold,” but there is the added aspect of the debt slave, who may or may not be redeemable.
Being redeemable means that one’s debts might eventually either be worked off or paid off, and the
condition of slavery diminished, and the slave freed. Other forms of slavery, such as judicial or
temple slaves, are not commonly found in China. The temple slaves were on occasion those who
placed themselves into service because the life of the temple slave might be viewed as better than
the life of the freed person occasionally. Slaves were exempt from mandatory labor requirements,
and those services they provide were lighter than other forms of slavery. Regarding slaves of war
and conquest, such as tens of thousands that were taken by the Siamese in the wars against the
Khmer Empire in the 14th century, this was by far the most common because population may
decrease that only an outside infusion of bodies could maintain the community. Frequent warfare
was a form of competition for a loyal following, not a territory, and helped reproduce the local
population, which was often ravaged and depleted by the spread of diseases such as malaria and
smallpox, famines, floods, droughts, and raids. These slaves were then redistributed among nobles
according to their rank, while some were donated to temple services. These slaves were
commissioned by the king to build new temples in distant and remote regions to win the local
community’s support and loyalty. Slaves served another function as a form of exchange and tribute.
Thus, the use of slaves became more than the acquisition of a labor force and a replacement
population. However, a political and economic exchange that was used to pay off debts influenced
the political atmosphere. Thai slaves were mainly absorbed and absolved instead of freed or made
kin. While the entire subject is complicated, the groundwork here is enough to distinguish the Thai
system of slavery from the Euro-colonial type. We now turn to a discussion on the ancient Chinese
and the Philippine systems of slavery.

Early Chinese Slavery

China has been long influenced by Confucian social teachings. In contrast to Thailand, where the
family tree is traced bilaterally through the male and female lines, in China, genealogical links are
recorded over the generations through male ties. Chinese females are perceived as outsiders; they
are nameless in ancestral rites, and their primary role is to bear male heirs. A female could enter
into domestic household service as a maid or child servant. In that case, she might be adopted as a
younger sister and become part of the family. Alternatively, she would be arranged into an
exogamous marriage, occasionally as a child bride. Meanwhile, the bride price for the first wife was
high, it was transformed into a dowry, and the marriage rite itself marked the transference of
certain rights and privileges to her. By contrast, the primary role of second wives was to produce
sons, while concubinage was for pleasure. Matchmakers arranged the sale of maids, brides,
concubines, and prostitutes privately. Slaves in ancient China found themselves in a closed system.
As a rule, slaves in China were born as slaves or purchased as children, in addition to the purchase
of concubines by the wealthy. While the potential for slaves to alter or change their status was open
in Thailand, that opportunity was extremely limited in China. Given that China is a strictly patriarchal
society, any inclusion of males into the lineage would constitute a threat to existing heirs because
this would cause further division of property at the death of the clan head. Therefore, males who
were not purchased as children for replacement heirs (indicating the absence of other heirs) were
suspended in permanent slave status, although eunuchs were of high status because they were
loyal and powerful (e.g., they generally served the emperors royal court). Watson explained that girls
had more freedom than boys did once they became slaves because boys would enter their new life
either as an heir or lifelong servant. Females had more tangible opportunities for improving their
situation through marriage. Chinese women were considered as belonging to, rather than being in,
the kinship line even when they married within it. Given that they did not have any inheritance right
that would have been recognized or supported, they were not considered a threat. Therefore, they
had more social mobility than men did. China created its supply of slaves from within by creating
stratification within its social structure; taking its slaves from within that created a “lower” class.

