100

Sanciangko Street, Cebu City

HUM 102
Philippine Popular Culture
Name: Dominique Marie S. Origenes Course/ Program: BPED 1
Class Schedule: HUM 102 TTH 9:00-10:30 am Date: March 1, 2022

Assignment 1

LESSON: Pre-Colonial Philippine Culture

Research on the pre-colonial forms of Philippine arts, music, and literature

before the emergence of Arabs, Chinese and Indo-Malay influences.
Highlight the importance and functions of arts, music, and literature in the
lives of the people during the pre-colonial period.
Provide pictures beside the descriptions.

Total Score: 100 Points

W hile Filipinos nowadays are fairly knowledgeable of the

Spanish, American, and Japanese eras, the same cannot be
said when it comes to the pre-colonial Philippines. When in
fact, even before the coming of the three foreign races, our
ancestors were pretty much living in a veritable paradise.

Although it wasn’t perfect, this era was actually the closest

thing we ever had to a Golden Age. We can tell easily how
people lived before and how they freely expressed themselves
through art, music, and literature.

.
 Philippine Arts,
Music, and Literature
in the Pre-Colonial Era
The Pre-Colonial Period is when our
indigenous ancestors inhabited the
Philippines and the time before the
coming of our first colonizers.

Every art expression was

integrated within rituals that
marked significant moments in
a community’s life like
Planting and
Harvesting, Funerary
Ceremonies, and
Weddings.
Theater
Our ancestors, just like all others in the world during those
times, were hunter-gatherers. They imitated the movement
of animals and prey, and the sounds that they made. This
simple activity evolved rituals, music, dance, theater, and
even literature.

These rituals are considered the earliest forms of theater

that are still alive in various regions:

Mayvanuvanua in Batanes Kanyaw in Cordillera

Autonomous Region

Cashawing in Lake Lanao, Tagbanwa in Palawan

Mindanao
 SPECIAL OFFER FOR YOU!

Instruments
Get ready for
Long before the coming of the Spaniards, the pre-colonial people of

the adventure
the Philippines already possessed a varied and vibrant musical
culture. The country’s indigenous cultures through the existence of
ethnic musical instruments such as Pipes, Flutes, Zithers, Drums,
Kudyapi, Kulintang, and Agong.

Dance
The Mandayas’kinabua, the
banog-banog of the Higaonon
and of the B’laan communities,
and the man-manok of the
Bagobos of Mindanao
Imitate the movements of
predatory birds.

Talip Dance (Ifugaos) 

Used in courtship 
Mimetic of the movements of
wild fowls.
Inamog of the Matigsalugs, and the Kadaliwas
dance of the T’bolis
Represent the comedic movements of monkeys.

Tinikling
Evocative of the movements of the crane,
balancing itself on stilt-like legs or flitting away
from the clutches of bamboo traps.
Carving
Pre-colonials Filipinos have
been making images before
colonization. This is
exemplified by the
country’s rich tradition in
carving.

People of the Cordilleras

carve the bulul,
regarded as a granary
god that plays an
important role in rituals.

The Ifugaos also produce

the Hagabi, a wooden
bench that marks the
socioeconomic status
of the owner.

Christianized communities in Laguna and Pampanga are

known for carving Santos as well as other wooden
sculptures of secular or nonreligious orientation.
In Southern Philippines, curvilinear decorations called
the Okir (termed ukkil in Tausug/Samal/Badjao) are
employed in woodcarving.
Manunggul Jar, discovered at Manunggul Cave, Lipuun
Point, Palawan is dated to the late Neolithic period. It
is a secondary burial vessel, where buried and exhumed
bones are placed.
Weaving
Another cherished living tradition is weaving. According to
Respicio, textile weaving has a long history that Philippines
ethnolinguistic groups have a rich textile weaving tradition.
Textiles are not only functional, but they also impart
knowledge about people’s belief systems.

A backstrap loom or a pedal loom is

used to weave designs that
hold special meaning for a particular
cultural group.

Examples of woven textiles include the

pis siyabit, a headpiece woven by the
Tausug of Sulu, and malong with
exquisite tapestry panels called langkit
weaved by the Maranao of Lanao del
Sur.

The colorful double-layered tepo mat of

the Samal of Tawi-Tawi made of
pandan leaves is a remarkable example
of a mundane or everyday object with
high artistic value.

Weaving techniques are also applied in

creating tools for agricultural purposes.
In Ilocos Region, sturdy bamboo strips
are woven to create fish traps called
bubo.
 Metalwork
Painstaking attention to detail is
manifested in metalwork, such as
the lotoans or betel nut boxes in
various shapes, made of brass or
bronze produced chiefly by the
Maranao of Lanao del Sur.
Textured designs of rhombuses,
spirals, circles, and tendrils
swarm over the exterior of
functional containers

The design is achieved through a

special technique of metal
casting called the lost wax or
cire perdue process which
involves the use of molds filled
with liquefied metal that
eventually hardens.

Other vessels that employ the

same techniques are the brass
kendi and the gadur, which are
used in ceremonies and are
cherished as status symbols or as
heirloom pieces. The kendi is a
vessel used for pouring liquids.