Wer waren die ersten Filipinos? Ein Einblick in die Kultur und Herkunft der Filipinos

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    The second possible ancestors were the Austronesians. There are two competing theories for their origins. According to the mainstream "out-of-Taiwan model", a large-scale Austronesian expansion began around 5000–2500 BC. Population growth primarily fueled this migration. These first settlers may have landed in northern Luzon in the archipelago of the Philippines, intermingling with the earlier Australo-Melanesian population who had inhabited the islands since about 23,000 years earlier. Then after that, the Austronesians spread across the rest of the islands, then Borneo and Indonesia. Later, these group sailed eastward and spread to Micronesia and Melanesia.


    Another alternative theory is called the "out-of-Sundaland" model.This theory is first published in Molecular Biology and Evolution by the Leeds University . Examination of mitochondrial DNA lineages shows that they have been evolving within Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) for a longer period than previously believed. Population dispersals occurred at the same time as sea levels rose, which may have resulted in migrations from the Philippine Islands to as far north as Taiwan within the last 10,000 years.


    The population migrations were most likely to have been driven by climate change — the effects of the drowning of a huge ancient peninsula called ‘Sundaland’ (that extended the Asian landmass as far as Borneo and Java). This happened during the period 15,000 to 7,000 years ago following the last Ice Age. Oppenheimer outlines how rising sea levels in three massive pulses caused flooding and the submergence of the Sunda Peninsula, creating the Java and South China Seas and the thousands of islands that make up Indonesia and the Philippines today.


    The new findings from HUGO (Human Genome Organization) also shows that Asia was populated primarily through a single migration event from the south. They found genetic similarities between populations throughout Asia and an increase in genetic diversity from northern to southern latitudes. Although the Chinese population is very large, it has less variation than the smaller number of individuals living in South East Asia, because the Chinese expansion occurred very recently, following the development of rice agriculture — within only the last 10,000 years.



    Genomic analysis of cultivated coconut (Cocos nucifera) has shed light on the movements of Austronesian peoples. By examining 10 microsatelite loci, researchers found that there are 2 genetically distinct subpopulations of coconut – one originating in the Indian Ocean, the other in the Pacific Ocean. However, there is evidence of admixture, the transfer of genetic material, between the two populations. Given that coconuts are ideally suited for ocean dispersal, it seems possible that individuals from one population could have floated to the other. However, the locations of the admixture events are limited to Madagascar and coastal east Africa and exclude the Seychelles. This pattern coincides with the known trade routes of Austronesian sailors. Additionally, there is a genetically distinct subpopulation of coconut on the eastern coast of South America which has undergone a genetic bottleneck resulting from a founder effect; however, its ancestral population is the pacific coconut, which suggests that Austronesian peoples may have sailed as far east as the Americas.



    Dr, William Henry Scott however said that there is still no concrete theory about the origins of the inhabitants in the Philippines, rendering all these theories as mere hypotheses. Scott however theorised that based on lexicostatistical analysis involving seven million word pairs, linguist Isidore Dyen offered in 1962 two alternative scenarios explaining the origin and spread of Austronesian languages: (a) that they originated in some Pacific island and spread westward to Asia, or (b) that they originated in Taiwan and spread southward.



    Then the Iron Age came. The earliest metal tools in the Philippines were said to have first been used somewhere around 500 BC, and this new technology coincided with considerable changes in the lifestyle of early Filipinos. The new tools brought about a more stable way of life, and created more opportunities for communities to grow, both in terms of size and cultural development.


    Where communities once consisted of small bands of kinsmen living in campsites, larger villages came about- usually based near water, which made traveling and trading easier. The resulting ease of contact between communities meant that they began to share similar cultural traits, something which had not previously been possible when the communities consisted only of small kinship groups.



    Jocano refers to the period between 500 BC and 1 AD as the incipient phase, which for the first time in the artifact record, sees the presence of artifacts that are similar in design from site to site throughout the archipelago. Along with the use of metal tools, this era also saw significant improvement in pottery technology.


    This raises the question: Is there even a Metal Age in the Philippines? According to William Henry Scott, there is no evidence of it ever existing. Metals were first used in ornamentation, not on making tools. Even when copper and bronze became common, there were still used side by side with stone tools until much later.