The stigma attached to the status of a slave did not only last a lifetime but for subsequent
generations of slaves. This phenomenon can be traced back to the Chinese practice of ancestor
worship. The Chinese viewed belonging to a lineage as a requirement for being considered a
civilized person. Given that the males were carriers of the lineage, even the poorest farmers would
resist selling their sons until all the daughters and even the wife were sold. For example, they would
sell their sons to save them from dying from starvation. This attitude resulted in a few males on the
market. Thus, males were priced high. This practice repeatedly disrupted the male slaves’ ancestral
lines. Thus, the slaves, in essence, never developed a family line, and their hereditary relatives
remained unknown. In some modern cases, the ancestral line might be invented to conceal a lack of
ancestry. This slave market system based on use value and not exchange value was transformed
when the European colonizers came to China. The Europeans brought and introduced their habit of
buying and selling slaves as if they were only material objects, which was an affront and contrary to
ancient Asian codes, which provided slaves with certain rights and social security.  

Ancient Philippine Slavery

The Philippines experienced a mélange of religious and philosophical influences before the colonial
period. Underlying Hindu, Buddhist, and Islamic faiths were widespread and intermingled with
indigenous beliefs and practices that were informed by animistic nature “worship.” The economy
was engaged in a maritime trade economy that extended far beyond Southeast Asia. Local
communities were dispersed along estuaries of rivers and coastal shores, with each settlement
scattered to protect the residents from the possibility of offshore slave raiders. Each community’s
individual history was made up of a complex of local histories wherein leaders were legitimated by
their followers, relative to even wider concentric networks or mandalas, of power. Chiefdoms
existed, that is, the office of the chief was ordinarily inherited, and a redistributive system wherein
slavery was a key component was in place. However, as a check on their authority, the office of the
chief (rajah or datu) was also achieved, and the center of redistribution shifted as new leaders
emerged. 

The system of slavery in the Philippines was a far-reaching and complex system that differed
dramatically from, and existed in utter contradistinction to, the Euro-American transatlantic slave
trade system. In contrast to the European colonial system where slaves were supplied in the market,
slaves in the Philippines often shared the same ethnicity, language, and descent as their masters.
Parents frequently arranged the marriage of their young children by turning over several slaves in
good faith. Men often sold themselves into slavery to their fathers-in-law as a form of bride price,
which was similar to what Jacob did for the hand of Rachel and Leah as told in the Bible. Almost
everyone was indebted to someone else to some degree, and slavery in this sense was endemic.
Generally, slaves took a good deal of satisfaction in being attached to their masters. Various types of
slaves ranged from those captured for ransom in raids at one extreme to those who sold
themselves into slavery to someone for whom they felt a debt of gratitude from the heart in other
extremes. Except for those living inside their master’s house, slaves were expected to support
themselves, working part-time for their owners, while the owners themselves were generally
enslaved to other masters. Kinship played an important role in the development of debt bondage on
the islands. Family networks and lineages were traced bilaterally through both the female and male
lines. This phenomenon diminished the importance of status based on lineage connections to a
single female or male ancestor; instead, important genealogical claims were based on achieving a
founding line of descent and establishing fictive kin relations horizontally in the present. This
emphasis on the present had an impact on how the master-slave bond emerged locally, where
social relations, not private property, were highly valued. Customary interactions between masters
and slaves in this context were mutually respectful. The coming of the Spanish colonizers to the
Philippines with their different habits and worldview was an affront to the cultural ethos and
common sense of mutual well-being. Spanish colonial processes profoundly and irreversibly
disrupted and altered local practices, and the effect of this influence should not be underestimated.
However, local motifs and customary forms of behavior continued to re-emerge in new guises and
resisted the colonial design.

02A Lesson Proper for Week 4

A Historian's Critical Questions

Students who study history sometimes confuse sources with evidence. Good historical sources
merely provide raw information that scholars can reconstruct into evidence. Historians use
reconstructed historical evidence to make historical arguments about what happened in the past. To
collect evidence, historians examine sources by reading closely and asking critical questions.

Students of history should also note that sources of history are subjective. Meaning, persons who
document and interpret history usually have his/her unique point of view about what is happening.

