LESSON 2:

THE MAMANWA- THE EARLIEST PEOPLE IN THE

COUNTRY

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:

At the end of the lesson, the students are expected to;

1. Understand the life and existence of the

Mamanwa people
2. Analyze their proper place in human history
together with the other tribal groups in the
country.
3. Recognize their rich values system and
culture.

MATERIALS

1. https://youtu.be/kS2ioPKe9I8

INTRODUCTION

The Philippines is an archipelago. It is composed of 7,100 islands. It has a total land area of
300,000 square kilometers or 120, 000 sq. mi. It is believed, during the Ice Age, there was no
body of water that separates the islands. Early people freely moved from one place to another in
search of food and security.

When ice melt down, the land bridges eroded and the connection disappeared. The result was a
group of islands -the Archipelago. When writing down about the peopling of the islands began,
various experts presented an idea to whom shall they accorded to be the forefathers of the
Filipinos.

Several studies were conducted and scientific results were presented. The earliest study were
conducted by Dr. Robert Fox 1962. Then in 2007, Dr. Armand Mijares, University of the
Philippines discovered the Callao cave man in Ilocos. Recently, Dr. Keiichi Omoto, Professor
Emeritus of Biological Anthropology and Population Genetics at the University of Tokyo in
Japan presented Mamanwa tribe.

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THE MAMANWA OF SURIGAO AND AGUSAN PROVINCES
By Leslie E. Bauzon

The Geographical Setting

Looking at any road map of the Philippine Archipelago, one can easily see that Surigao
and Agusan provinces are in the northeastern part of the southern Philippine island of
Mindanao. The region in which the provinces are situated is bounded on the East by the
Surigao Deep, considered as one of the lowest troughs in the world, and the vast Pacific
Ocean; on the North by the Surigao Strait which separates northeastern Mindanao from
Leyte Island by a mere four-hour motorized outrigger banca ride that I took in April
1978; on the West by the provinces of Misamis Oriental and Bukidnon; and on the
South by the provinces of Davao del Norte and Davao Oriental.

Again, looking at any map of the country, one can readily see that Surigao and Agusan
provinces contain some of the most outstanding topographical features found on the
island of Mindanao. The lowland-highland pattern and the upstream-downstream
pattern are quickly apparent. One can see small pockets of lowland areas and
intermontane basins. These pockets of lowland areas, many of which are divided by
rugged forelands reaching the Pacific Ocean shores, would then rise sharply into
highlands and mountains as one moves away from the coastlands into the interior.

Thus, all along the interior of Surigao, running like a backbone from North to South, and
straddling the province of Agusan, one can see mountains, extending all the way
southward to Cape San Agustin in the province of Davao Oriental. This range of
mountains from Surigao to Davao Oriental is generally known as the Pacific Cordillera
(also called the Eastern Cordillera), broken only by low and rolling hills in the middle
section from Lianga to Bislig towns in southern Surigao to the interior municipalities of
Prosperidad and San Francisco in southern Agusan and into the Agusan Valley; and
from Bislig and Lingig towns, also in southern Surigao, to Cuevas and Trento towns in
southern Agusan, both of which are along the Pan-Philippine Highway that provides
access to Butuan City in northeastern Mindanao or to Davao City in southeastern
Mindanao.

The northern mountains of the Pacific Cordillera are collectively called the Diwata
Mountains straddling the Surigao and Agusan provinces from North to South. Inland,
one finds the most transparent lake and the fourth largest freshwater body in the
country, Lake Mainit. Flowing northward from its headwaters in the Uloagusan
Mountains separating Agusan del Sur and Davao del Norte, there is the 322-kilometer
long mighty Agusan River that is one of the major river systems in Mindanao. These

12
geographical features serve as the setting for the life of the Mamanwa, a self-ascription
that means The First Forest Dwellers, in the past 50,000 years.

