PRE-SPANISH Period

The First Filipinos and Ancestors’ cultures and way of life

Long before the Spaniards and other foreigners landed or set foot on Philippine
shores, our forefathers already had their own literature stamped in the history of our
race.
Our ancient literature shows our customs and traditions in everyday life as traced in
our folk stories, old plays and short stories.
Our ancestors also had their own alphabet which was different from that brought by
the Spaniards. The first alphabet used by our ancestor was similar to that of the
Malayo-Polynesian alphabet.
Why certain things existed in their physical environment must have intrigued the
ancient Filipinos as it did other early peoples. In their effort to define their world, to
account for the realities in it, and to explain their feelings, beliefs, and judgments,
they made up interesting narratives. These have come down to us in the form of
origin myths, legends, fables, tales of the supernatural, and humorous accounts
about some trickster, like Pusong or Pilandok, or some bungling character who got
by in spite of or because of his lack of wit.
And there were also metrical accounts of native Filipino gods and their deeds. Songs
and verses filled early religious practices: to express devotion, to atone for sins, to
minister to the sick, and to bury the dead.Verses were composed also to pray for
abundance and happiness: in the home, on the farm, on the sea, and elsewhere. In
like manner, verses aired love for and loyalty to the barangay and its rulers. These
were supplemented by accounts of battle (kudanag), songs of victory (tagumpay,
talindad), songs of hanging a captured enemy (sambotan, tagulaylay), and songs
expressive of manliness. From the people’s social life evolved.
But whatever records our ancestors left were either burned by the Spanish friars in
the belief that they were works of the devil or were written on materials that easily
perished, like the barks of trees, dried leaves and bamboo cylinders which could not
have remained undestroyed even if efforts were made to preserve them.
Other records that remained showed folk songs that proved the existence of a native
culture truly our own. Some of these were passed on by word of mouth until they
reached the hands of some publishers or printers who took interest in printing the
manuscripts of the ancient Filipinos.
Although attempts have been made to compile these folk narratives by such
collectors as Fr. Jose Ma. Pavon (Las antiguas leyendas de la isla de Negros) during
the Spanish period Fay-Cooper Cole (Traditions of the Tinguian, 1915), Mable Cook
Cole (Philippine Folk Tales, 1916), and Dean S. Fansler (Filipino Popular Tales, 1921)
during the early part of the American regime, and some Filipino and American
antropologists and folklorists in more recent times, many of the theme still remain in
the memory of the folk, uncollected and unwritten.

Mythology is an interwoven series of myths told by a given race. The word also
means the study of myths in general.

Classifications of Mythology:
1) Myth: an account of the deeds of a god or of a supernatural being; a kind of
imaginative precursor of scientific investigation.
– are permanent, they deal with the greatest of all problems – the problems which do
not change because men and women do not change. They deal with love (the
romantic element), war, sin, tyranny, courage, and faith; all in the same way in
relation to man.

2) Legend: a widely-accepted but unverified story of the origin of things, persons or

places.

Myths and legends deal largely with gods, their deeds, adventures, dealing with
supernatural beings and culture heroes with origins and explanation of things and
phenomena in the surrounding world.

3) Folktale: Pure fiction that seems to have no other origin than a desire to amuse
and
interest.
– bring knowledge and understanding of men’s motives and tolerance that
recognizes faith where ignorance would only see superstition. It is especially
necessary to have this knowledge now when modern science and invention have
brought the world into a closer community of nations.
– widely disseminated through all places in the world might bring to reality what we
all bring about our world.
– The folktales are shaped by the thoughts and the actions, the aspirations and fears
of a people. Often the outline of a story and sometimes even the characters are
common to several characters (epic and folklore).

Pre-Spanish Literature is characterized by:

A. LEGENDS
– Its aim is to entertain.
B. Folk tales
– a tale or legend originating and traditional among a people or folk, especially one
forming part of the oral tradition of the common people.
C. Epics
– noting or pertaining to a long poetic composition, usually centered upon a hero, in
which a series of great achievements or events is narrated in elevated style
D. Folk songs
– a song originating among the people of a country or area, passed by oral tradition
from one singer or generation to the next, often existing in several versions, and
marked generally by simple, modal melody and stanzaic, narrative verse.
E. Epigrams
– a short, often satirical poem dealing concisely with a single subject and usually
ending with a witty or ingenious turn of thought.
F. Riddles
– a question or statement so framed as to exercise one’s ingenuity in answering it or
discovering its meaning; conundrum.
G. Chants
– a short, simple melody, especially one characterized by single notes to which an
indefinite number of syllables are intoned, used in singing psalms, canticles, etc., in
church services.
H. Proverbs and Sayings
– A saying is a short, clever expression that usually contains advice or expresses
some obvious truth.
– proverb: a piece of common-sense wisdom expressed in practical, homely terms
(“A stitch in time saves nine”).
 OTHER FORMS OF PRE-SPANISH POETRY

E. Epigrams, Riddles, Chants, Maxims, Proverbs

or Sayings.