We get historical information from primary and secondary sources. Analyzing historical information
includes answering the following:

o Who produced this source, and what is his/her background (i.e., viewpoints
and personal experience) relevant to understanding the source? Was the
author biased or dishonest? Did he/she have a plan/agenda?
o When and where was this source created? Is it similar to other sources from
the same period? In what ways is it a product of its particular time, place, or
context?
o Why did the author produce this source? Who was his/her audience? Did the
author make his/her purpose or argument explicit or implicit? Was it for
public or private use? Is it a work of scholarship, fiction, art, or propaganda?
o  How does this source compare with other sources you have analyzed for
the analysis? Is it biased toward a particular argument? Incorporate or
neglect significant pieces of evidence? Does it structure its argument
according to similar (or different) periods, geographies, participants, themes,
or events?
 

Sources of History

A.   Primary Sources of History

Primary sources are materials produced in the period studied. They reflect the immediate concerns
and perspectives of those who are experiencing the historical events studied. Typical examples of
primary studies are diaries, correspondence, dispatches, newspaper editorials, speeches, economic
data, literature, art, and film. This type of historical source allows the historian to see the past
through direct participants' points of view.

Primary sources come from the historical moment under examination. These sources include
witnesses and artifacts. Familiar primary sources include newspapers, correspondence, memoirs,
laws, official documents, and published works.

(Mariano Peji and Filipino sailors at the U.S. Naval Academy posed in basketball uniforms circa 1926,
UMD Libraries Digital Collections Filipino American Community Archives)

Looking at the primary source above, we can make assumptions about the American Occupation in
the Philippines. First, we can say that the sport basketball has reached our shores. Another
assumption we can make is about how Filipinos dressed when playing sports. Lastly, we may be able
to assume some information based on the building behind the people in the picture.
 (The Royal Kandit, Villegas, 2004)

Non-text materials are also considered as primary sources of history if they were made by people
experiencing the historical events in question. The golden Royal Kandit shown above is an artifact
dating from between the 10th and 13th century and was found in Surigao. It is made of gold, about 74
centimeter, and weighs about a kilogram. If we analyze the information about the golden belt, we
may ask questions about how ancient Filipinos in Surigao were able to craft and own ornate pieces
of precious gold.

Evaluating Primary Sources

Like an investigative report, historical arguments try to establish how things may have happened.
Still, we have to be careful with interpreting primary sources as these are not perfect
documentations of historical events. Thus, we should also compare sources with each other to
check their credibility.

A fair reading of history involves asking questions about historical sources. You can be a critical
reader if you use your historical imagination and envision what could have happened if historical
characters were in different circumstances. Primary source analysis will help you gather information
about details that can be put together to form an idea of a historical event or period.

Professor Patrick Rael, who was a Professor of History at Bowdoin College, developed an acronym
for evaluating primary source texts (PAPER) (Rael, 2004):

A. P – Purpose of the maker in preparing the source

Knowing the purpose of the author or maker of a primary source includes finding out the role or
place of that person in the society he/she lived in. The social structure and culture of the maker will
help us form a basis for the development of the source.

B. A – Arguments and strategies used to achieve these goals

What ideas are the maker trying to convey by documenting a historical event or period? You may
also ask who the maker’s audience is and what is the maker’s strategy in communicating to his/her
audience. For instance, Anne Frank, who lived in the Nazi Period in Germany, made a dairy. The
diary contents are most probably intended for her private reading. At present, historian now know
that Anne’s father edited some pages to remove sensitive content. Knowing these details helps us
read between the lines and assume the “unwritten.” This analysis also enables us to know how
credible or reliable the source is.

(Anne Frank's Diary, The History Channel, 2018)

C. P – Presuppositions and values

We can also analyze a primary source by examining how the beliefs of the maker differ or are similar
to ours. This process highlights the values of the maker. At times, it may be uncomfortable to us to
read about slave-raiding of ancient Filipino tribes, but we consider their behavior as a product of
their time because they value different things (i.e. familial ties and food production).