The Mamanwa of Surigao and Agusan

As early as 1983, the Filipino anthropologist Erlinda M. Burton expressed the view that
Mindanao, within the context of the peopling of the entire Philippine Archipelago, came
to be inhabited as a result of the migration or movement of human population through
Celebes or through Borneo sometime during the Upper Pleistocene Period (50,000 to
80,000 BC). [Erlinda M. Burton, "The Ethnohistory of Mindanao: Some Hypothesis and
Problems," a paper presented at the 6th UGAT (Anthropological Association of the
Philippines) National Conference, Midsayap, North Cotabato, 5-11 April 1983]

Anthropologists would generally agree that the human population which first settled in
the Philippines entering the Archipelago by way of Mindanao was the Negrito
population, generally believed to be composed of the hunter-gatherers known as the
Mamanwa in Northeastern Mindanao and the Aeta of Western Central Luzon. It is
commonly held by anthropologists also that inasmuch as the Negritos did not have a
boat-making tradition, they literally walked into the Islands, without their feet getting wet,
during that remote time in prehistory when the Philippine Islands and the other
Southeast Asian islands were assumed to have been connected with the Asian
mainland. [Daisy Y. Noval-Morales and James Monan, A Primer on the Negritos of the
Philippines. Manila: Philippine Business for Social Progress, 1979, pp. 5-7]

Back in the 1970s and in the early 1980s, nobody knew about the geographic origins of
the Negritos. The Mamanwa and the Aeta were assumed to be genetically the same. A
19th century Jesuit priest, Fr. Francisco de Paula Sanchez would be primarily
responsible in calling the Mamanwa as "full-blooded Negritos" based on his report
which now form part of the celebrated Jesuit Letters. [Quoted in John W. Burton, "The
People of Mindanao: A 19th Century Classification," Gimba I, I (November 1984), p. 11]

In any case, all students of Philippine prehistory agreed that the Negritos did not
originate in the Philippines. There is consensus however about the Negritos being the
aboriginal inhabitants of the Islands. The Tabon Man carbon dated at 23,000 BC found
in the Tabon Cave of southern Palawan has been identified as Australoid, or like an
Australian aboriginal individual. [Dr. Eric S. Casino, The Philippines: Lands and
Peoples, a Cultural Geography. New York, USA: Grolier International, Inc., 1982, p. 81]

The hunting and gathering Mamanwa of Surigao and Agusan provinces in Northeastern
Mindanao, Southern Philippines are now seen as an endangered people. These gentle
people are disadvantaged at the outset because of their unfortunate but natural physical
13
appearance, making them the object of condescension by Filipino lowlanders. Their
gullibility is exploited by swindlers, landgrabbers, miners, loggers, rebels, and rogue
military elements.

Genetic Origins of the Mamanwa

And yet we now know from the groundbreaking biological anthropology study of Dr.
Keiichi Omoto, Professor Emeritus of Biological Anthropology and Population Genetics
at the University of Tokyo in Japan, that the Mamanwa have been around in the Surigao
and Agusan forests for the past 50,000 years, antedating the Aeta by 25,000 to 30,000
years, with the Aeta entering the Philippines via Borneo, Palawan and on to Western
Luzon.

According to Dr. Omoto, the Mamanwa are genetically different from the Aeta, thereby
proving the 19th century Jesuit priest Fr. Francisco de Paula Sanchez to be wrong. In
other words, the Mamanwa as hunter-gatherers are not Negrito. The Mamanwa first
appeared via Celebes some 50,000 years ago from Ceram Island in Eastern Indonesia.
They originally lived as hunters and gatherers around Lake Mainit straddling Surigao del
Norte and Agusan del Norte, including the present village of Cantugas, then spreading
to other parts of the Caraga Region, some moving northward to Leyte, Samar and on to
Eastern Luzon. Dr. Omoto definitely says that the Mamanwa are the original FIRST
PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES.