    This has been attributed to the lack of a local source of tin, which when combined with copper produces bronze. This lack has led most anthropologists to conclude that bronze items were imported and that those bronze smelting sites which have been found in the Philippines, in Palawan, were for re-smelting and remolding. We can assume that mos of the source of bronze in the Philippine Islands were imported from Tamil Nadu.



    The Philippines is believed by some historians to be the island of Chryse, the "Golden One," which is the name given by ancient Greek writers in reference to an island rich in gold east of India. Pomponius Mela, Marinos of Tyre and the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea mentioned this island in 100 BC, and it is basically the equivalent to the India Suvarnadvipa, the "Island of Gold." Josephus calls it in Latin Aurea, and equates the island with biblical Ophir, from where the ships of Tyre and Solomon brought back gold and other trade items. The Visayan Islands, particularly Cebu had earlier encounter with the Greek traders in 21 AD.


    In about the 200 BC, there arose a practice of using gold eye covers, and then, gold facial orifice covers to adorn the dead resulting in an increase of ancient gold finds. During the Qin dynasty and the Tang dynasty China was well aware of the golden lands far to the south. The Buddhist pilgrim I-Tsing mentions Chin-Chou, "Isle of Gold" in the archipelago south of China on his way back from India. Medieval Muslims refer to the islands as the Kingdoms of Zabag and Wakwak as rich in gold, referring to the eastern islands of the Malay archipelago, the location of present-day Philippines and Eastern Indonesia.


    The ancient civilisation was quite advanced, thanks to its trade relations with the Han Dynasty and other Southeast Asian communities which led to the rise of powerful trading kingdoms such as Tundun, Namayan, Wak-wak, Sugbu, Sanfotsi, Ma-i among others. There is also a solid evidence that China's influence over the islands was immense due to its merchants and immigrants. Traces of pottery dated from the Tang and Song Dynasty indicated that several of these ancient communities had strong trading relations with China. Trade with Arabia, Persia, Japan and other Southeast Asian kingdoms also flourished during this period.



    In fact, the Chinese were so influential that they began to settle here and form colonies. A directive issued by the Wanli Emperor had authorised the establishment of a Chinese colony in Vigan in an attempt to subjugate the archipelago under the vassal status of the Ming Dyansty. These plans were however destroyed by the spanish when they had began to settle in the islands faster than the Chinese and most of the Imperial court were not interested because of the internal security threats such as the Wako pirates that is ravaging the coasts and the Jurchen tribes at their doorstep in Manchuria.


    The notorious pirate Limahong had tried to establish his own kingdom by attempting to invade Manila twice. After the two failed attempts in conquering Manila, he tried to establish a colony in Pangasinan. Upon hearing of this from the natives, the Spanish had sent Martin de Goiti alongside with Lakan Dula and several other nobles to kick Limahong out of Pangasinan. The battle lasted for fourth months until Limahong had surprisingly escaped by a channel dug in utmost secrecy by his soldiers.


    Regarding the first recorded writings and art in the archipelago, there were two great finds namely the Angono Petroglyphs carved by the Negrito people and the Laguna Copperplate Inscription. The rest of the records were written on perishable materials such as bamboo and leaves, which were lost. The early Spanish missionaries had written extensive archives about the Pre-Hispanic era and they were almost either destroyed during the Second World War or taken by the British during their short occupation of Manila for two years, which ended up in the Royal Museum in London. The small percentage of these records are on the NHI and seventy percent of them are still on the process of translation or untranslated.


    There is no even a pure 'Filipino' culture back then. The natives were influenced by foreign traders and they assimilated the Hindu and Buddhist cultures and mixed them with their local gods and traditions. Examples are our vocabulary and our 'native' cuisine. The puto or the rice cake, pancit, chop suey, and the use of soy sauce came from China. The duck breeding in Pateros was learned from the Japanese. The cooking of curry was learned through the Indians. The use of spices were learned from the people of Malacca. In fact, some ancient Filipino communities were also familiar to firearms such as the Kingdom of Maynila. Rajah Soliman's fortress had 10 seventeen foot artillery pieces that were captured by the Spanish.