D.    Epistemology

An epistemological reading of a primary source will give us information that can be factually proven.
These facts are not explicitly shown in the material. For instance, we can date Anne Frank’s diary
using the material of the paper or the ink that was used.

E. R – Relate to other texts

We can infer some things from reading various primary sources from different makers or writers.
We can do this by highlighting repetitive themes across sources. An example would be the current
reading of Ferdinand Magellan’s purpose in coming to the Philippines: some historians suggest that
he came for trade and not as a conquistador, effectively dating the Spanish Colonization of the
Philippines to 1565 instead of 1521. (Gerona, 2021)

Secondary Sources of History

Another source of history is secondary sources. If you tried to answer the questions above or made
intepretations about the primary sources in the previous photos, the documentation of your ideas
can be considered a secondary source of history.

Secondary sources are materials produced after the period that is studiedand is made by a person
who did not experience the historical events he/she was writing about. Typically, makers of
secondary sources lived in the period being studied but based their work on a primary source.
Historians read secondary sources to learn about how scholars have interpreted the past.

Historians using secondary sources consider the historical subject with ample background of the
sources' origin and generally select, analyze, and incorporate evidence (derived from primary
sources) to make an argument. Works of scholars are the most common secondary sources.

(5000 Php Banknote with Lapulapu and the Philippine Eagle, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, 2021)
 (Borrinaga, 2008)

A common secondary source of history are Philippine banknotes. The 5,000-peso banknote shown
above shows a realistic sketch of Lapulapu. The way he looks in the banknote is informed by
investigating the bodily adornment customs and the physical characteristics of Visayans. It is NOT a
photograph of Lapulapu. In other words, the banknote does not give a perfecr picture of what
Lapulapu looks like because it is only a rendition.
 

The book cover in the photo shows a volume of secondary historical material written by Rolando
Borrinaga. He conducted a modern and Waraynon reading of the correspondence among Waray,
Bicolano, Tagalog, and Cebuano revolutionaries in the Spanish and American Colonial Periods. His
opinions and inferences are informed by other primary sources such as maps, laws, and
photographs.

Secondary sources are also reliable sources of information, despite them being mere copies of
primary sources. They are reliable because they tend to be informed by analysis of culture and
historical periods. Secondary works such as scholarly work usually show readers what part of the
work are facts and what are opinions or intelligent guesses. Secondary sources will alert you to the
debates, disagreements, or major questions that historians grapple with a given topic. Additionally,
makers of secondary sources are not emotionally tied to the period they are examining.

Similar to primary sources, we need investigative skills in reading secondary historical material.
Secondary sources can be interpreted in different ways since each reader will know a different set of
information and will have a different point of view. We need to think through the material and
connect it to other sources. We also need to be careful in distinguishing between scholarly and non-
scholarly secondary sources.

 
When we join history classes, we are usually asked by our teachers to explore the discussions of
other scholars by writing essays. Our historical essays can be considered as secondary sources, as
long as we provide enough information about the following:

 Maker or writer of the source/material

 The maker’s or author’s expertise, training, and theoretical approach
 The maker’s or author’s explanation of why and how the events happened
 The maker’s or author’s argument or point of view about the historical period or
event talked about
 The evidence that the maker or author cited to support his/her argument
 The parts of the material that makes the argument weak
 The structure and form of the source (text, art, film, etc.)
 Any competing material that affects the way the material being studied is
structured
 How different or similar to works on the same topic is the material.

Credibility and Reliability

Aside from analying the content of sources, historians also examine the credibility and reliability of
historical sources.

A.   Reliability 

Reliable sources are those that are relay as facts those that can be verified with evidence. For
example, dates in historical material can be corroborated by other materials such as laws or new
reports.

B.   Credibility

Credibe sources are those that are transparent about approaches, biases, and points of view.
Credible sources do this by highlighting what is not known at the moment and what are accepted as
facts while making arguments.