[Keiichi Omoto, "The Negritos: Genetic Origins and Microevolution," in Robert Kirk and
Emoke Szathmary (eds.), OUT OF ASIA: PEOPLING THE AMERICAS AND THE
PACIFIC (Canberra, Australia: The Journal of Pacific History, 1985), pp. 123-131];
Keiichi Omoto, "Genetic Diversity of Human Populations in Eastern Asia," in M. Kato
(ed.), THE BIOLOGY OF DIVERSITY (Tokyo, Japan: Springer-Verlag, 1999), pp. 289-
299]; Artemio C. Barbosa, "The Mamanwa: They Come and Go -- Discourse in
Development and Contemporary Scene," in Takeshi Kimura and Leslie E. Bauzon
(eds.), PROCEEDINGS OF THE INTERNATIONAL SURIGAO CONFERENCE ON
"CULTURAL VALUES AND SUSTAINABILITY: DIALOGUE BETWEEN JAPAN AND
THE PHILIPPINES" AUGUST 20 to 21, 2006 (Tsukuba City, Japan: University of
Tsukuba Graduate Program in Area Studies, Area Studies Occasional Paper Series No.
3, March 2007), pp. 147-159]

Mamanwa: The Authentic Indigenous People

The Mamanwa are the authentic indigenous people of the Philippines. Mamanwa is a
self-ascription that means First Forest Dwellers. As such, they have contributed to and
14
are living witnesses to the early formation of human life in the country. They should
therefore be considered as a NATIONAL TREASURE, instead of being marginalized,
discriminated upon, and relegated to the underside of Philippine society where they are
unconscionably neglected as well as allowed to languish in miserable existence to the
point of near extinction.

Undoubtedly, the Mamanwa are an interesting people and they deserve fuller attention
in order to prevent their cultural and physical extinction, to liberate them from their
abject poverty, to protect them from cheating lowlanders, and to cushion the impact of
what the late Filipino anthropologist Marcelino N. Maceda referred to as "forced
acculturation." (Marcelino N. Maceda, "Culture Change Among a Mamanua Group of
Northeastern Mindanao," PHILIPPINE QUARTERLY OF CULTURE AND SOCIETY
[University of San Carlos, Cebu City], 3 (December 1975), pp. 258-276)

Avoid Mamanwa Extinction

Efforts must be exerted to avoid their extinction and ensure their survival as a people
and as an ethnic group. They are part of the precious cultural heritage of the Filipino
people, indeed, of all humanity, because knowing how they live gives us a precious
insight into how Filipinos and human beings lived in the past 50,000 years. The
Mamanwa mirror our past. (Leslie E. Bauzon, "An Ethnohistory of Surigao and Agusan,
Southern Philippines," AREA STUDIES TSUKUBA [Graduate School of Area Studies,
University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba Science City, Japan] 14: 1-25, 1996)

While they are viewed as hunter-gatherers, there is credible evidence that these hunter-
gatherers contributed toward effecting the silent, almost imperceptible, revolutionary
breakthrough transition of ancient Filipinos around 7,000 BC from hunting-gathering to
swidden farming and horticulture, especially in the domestication of root crops like taro
and yam. [Dr. Eric S. Casino, THE PHILIPPINES: LANDS AND PEOPLES, A
CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY (New York, USA: Grolier International, Inc., 1982), pp. 43-
58]

