Part 2.

Our Ancestors
I. Introduction

Where do Filipino ancestors come from?

Today, Filipino population is an eclectic ethnic mix of cultures. Between migration and colonial
rule, the people of the Philippines have a blended culture and composite identity that gives them
a unique background.

II. Objectives: students are expected to:

1.Identify different ethnic groups in the country

2.Familiarize and immerse themselves to the different cultural diversity being practiced by
different groups
3.Get involve to foster unity among Filipinos despite diversity in beliefs and cultural
practices

Filipino Ancestors

Many historians and scientists believe that the first inhabitants of the Philippine islands
emerged during the Pleistocene period. There are two theories on where the inhabitants
(first Filipinos) came from namely: Beyer’s “Migration Theory” and Jocano’s “Evolution
Theory”. Noted social scientist Henry Otley Beyer believes that Filipinos descended from
different groups that came from Southeast Asia in successive waves of migration. Each
group had a distinct culture, with it’s own customs and traditions. While Jocano believes
that Asians, including Filipinos are the result of a lengthy process of evolution and
migration.

Migration Theory
The first migrants were what Beyer caked the “Dawnmen” (or “cavemen”
because they lived in caves.). The Dawnmen resembled Java Man, Peking Man, and other
Asian Home sapiens who existed about 250,000 years ago. They did not have any
knowledge of agriculture, and lived by hunting and fishing. It was precisely in search of
food that they came to the Philippines by way of the land bridges that connected the
Philippines and Indonesia. Owing perhaps to their migratory nature, they eventually left
the Philippines for destinations unknown.

The second group of migrants was composed of dark-skinned pygmies called “Aetas’ or
“Negritoes”. About 30,000 years ago, they crossed the land bridged from Malaya,
 Borneo, and Australia until they reached Palawan, Mindoro and Mindanao. They were
pygmies who went around practically naked and were good at hunting, fishing and food
gathering. They used spears and small flint stones weapons.
 The Aetas were already in the Philippines when the land bridges disappeared due
to the thinning of the ice glaciers and the subsequent increase in seawater level. This
natural events “forced” them to remain in the country and become its first permanent
inhabitants.
 Because of the disappearance of the land bridges, the third wave of migrants was
necessarily skilled in seafaring. These were the Indonesians, who came to the islands
in boats. They were more advanced than the Aetas in that: they had tools made out of
stone and steel, which enabled them to build sturdier houses: they engaged in farming
and mining, and used materials made of brass; they wore clothing and other body
ornaments.

 Last to migrate to the Philippines, according to Beyer, were Malays. They were
believed to have come from Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and the Malay Peninsula more
than 2,000 years ago. Like the Indonesians, they also traveled in boats.
 The Malays were brown-skinned and of medium height, with straight black
hair and flat noses. Their technology was said to be more advanced than that of their
predecessors. They engaged in pottery, weaving, jewelry making and metal smelting,
and introduced the irrigation system in rice planting.

Jocano’s Theory

Renowned Filipino anthropologist Felipe Landa Jocano disputes Beyer’s belief that Filipinos
descended from Negritoes and Malays who migrated to the Philippines thousands of years ago.
According to Jocano, it is difficult to prove that Negritoes were the first inhabitants of this
country. The only thing that can positively concluded from fossil evidence, he says is that the
first men who came to the Philippines also went to New Guinea, Java, Borneo, and Australia.

In 1962, a skullcap and a portion of a jaw-presumed to be a human origin-were found in

the Tabon Caves of Palawan by archaeologist Robert Fox and Manuel Santiago, who both
worked for the National Museum. Carbon dating placed their age at 21,000 to 22,000 years. This
proves, Jocano argues, that man came earlier to the Philippines than to the Malay
Peninsula; therefore, the first inhabitants of our islands could not have come from the region. The
“Tabon Man” is said to resemble Java Man and Peking Man. He gathered fruits, leaves and
plants for his food. He hunted with weapons made of stone. Although further research is still
being done on his life and culture, evidence shows that he was already capable of using his brain
in order to survive and keep himself safe.

Instead of the Migration Theory, Jocano advances the Evolution Theory, as a better explanation
of how our country was first inhabited by human beings, Jocano believes that the first people of
Southeast Asia were products of a long process of evolution and migration. His research
indicates that they shared more or less the same culture, beliefs, practices an even similar tools
and implements. These people eventually went their separate ways; some migrated to the
Philippines, the others to New Guinea, Java and Borneo. Proof, Jocano says, can be found in the
fossils discovered in different parts of Southeast Asia, as well as the recorded migrations of other
peoples from the Asian mainland when history began to unfold.

 Tabon Man
The Tabon Cave complex is named after the "Tabon bird" (Tabon scrubfowl,
Megapodius cumingii), which deposited thick hard layers of guano during periods when the cave
was uninhabited, so that succeeding groups of tool-makers settled on a cement-like floor of bird
dung. About half of the 3,000 recovered specimens examined were discarded cores of a material
that had to have been transported from some distance.
The Tabon Caves of Palawan - National Commission for Culture ...
The Tabon Caves, dubbed as the Philippines' Cradle of Civilization, are a group of caves
located on Lipuun Point, north of Quezon municipality, in the south western part of the
province of Palawan on Palawan Island, in the Philippines.
It was inside the Tabon Caves in 1962 that archeologists discovered a fragment of the
skull dubbed “Tabon Man”, dating to 22,000 years ago, making it the oldest known
human relic from the archipelago at the time. Crude tools and evidence of cooking fires
going back some 50,000 years have been unearthed in the caves, along with fossils and a
large quantity of Chinese pottery dating back to the fifth century BC.
The most celebrated archaeological find is the Tabon Man, one of the oldest known
human skeletal remains in the Philippines dating back to 16,500 years (14,000 B.C.). The
oldest human fossil so far recovered from the Tabon Cave, however, is a tibia (bone of
the lower leg) that dates back to 47,000 years (45,000 B.C.). The earliest evidence of
man, himself, in the Philippines: which is also the earliest appearance of modern man –
Homo sapiens sapiens – in these islands, is that of the Tabon Man of Palawan. The
discovery of the human fossil was made by a National Museum team headed by the late
Dr. Robert B.
New species related to humans discovered in cave (CNN)
Ancient bones and teeth found in Callao Cave in the Philippines have led to the discovery
of a previously unknown species related to humans called Homo luzonensis, according to a new
study. The fossils belonged to two adults and one child who lived between 50,000 and 67,000
years ago. This time frame means luzonensis would have lived at the same time as Neanderthals,
Denisovans, Homo sapiens and the small-bodied Homo floresiensis. Like other extinct hominins,
luzonensis is more of a close relative than a direct ancestor.