02A Lesson Proper for Week 5

A. Book or article

Bangka, Kaluluwa, at Katutubong Paniniwala

Maria Bernadette L. Abrera

“Bangka” is the general Philippine term for all kinds of seacraft, variously classified since the
sixteenth century as a small and light vessel to a large commercial boat. This term is not found in the
seventeenth century Visayan and Bikol vocabularies and instead there appears its synonym, “baloto”
whose form and function are the same as that of the bangka.

The rituals involving the bangka reveal that it is more than a water vessel in Philippine culture: it is a
repository of an entire belief system in indigenous society. From the selection of the tree, felling it,
digging it out or hewing it into planks, to the construction and until its launching into the sea, the
entire process is wrapped in rituals and religious meanings. The bangka mirrors clearly and directly
the indigenous animist belief system. The rituals involved in burial and the use of the bangka as a
vessel to transport the departed to the next life are analyzed, revealing the worldview of Filipinos.
These all indicate the belief not just in the bangka as a “soul boat” but in a “soul of the boat” itself.

Visit this site for full text: https://bangkanixiao.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/abrera-bangka-

kaluluwa-at-katutubong-panininwa.pdf

Massive Balangay “Mother Boat” Unearthed in Butuan

By Timothy James Dimacali

Published August 9, 2013 4:04 pm | Updated August 16, 2013 12:00 am 

Link: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/scitech/science/321334/massive-balangay-mother-boat-
unearthed-in-butuan/story/

The largest sailing vessel of its kind yet discovered is being unearthed in Butuan City in Mindanao,
and it promises to rewrite Philippine maritime history as we know it. Estimated to be around 800
years old, the plank vessel may be centuries older than the ships used by European explorers in the
16th century when they first came upon the archipelago later named after a Spanish king, Las Islas
Felipenas.

The find also underscores theories that the Philippines, and Butuan in particular, was a major center
for cultural, religious, and commercial relations in Southeast Asia.

“Nails” the size of soda cans

National Museum archaeologist Dr. Mary Jane Louise A. Bolunia, who leads the research team at the
site, says almost everything about the newly-discovered "balangay" is massive. 
She holds up her hand and curls her fingers into a circle, as if grasping a soda can. "That's just one of
the treenails used in its construction," Bolunia says.

An aptly descriptive term, a "treenail" is a wooden peg or dowel used in place of iron nails in
boatbuilding.

So, with "nails" that size, exactly how big is this boat?

Bolunia produces a piece of onionskin paper with a carefully-inked map of the archeological site. On
the upper corner is a roughly pea pod-shaped boat wreck about 15 meters long, one of eight
similarly-sized balangays discovered at the site since the 1970's. But right next to it, discovered only
in 2012, are what seem to be the remains of a ninth balangay so wide that it could easily fit the
smaller craft into itself twice over – and that's just the part that's been excavated so far.

Although the boat has yet to be fully excavated, it's estimated to be at least 25 meters long.

Aside from the treenails, the individual planks alone are each as broad as a man's chest – roughly
twice the width of those used in other balangays on the site. The planks are so large that they can no
longer be duplicated, because there are no more trees today big enough to make boards that size,
according to Bolunia.

Visiting the site

GMA News visited the site on August 14, and found the excavation site waterlogged pending further
digging and study. However, Bolunia assured that keeping the artifacts in this condition for now is
actually beneficial for their conservation. "We just let the water seep in and leave it at that because
it's more protected than if you dry it. If you expose it without proper conservation then it will
disintegrate," she told GMA News.

Jorge Absite, officer-in-charge of the Butuan Museum, is hopeful that the new discovery will yield
more insights about our Filipino ancestors. The Butuan Museum is tasked with supervising the care
and protection of the balangay excavations and any artifacts found therein.
"Ito ang kasagutan sa 'missing link' ng kultura natin, kung ano ba talaga ang uring pamumuhay
meron ang mga ninuno natin (This is the answer to a 'missing link' in our culture, on what kind of life
our ancestors really had)," Absite said.