Dr. Keiichi Omoto himself believes that the innovation from hunting-gathering to
swidden farming and horticulture occurred even earlier around 10,000 BC. Therefore, if
you love ube haleya, laing, ube candy, ube ice cream and gabi in our curative national
brew called sinigang (pork, beef, fish, shrimp), you and I are indebted to the hunter-
gatherers like the Mamanwa for being the first humans to cultivate these root crops
(personal conversation with Dr. Keiichi Omoto in July 2005; September 2014; and
August 2015), in the same way that mankind is indebted to the Amerindians of
Mesoamerica for gifting the world with corn, to the Incas of Peru for giving potato to
15
humanity, to the Africans for okra [E. Bradford Burns, LATIN AMERICA: A CONCISE
INTERPRETIVE HISTORY, THIRD EDITION (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, USA:
Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1982, pp. 5-10; 22]; and to the Southeast Asians for making millions
of human beings worldwide into rice-eaters. [Personal conversation with Japanese
ecologists Dr. Yoshikazu Takaya and Dr. Isamu Yamada of the Kyoto University Center
for Southeast Asian Studies in Kyoto, Japan during our comprehensive field work in the
Philippines in April-May 1978; see also Milton Osborne, SOUTHEAST ASIA: AN
ILLUSTRATED INTRODUCTORY HISTORY, FIFTH EDITION (St. Leonards, NSW,
Australia: Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd, 1990, p. 22]

In fact, there is archaeological evidence that taro cultivation started in ancient times
dating back to 28,700 BP and 20,100 BP. This is based on starch granules identified by
scientists as coming from taro found on stone tools unearthed in Kilu Cave in the
Solomon Islands near Papua New Guinea; as well as based on "earthworks,
geomorphological evidence, and plant remains" dating back to 9000 BP unearthed in
the Western Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. [Peter J. Matthews, "An
Introduction to the History of Taro as a Food," in V. Ramanatha Rao, P. J. Matthews, P.
B. Eyzaguirre and B. Hunter (eds.), The Global Diversity of Taro: Ethnobotany and
Conservation (Rome, Italy: Biodiversity International, 2010, p. 6;
www.biodiversityinternational.org/uploads/bc_news/The_global_diversity_of_taro_ethno
botany_and_conservation_1402.pdf]

The Mamanwa witnessed and lived the early life in our beloved land for thousands of
years before the winds of change brought about by Indianization, Sinicization,
Islamization and Western Colonization blew into the Philippines. From this perspective, I
respectfully disagree with the "catastrophic" theory of history stating that history abruptly
began only at a particular date in time, not taking into account what went before due to
internal and external factors. The "catastrophic" theory became a controversial topic
among scholars seeking to explain the origins of the Italian Renaissance in the 15th
century, but I am digressing.

Mamanwa Studies

I would like to take this opportunity to encourage the younger generation of Filipino
historians and other scholars to engage in additional research to highlight the role of the
Mamanwa as The First People of the Philippines, the authentic indigenous people of the
country who are living witnesses and contributors to the formation of early human life in
the Philippines 50,000 years ago, thereby increasing our knowledge and understanding
about their history, culture and creativity as a people in successfully adapting to their
forest environment for the past 50,000 years [Nimfa L. Bracamonte, Arnold P. Alamon,
16
Ordem K. Maglente, et al, "Indigenous Knowledge Management on Medicinal Plants
and Animals for Maternal and Child Health Care Among the Mamanua in Cantugas,
Mainit, Surigao del Norte (Bicutan, Taguig City: PCHRD and Northern Mindanao
Consortium for Health Research and Development, June 2015), while becoming aware
of their plight as a neglected and marginalized sector of Philippine society, so that we
will become a sensitized and conscientisized informed public positively taking concrete
steps by legislation and other means toward improving the lot of the Mamanwa people.
[Keiichi Omoto, "Give the Hunter-Gatherers of the Philippines a Place for Peaceful
Living," www.surigaoheritage.org/mamanwa-keiichi.php]

The Mamanwa are also human beings who must be treated with respect, equality and
care in this our Filipino nation. This idea must be inculcated among Filipinos now and in
the next generations from Grade 1 until college in order to eliminate bigotry,
discrimination, prejudice and pejorative attitude toward the Mamanwa, and thus remove
the absolute social division presently existing between the Mamanwa and the majority
Christian population. In fact, being our living link to the past 50,000 years of human life
in the country, may I reiterate my view that they should be declared a National
Treasure. Thank you very much for your time and attention. With all my best wishes
always.