In 2007, a single foot bone was found in the cave and dated to 67,000 years ago. During
excavations in 2011 and 2015, researchers found 12 additional hand and foot bones, including a
partial femur and teeth, in the same layer of the cave. The researchers have named the new
species luzonensis because of where it was found on the island of Luzon.
They are now the earliest human remains found in the Philippines. Previously, Homo sapiens
remains were found on Palawan island and dated to between 30,000 and 40,000 years ago.
But what makes luzonensis different from other species? It's all in the distinct premolar teeth,
which vary considerably from anything identified in the other species belonging to the Homo
genus.
Aug 05, 2011 · It is thought before that Tabon man found in Tabon Cave of Palawan was
the oldest man live in Philippines by about 50,000 years ago. After the discovery of
 Mijares group, they found out that this human fossil called Callao Man is much older
than Tabon man which is about 67,000 years old after using uranium-series dating.

Ethnic groups in the Philippines

Ethnic groups in the Philippines can be grouped into indigenous ethnic groups and non-
indigenous ethnic groups. The indigenous ethnic groups include the Bicolanos, Ibanag, Ilocano,
Ivatan, Kapampangan, Moro, Pangasinense, Sambal, Tagalog, Visayan and tribal groups such as
the Badjaos, Igorot, Ilongots, Lumad, Mangyan, Negrito groups and the Palawan tribes.
The non-indigenous ethnic groups include the Chinese, Spanish, American, Arab, Indian,
Japanese, Jewish, Korean, Mexican and other ethnic groups.

Islamization of the Philippines

Islam touched the shores of the Philippine Islands way before American and Spanish colonizers
did (AI-Attas:1969). The Islamization of the Philippine Archipelago was part of the spread of the
religion in the Southeast Asian region. Islam is not merely a religion, as noted by many Muslim
scholars but is as well a way of life (Doi: 1984). Thus, when Islam spread throughout the
country, it also introduced a system of government and a sophisticated culture
Islam is one of the oldest organized religions to be established in the Philippines. Its origins in
the country may be dated back to as early as the 15th century, with the arrival of Arab and Malay
muslim traders who converted some of the native inhabitants of the islands. Muslims in the
country form 5 percent of the national population.
The Philippine territory was under Islamic rule when the Spaniards arrived and colonized it.
Magellan was killed by a Muslim chieftain. Manila (May nilad )was originally Islamic until
Miguel López de Legazpi conquered it. Intramoros means Among the moors. The Filipino word
moro comes from the Spanish word for the inhabitants of Morroco. A tenacious Islamic legacy is
the custom to circumsize('tuli'). When the Spaniards arrived, circumsicion was justified as being
Christian. Being uncircumsized is considered shameful in Filipino society.
Islam introduced a highly developed political structure, the Sultanate. The traditional Muslim
social structure in the Philippines was headed by a sultan who assumed both religious and
secular authority. The Datu assumed communal leadership, providing aid and arbitration
through agama courts under his leadership. The wealth amassed by the conquests of the Datu is
provided to his subjects for aid, employment, and protection when needed. Interestingly, the
Datu is not determined by his wealth but by the number of his followers. Further, the holy
Qur'an, the source of both secular and religious precepts and laws of Muslims, provides a sense
of oneness and fraternal bond between Muslims as an Ummah or Islamic Nation (21:92). Islam
changed the country's once fragmented nature into a single nation (Bangsa Tungga).
Thus, when the colonizers came and threatened the growth of their government, much
resistance was felt, especially in Southern Philippines where Muslim communities were most
concentrated. The Spanish assimilation only succeeded in creating rifts between the
Christianized Filipinos under Spanish rule and the Muslim communities that refused
subjugation (Majul: 1973). It was the same during the American Regime, if not worse, wherein
they employed a process of extermination through military troops when the Muslims refused
subjugation and resisted the exploitation of resources within the Mindanao region (Tan: 1977).
The Americans realized then that the process was futile and assumed a strategy for winning the
Muslims, through the establishment of a special bureau for their affairs and concerns (Gowing:
1983).
However, through these years, from the American initiative to integrate Muslim communities
with the majority of the Filipinos, divisiveness in culture and religion has spread and grown into
social unrest and conflict situations. The Muslims remained isolated from the developments
provided by the government in the northern regions of the Philippines, separatist movements

grew, and resentments between Christians and Muslims developed (Fernando: 1979, Rahman:
1954).
The Philippine government in several instances tried to address the issues of the country
regarding Muslim separatist movements through policies and the creation of several offices.
The Tripoli Agreement was developed to grant political autonomy for two Muslim regions, and
recognition of their "cultural values, traditions, and customary and Islamic laws, in the
formulation of State policies."Several agreements have been signed since, and still much has yet
to be resolved.