"(Filipinos') ability to construct or build big boats is not something new... Even before the Chinese
came to the Philippines, the Filipinos went to China through the Butuanons," Bolunia underscored.

Proceeding with caution

Historians, and Bolunia herself, caution that much work still needs to be done before the boat can
be conclusively dated and identified.

"(The newly-discovered boat) will need more technical verification to establish its connection and
relationship with the other boats already excavated, so that we can know its date, boat typology, and
technology," said Dr. Maria Bernadette L. Abrera, professor and chairperson of the Department of
History at the University of the Philippines-Diliman, in an email interview.

"We have to be careful," said Ramon Villegas, a scholar who has done extensive research on pre-
colonial Philippine history. "There has not been enough time to study (the artifacts). It could be a
Spanish boat or Chinese junk."

Aside from carbon dating to determine the age of the wood, the construction techniques used and
even the type of wood itself need to be ascertained before anyone can come to a definitive
conclusion.

"Everything depends on the construction, on how the boat was built, before you can properly call it a
'balangay'," explains archeologist and anthropologist Dr. Jesus Peralta. He said he has yet to see the
newfound boat for himself.

Nevertheless, the boat's proximity to previous sites of buried balangays promises to send ripples
through the academic world.

"It's a 'mother boat'," Bolunia says with little hesitation, "and it's changing the way we think about
ancient Filipino seafarers."

Rewriting Philippine history

It has long been established that Filipinos travelled across Southeast Asia as early as the 10th
century, reaching as far as Champa – what is now the eastern coast of Vietnam – in groups of
balangays.

These groups or flotillas have always been thought to consist of similarly-sized small vessels, an idea
perpetuated by the term "barangay" – the smallest administrative division of the present-day
Philippine government.

But, according to Bolunia, this new discovery suggests that these may just have been support
vessels for a much larger main boat, where trade goods and other supplies were likely to have been
held for safekeeping.

The discovery also suggests that seafaring Filipinos were much more organized and centralized than
previously thought.

Butuan as a major center of culture and trade

"This balangay reinforces the findings of the earlier excavations about the role of Butuan as a
commercial and population center in precolonial Philippines," Abrera told GMA News.

"Butuan seaport had long-time trade links with Champa and Guandong (China). You can retrace the
importance of (the newly-discovered boat) by utilizing it as an archeological key to that period when
Butuan was a busy link to the pan-Asian cultural and commercial intercourse," historian Arnold M.
Azurin told GMA News via Facebook chat.

In fact, Filipino seafarers from Butuan were already exploring Asia over a thousand years ago, well
ahead of our Chinese neighbors: as early as 1001, the Song Dynasty recorded the arrival of a
diplomatic mission from the "Kingdom of Butuan."

"In 1003 AD, a Butuan chieftain petitioned the Chinese Imperial Court to allow it to bring its products
direct to Guandong—instead of using Champa as the entrepôt (main trading post)," Azurin added.

However, according to Azurin, the petition was declined because the Court insisted on regulating
trade via Champa.

He also says that Butuan may also have played a major role in the spread of culture and religion in
the Philippines long before Christianity and even Islam came to the islands.

"The boat's possible deeper significance is that it may be one of the carriers of Hindu-Buddhist
cultural influence in the Philippine Archipelago long before Islam and Christianity arrived here. Many
scholars also say that the baybayin script arrived here through the same connection with Champa.
Hence, you can deepen the cultural legacy of our ancestors," Azurin said.

Older than Magellan and Jung He

While the newfound boat has yet to be accurately dated, its construction and position directly
alongside a balangay from the 1200's strongly suggest that it is also a balangay from the same time
period.

If so, then the boat predates by hundreds of years Magellan's arrival, and death, in the Philippines in
1521 and even the Chinese explorer Zheng He's expedition across Asia in 1400.