Leslie E. Bauzon
Professor of History (Retired)
College of Social Sciences and Philosophy
University of the Philippines
Diliman, Quezon City

Professor of History (Retired)

Graduate School of Area Studies and Graduate School of
Humanities and Social Sciences
University of Tsukuba
Tsukuba City, Japan

THE MAMANWA PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES

http://www.ourpacificocean.com/oceania_mamanwa/index.htm 12/172019

Recent findings published in the American Journal of Human Genetics have shown that
Australian Aborigines have a Siberian ancestor common to New Guineans and an indigenous
tribe in the Philippines known as the Mamanwa.

DNA was extracted from a finger bone excavated in the freezing temperatures of Siberia to
analyse the vast movement of people to tropical parts of Asia and Australia more than 40,000

17
years ago. The little finger bone, uncovered from a cave by Russian archaeologists in 2008,
holds the key to explaining how humans intermixed since they left Africa.

Examining the finger's nuclear genome, researchers from the Harvard Medical School and the
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology concluded that Denisovans, a primitive
group of humans descended from Neanderthals, migrated from Siberia to tropical parts of Asia.
They contributed DNA to Aborigines in Australia along with present-day New Guineans and an
indigenous tribe in the Philippines known as Mamanwa. The researchers concluded that
Denisovans (who migrated to South-East Asia and Oceania in the first wave) interbred with
modern humans in South-East Asia 44,000 years ago, before Australia separated from Papua
New Guinea.

The Mamanwa population in the Philippines split from the Denisovans before the New Guineans
and the Australian Aborigines. Later migrants have relatives in East Asia, who are now the
present population of South-East Asia. These findings have certainly helped fill in some empty
pieces in the evolutionary puzzle that began after early humans left Africa and reinforces the
view that humans have intermixed throughout history.

Mamanwa lady and Mamanwa dwelling

The Mamanwa people of the Philippines were once considered a Negrito group (a class of
several ethnic groups that inhabit isolated parts of Southeast Asia), but now are thought to
comprise an older group entirely distinct from other Filipino populations. Mamanwa (also spelled
Mamanoa) means 'first forest dwellers', from the words man (first) and banwa (forest). They
speak the Mamanwa language (or Minamanwa), an adaptation of the language of a dominant
nearby group. The Mamanwa language is a Central Philippine language spoken in the
provinces of Agusan del Norte and Surigao in Mindanao, Philippines. It had about 5,000
speakers as of 1990.

Some Mamanwas have the characteristics of the New Zealand Maoris and the Papuans in their
general physical features of slenderness and height. The Mamanwas are genetically distinct
from other ethnic groups in the Philippines exhibiting curly hair and much darker skin tones.

The Mamanwas are a respectable people who have a distinctive way of worship. They show
respect on things and places which are beyond their comprehensions. The sun, moon, stars, big
rocks, mountains, rivers, seas and lakes have special places in the hearts and minds of the
Mamanwas. Anything that gives goodness and food to them is to be respected. The lights from

18
the heavenly bodies, the fishes from the waters, the big rocks that sometimes become their
temporary homes in their nomadic lives are to be honoured by them. The mountains that give
them food like wild berries, fruits, birds, animals and reptiles are likewise given respect. For
them, things and places that are sources of foods seem to be gods.

Some old Mamanwas of today tell of their ancestors' early habitats along river mouths,
seashores, islets and islands. They cannot, however, pinpoint particular areas as their
permanent settlements for they did not have any. They transfer from place to place and travel
as far as their minds could imagine and their feet could carry them. The transfers usually
happen in case of deaths for it was the old customs to pack up and leave the place when death
occurs even if their plants are ready for harvest.