1. Epigrams (Salawikain). These have been customarily used and

served as laws or rules on good behavior by our ancestors. To others,
these are like allegories or parables that impart lessons for the young.

2. Riddles (Bugtong) or Palaisipan. These are made up of one or

more measured lines with rhyme and may consist of four to 12
syllables.

3. Chant (Bulong). Used in witch craft or enchantment.

4. Maxims. Some are rhyming couplets with verses 5,6 or 8 syllables,

each line having the same number of syllables.

5. Sayings (Kasabihan). Often used in teasing or to comment on a

person’s actuations.

6. Sawikain (Sayings with no hidden meanings)

The Arrival of Islam in the Philippines

The faith was first brought over by Arab traders in the late 13th and early
14th centuries, at least 200 years before Spanish explorers first introduced
Christianity to the 7,107-island archipelago. These Muslim merchants
came from present-day Malaysia and Indonesia to the southernmost points
in the Philippines, namely the Sulu islands and Mindanao. At the time, the
inhabitants there were animists who lived in small, autonomous
communities. The Arab newcomers quickly converted the indigenous
population to Islam, building the Philippines’ first mosque in the town
of Simunul in the mid-14th century.

The Muslim settlers didn’t just bring their religion and architecture,
however—they also brought their political system, establishing a series of
sultanates in the southern Philippines. The most celebrated of these rulers
was the Sultan of Sulu, whose capital was Jolo. The first official Sultan of
Sulu was an Arab from Sumatra named Abu Bakr, who crowned himself
around 1450. (He gained power in part by marrying the daughter of a
Malaysian trader named Rajah Baguinda, who held sway over Sulu
although he never gave himself the title of sultan.) Like many other Arab
rulers, he established his dynasty’s legitimacy by claiming to be a direct
descendent of Muhammad.

A similarly influential sultanate was established on the island of Mindanao

about 50 years later, and Muslim influence rapidly ascended northward up
the archipelago, reaching as far as the current capital of Manila on the
island of Luzon. In fact, when the Spanish first arrived in the mid-1500s,
they were dismayed to encounter such a strong Muslim presence; they
had, after all, only recently expelled the Moors from Spain, after nearly 800
years of conflict. The Spanish nicknamed the Philippines’ Muslim
inhabitants the Moros, a corruption of the word Moors.

The Spanish quickly converted much of the Philippines to Christianity,

using the sword quite liberally. But the colonialists had a difficult time
extending both their rule and their religion to the country’s south; the Moros
fiercely resisted many Spanish attempts to establish dominance over
Mindanao and Sulu. The Muslims, in turn, terrorized the Spanish by
conducting frequent slave-taking raids on Luzon and in other Christianized
parts of the Philippines.

It was not until the mid-1800s that advancing military technology, such as
the steam-powered gunboat, began to tip the scales in favor of Spain. In
1878, the Sultan of Sulu finally signed a peace treaty with Spain, and his
domain officially became an autonomous protectorate of the European
power. However, localized resistance still flared up on occasion.

The United States took control of the Philippines after the Spanish-
American War in 1898. The Moros viewed the new colonialists as no less
objectionable than the Spanish, and they fiercely resisted attempts to
westernize Mindanao in particular. The U.S. military even had to invent a
new, more powerful handgun, the Colt M1911, in order to stop the Moro
insurgents; they tended to keep on coming at the American soldiers,
daggers in hand, despite having been shot.

The latest wave of Muslim separatism in the nation’s south began in the
1970s. Since the country became independent, the Filipino government
has encouraged non-Muslims to move to Mindanao and other
impoverished locations in the south. The Moros view this policy as
designed to de-Islamize the region and believe that the Christians treat
them like second-class citizens. Years of bloody struggle have resulted.