"For more than a thousand years, the trade and settlement patterns and routes across Asia
connected certain islands (of the Philippines), especially those with good harbors and steady supply
of local products," Azurin said.

"Highly interesting is the mention of slaves-for-sale in (Magellan's chronicler) Pigafetta's account of

the first circumnaviation: Raja Humabon boasted to Magellan that some boatloads of slaves had just
left Cebu for Cambodia and Champa—likely in need of warm bodies for their wars of succession, or
for new stonecutters for their megalithic shrines," he added.

Could Filipino craftsmen, sent abroad on balangays, have helped build ancient Asian monuments
like Angkor Wat?

"That's a possible conjecture, considering that archeologists like Robert Fox, H. Otley Beyer and
others have pointed out that some islands in southern Philippines had communities linked to (these
places)," he said.

Continuing a seaworthy tradition

In any case, the "mother boat" and the smaller balangays in Butuan were definitely made for
exploring the high seas, according to Dr.Bolunia.

She says their overall shape and construction are suited to navigating deep ocean waters more than
shallow rivers. The presence of a quarter rudder and sails would also indicate a sea-going vessel,
although these have yet to be found, Dr.Bolunia says.

"That's especially true for a boat this size," she says of the giant balangay.

Even today, the Sama-Badjao of Sulu still practice boatbuilding techniques that are strikingly similar
to those used in constructing the Butuan boats.

In 2010, replica balangays built by Sama-Badjao craftsmen and manned by Filipino adventurers
completed a 14,000-km journey across Southeast Asia, proving the seaworthiness of the original
balangays and the traditional woodcraft used to construct them.

One of the boats, the 15-meter-long "DiwatangLahi," is now on permanent display outside the
National Museum in Manila.

AUTHOR’S ARGUMENT AND POINT OF VIEW

 An author’s argument is the opinion or belief that he or she wants to persuade readers to
believe.

Identify the Issue

 Issue means the controversial topic that the author is discussing.

Examples of controversial issues include the death penalty, gun control, foreign policy, and abortion.

 Ask yourself, “Is the author writing about a controversial issue?”

Determine the Author’s Argument

  The author’s argument is his or her point of view on an issue.
 Ask yourself, “what is the author’s position on the issue?”

Step 1: Identify the Author’s Assumptions

 The author’s assumptions consist of things the author takes for granted without

presenting any proof (in other words, what the author believes or accepts as true and
bases the argument on).
 Ask yourself, “what does the author take for granted?”
 If the author’s assumptions are illogical or incorrect, then the entire argument will be
flawed. Readers may be misled unless they identify the author’s assumptions.

Step 2: Identify the Types of Support

 Types of support refer to the kind of evidence the author uses to back up the
argument.
 Ask yourself, “what kind of support does the author present to back the argument?”
 Support can include research findings, case studies, personal experience or observation,
examples, facts, comparisons, expert testimony, and opinions.

Step 3: Determine the Relevance of the Support

 Relevance means the support is directly related to the argument.

 Ask yourself, “is the support directly related to the argument?”
 Unless the author is an expert, his or her opinion or personal experience may not be
particularly relevant.

Step 4: Determine the Author’s Objectivity

 The author’s argument has objectivity when the support consists of facts and other
clear evidence.
 Ask yourself, “does the author present facts and clear evidence as support?”

Step 5: Determine the Argument’s Completeness

 An argument is complete if the author presents adequate support and overcomes

opposing points.
 Authors occasionally do not give enough support.
 Authors occasionally leave out information that would weaken their argument. Their
argument would be stronger if they presented it and countered it.

Step 6: Determine if the Argument Is Valid

 An argument is valid (has validity) if it is logical.

  Ask yourself, “is the argument logical (well-reasoned)?”

Step 7: Decide if the Argument Is Credible

 An argument has credibility if it is believable (convincing).

 Ask yourself, “is the author’s argument believable?”
 Validity and credibility are closely related because an argument that is not valid will not
be credible.