Mamanwa dwellings

The Mamanwas have the characteristic habit of building constant and eternal fires at the sides
or under their makeshifts. The purpose is to drive away mosquitoes and flies, their most
dreaded insects. Until now, some Mamanwas still believe that flies bring bad omens. To them,
these insects are harbingers and heralds of deaths as the old Mamanwas said. One of the
causes of their being nomadic is the prevalence of flies. Although the above custom is ebbing
with the advent of Christianity, many still cling and adhere to the belief of building fires to drive
the evil spirits away.

The Mamanwas have a ritual for the full moon. From moon rise in the early evening to the
setting of the moon, they dance their moon dance - generally regarded as a form of spirit dance
which involves a repetitive chant.

The political system of the Mamanwas is informally democratic and age-structured. Elders are
respected and are expected to maintain peace and order within the tribe. The chieftain, called a
Tambayon, usually takes over the duties of counselling tribal members, speaking at gatherings,
and arbitrating disagreements. They believe in a collection of spirits, which are governed by the
supreme deity Magbabaya. The tribe produce excellent winnowing baskets, rattan hammocks,
and other household containers.

The Mamanwas are not fond of weaponries and seldom wear necklaces, armlets, and other
trinkets. They only wear the ordinary rubber bands in lieu of the bracelets but the rubber bands
are never considered by them as adornments.

19
The Mamanwas are concentrated primarily in Kitcharao and Santiago; however, they are quite
mobile, and continually relocate. As hunting has declined in importance, the bow and arrow
have largely fallen into disuse. The Mamanwas receive some of their subsistence from other
groups with whom they have labour arrangements. Settlements consist of three to twenty
households arranged in a circle in a high ridge or valley. The houses generally lack walls.
Communities are kin-based, with leadership vested in the oldest and most respected male.

By habit or compulsion, the Mamanwas do not mix with the Manobos. The Manobos are another
early tribal group who belong to the original stock of proto-Philippine or proto-Austronesian
people who came from South China thousands of years ago. The different Manobo languages
belong to the Philippine subfamily of the super family of languages called Austronesian. In this
respect they may well be part of the early Polynesian migration to the Pacific/Oceania region.

There is a wide glass wall which traditionally separates these ethnic groups. The modern
Mamanwas, however, like the Manobos, mix with the lowland people they call Bisayans. The big
difference, however, between the two cultural minorities is that the Mamanwas are lesser in
number and more scattered and nomadic than the Manobos. The Mamanwas are a different
breed of people in their looks and physical features compared to the lowlanders and the upland
living Manobos. Unlike the Manobos, the Mamanwas did not adopt the lowlanders' way of living.
They have retained for centuries their indigenous culture which to an outsider is often very
difficult to understand. The speak their own dialect and do not go to school to learn either
Filipino or English.

Like the Manobos, the Mamanwas are python meat-eaters. Bagging one of a sizeable python
would mean a fiesta for the tribe and the neighbouring tribal settlements which could hear the
beatings with messages of the agong. They congregate and partake of the commonly broiled or
roasted python meat. (Python meat is a delicacy of the Mamanwas who are experts in trapping
or killing this dangerous reptile.)

A big snake or python would also mean money for these people. Not a few lowlanders would
buy and eat python meat that the Mamanwas trap. Aside from the meat, the Mamanwas get the
skin and bile of the reptile, the latter is used for medicinal purposes along with the extracted lard
from the fatty meat.

Give the Hunter-Gatherers of the Philippines a Place for Peaceful Living

Keiichi Omoto, Professor Emeritus of The University of Tokyo kocolias@msg.biglobe.ne.jp

(Translated from an article in Mainichi Newspaper January 8th, 2015)

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Do you know the Philippine aboriginal minority people known as Negritos? It is they whom
anthropologists have long believed to be the oldest indigenous hunter-gatherers of South East
Asia. Yet, now, the basis of their life is being threatened.

Last September in Surigao City of Mindanao Island, I was invited to talk in an international
symposium “Dialogue with Mamanwas”. The Mamanwa is one of the various tribes which
together constitute the Negrito people among whom I have been studying to ascertain their
origins through using genetic markers.

Currently, the majority of the indigenous peoples in the Philippines are descended from
agricultural peoples who moved from East Asia in the Neolithic era after ~5000 years ago. The
Spanish, who came to the islands in the 16th Century, noticed however that there were also
people other than agriculturists in the mountain regions, people who were of very short stature,
who had dark skins and curly hair. They called them Negritos (small negroes).

Later, anthropological, archeological and linguistic studies revealed that they are the
descendants of hunter-gatherers who migrated from the Indonesian region in the late Paleolithic
era (40,000~10,000 years ago), at a time before agriculture had started. Until recently, and
without agriculture, they worked to be self-sufficient through hunting, fishing and gathering
plants, and also by bartering with neighbouring people. In my experience of and with them, I
have discovered that they have a deep knowledge of and respect for nature. They are quick-
witted, cheerful and kind. They hate a fight, yet have attempted to preclude, through avoidance,
the expansion of agricultural people who have come to live in remote mountainous areas. But,
they have been and are now suffering from prejudice against them and consequent
discrimination.

We were, of course, all hunter-gatherers 10,000 years ago. Moreover, hunter-gatherers are the
world’s true indigenous people as also, I would argue, a living witness to the origins of humanity.
Indeed we need to learn many things from them.

Over 30 years ago, in 1978, I visited some Negritos’ living area whilst being guided by a young
Mamanwa man who made me climb a mountain adjacent to a small village, Urbistondo, to the
south of Surigao City. At that time the Mamanwa people did not build a village in which to
reside. Rather, they lived scattered over a broad area in which men hunted wild boars and other
animals and gathered mountain plants (such as rattan and orchid), bartering some with local
agriculturalists for rice and miscellaneous goods at local markets. Women, on the other hand,
raised children and gathered bananas, taros, and mountain vegetables. The Mamanwa indeed
seemed to be well adapted to nature and their environment.

However, after attending an international symposium in Surigao City, I visited Urbistondo again
to see the current situation of the Mamanwas. I was stunned to the point of having to jump out
of the car in which I was being driven. The forests had all gone from the mountains behind the
town and dump trucks were roaring around in the dust that remained. The sandy beach that I
had known had also disappeared to make space for a site where cargo vessels, a number of
which I saw waiting to approach, might tie up. When I asked what had happened I was told that
a big mining developmental project to extract nickel and other metals was underway, with a big

21
Japanese enterprise playing a central role. A consequence was that Mamanwa people had
been forced to move to a poor small village built near the coast and well away from the
mountain area where they had previously lived and subsisted. One old man whom I interviewed
grumbled sadly that he wanted to go back to the mountain.

Around the village my colleagues and I met a group of lowlanders all armed with guns. When I
asked them why they carried guns, they answered that it was because the area had been
attacked a few years previously by a group protesting against the mining project, and this is why
they were now protecting the area.

I was so sad and ashamed as a Japanese to see all of this – to see that behind the prosperity of
the modern civilization we enjoy is environmental destruction and infringement of the human
rights of indigenous people, especially of the weakest-positioned hunter-gatherers. This is
something of which we should all be aware. Keiichi Omoto, an Honorary Member of IUAES, is a
physical anthropologist who has carried out researches on the origins of the indigenous
populations of Asia through using genetic data.

Asynchronous Learning

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B. RELATED LEARNING

ACTIVITY 1: TABON MAN

The Tabon Man is the oldest confirmed modern human in the Philippines. Evidence of
this Homo sapiens was discovered in the Tabon Caves Complex on Palawan Island. The
discovery was made by Dr. Robert Fox, an American anthropologist in 1962.

Presently, it is the earliest remains of modern humans in the Southeast Asian archipelago. This
seems to support the Out of Taiwan hypothesis. That hypothesis suggests that humans first
crossed into the Philippines from Taiwan.

The Tabon Man lived in the Stone Age, from 37,000 to 47,000 years ago. The skull bone and
jaw of three different individuals were found in the Palawan caves. The caves provide clear
evidence that these early humans used and made stone tools. The evidence also shows that
they were able to use of fire.

These Stone Age humans were hunters and gatherers. Hunters and gatherers had
no domesticated plants or animals for food. Instead, they obtained all their food directly from the
wild.

Tabon Man practiced human burial. Burial earthenware jars have been found. These burial jars
contained human remains. Jar burials was also practiced in mainland Southeast Asia.

Some experts believe that the Tabon remains belong to a pre-Mongoloid race. The Mongoloids
were the people who entered Southeast Asia and absorbed the pre-Mongoloid races. It is
thought that the Filipino, Indonesian, Malay, and Pacific peoples are descended from the
Mongoloids.

ACTIVITY 2: CALLAO CAVE MAN

In 2007, archaeologists’ unearthed human bones in the Philippines that proved early man had
lived on the archipelago almost 70,000 years ago.

Before the discovery of the bone, scientists believed that humans had not occupied the
Philippines before 47,000 years ago based on the discovery of the Tabon Man. However, the
new findings predated this by 20,000 years, posing new questions about how humans came to
arrive archipelago.

The discovery took place in the Callao Caves near Peneblanca (210 miles from Manila) where
archaeologists from the University of the Philippines and the French National Museum of
Natural History were taking part in a four-year excavation project in the extensive cave network.
While digging in the area, they discovered a foot bone that turned out to be a metatarsal bone
from the right foot.

23
After analysing the 2.4 inch bone using a method called uranium series dating, it was revealed
that it was significantly older than Tabon Man - dated to 67,000 years ago - making it the oldest
human remains ever found in the Philippines.

Professor Armand Mijares (from the University of the Philippines and joint leader of the project
alongside Florent Detroit) stated that the evidence provided by the bone suggested the man
from the cave - known as Callao Man - or his ancestors are likely to have reached the area by
raft, despite the fact that experts didn’t think humans were capable of travelling so far by sea
during this period. He said about the findings:

"So far this could be the earliest human fossil found in the Asia-Pacific region.”

"The presence of humans in Luzon shows these early humans already possessed knowledge of
seacraft-making in this early period."

The discovery also revealed more about the lifestyle of the humans; according to the
archaeologists, cut marks on the bones of deer and boar found around the human remains
suggest that the Callao Man was an efficient hunter. However, nothing man-made was found
during the dig so it cannot be confirmed that he had developed the skills to make hunting tools.

Additionally, professor Mijares revealed that the bone found shared some features of today’s
Aetas, who are indigenous to the Philippines.

In light of the discovery, further excavations of the Callao Caves took place and in 2019
archaeologists unearthed the bones of a previously unknown ancient human species named
Homo luzonensis.

While these bones are not related to those found in 2007, they do raise the question of whether
a separate human species evolved on other islands in the region. Mijares, Detroit and their team
are continuing to analyse the bones in hope of shedding light on their ancestry in the future, and
perhaps answering the question of whether they can be traced back to the same ancestors as
the Homon sapiens - Homo erectus.
"Callao Man". HistoryLearning.com. 2019. Web.

Characteristic of the fossils of the early People in the Philippines

Features Tabon Cave Man Callao Cave Man Mamanwa Tribe

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Site/Location Quezon point Peneblanca
PALAWAN ILOCOS
Year Discovered 1962 2007

Dr. Robert Fox & Dr. Armand

Anthropologist/ company Mijares
Scientist (National Museum) University of the
Philippines

Evidences bones Teeth /bones

Homo Erectus
Scientific Name Homo Sapiens Luzonensis

Lived in the Phils 30,000 years ago 67,000 years ago

Period of Stone Age, from 37,000 to 70,000 years ago

Existence 47,000 years ago

Result of the Study

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