    A native cannon called the lantaka saw widespread usage amongst the advanced pre- Hispanic communities. The local nobles were also fond of recruiting mercenaries from Java to be the operators of firearms. The other Southeast Asian communities except Sugbu were not surprised of the powerful trading ships of the Europeans. In fact during the Siege of Malacca, the Portugese had recovered around 8,000 hand cannons from the defenders.


    Some today teach in school history that the Philippines is an example of the success of the power of the masses. Former ambassador, government official and Far Eastern Economic Review writer Rigoberto Tiglao wrote that the power of the masses is a myth. The power of the masses is actually influenced by the elite. As explained in Nick Joaquin’s book A Question of Heroes, the Filipino Revolutions against Spain and against America were doomed to fail because the elite, the Ilustrados, who were the real power behind the revolutions (The Cavite and Manila revolutions), buckled at the last moment.



    Official history lessons are usually not revisionist. In our case, I believe we adopted the revisionist stance when we took on Agoncillo’s and Zaide’s ideas. Their ideas have led to today’s graduates being fiercely anti-foreign and antiquated in thinking. For example, Agoncillo promotes primitivism. This is the idea that the true Filipino culture is the bahay kubo and the old tribal bahag (loincloth). However, with better historical analysis, the bahay kubo is not unique Filipino culture. The equivalent of the bahay kubo can be found in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia, which have the same climate and materials as the Philippines. He also seems to hint that all foreigners are harmful and their influences must be purged from the country.



    Another thing that I will point out is the notion of 'Maharlika'. My friend Jose Mario Avinante from his blog donrafaelibarra.blogspot.com wrote this:


    "Contrary to popular belief, the Philippines was never a conquered country or civilization. It naturally evolved from the system of military alliances predominant at the time known as Feudalism. Under this system was the lord and the vassal, the former entitling estates or manors to the latter in exchange for military service. The estates included peasants, serfs and peons. The first Europeans arrived in 1521 at a time when both the Philippines and Spain didn't exist. Rather, the soldiers of the King of Castille and Aragon (Kastila) arrived upon the Maharlika, or the nobility that divided the islands into estates, among them the Rajah Humabon of Sugbu who was having a problem with his rebellious vassal Si Lapu-Lapu whom he entitled his estate of Mactan Island. "


    According to Antonio Pigaffetta, the chronicler of the King's expedition, Ferdinand Magellan took advantage to forge an alliance with the Maharlika and offered to assist Rajah Humabon to reclaim his noble rights in Mactan in exchange for tribute and protection from the "Most Powerful King in the World", that is Philip of Aragon. This is the reason why Magellan asked Humabon not to assist but only to watch from the ships to prove to the Maharlika the prowess of his guns, cannons, firearms and armour in keeping with this military allegiance.


    The King's Men or conquistadores returned in 1565, under Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, this time more successful in forging alliances (Sanduguan) with the Maharlika, among them was Lakan Dula. The conquistadores also received estates or encomiendas from the Maharlika in exchange for military service. Often, the conquistadores intermarried with the Maharlika, producing the first mestizos in the islands.



    In the 1800s, Manila joined the world as it opened its ports to world trade like everyone else, creating an affluent society overnight, as unlanded merchants significantly increased the size of Manila's High Society to reinforce the traditional landed gentry of Conquistadores and Maharlika. For some reason, most of these merchants were immigrants and creoles, the most prominent being Domingo Lamco and Jacobo Zobel, forefathers of Jose Rizal and Jaime Zobel de Ayala respectively. It seems that the serfs of the medieval ages had to remain in their haciendas due to heavy debt, a system to keep them in the land that prevailed up to the 1980s before the introduction of the CARP.


    The opening of Manila had also paved way to the rise of the Ilustrados. Luis Rodriguez Varela, the El Conde Filipino was the first person who advocated on reforming the colony's institutions. He was a student from France and an admirer of the French Revolution. He established a group of reformers called the Los Hijos Del Pais (Sons of the Country). The first Ilustrados were driven to exile after the failure of the 1823 revolution by Novales, who declared himself as Emperor. Even with these setbacks, the spirit of reform did not died and they were carried on by the First and the Second Propaganda Movement and lastly the KKK, which named its group after it.


    The 1800s was also a period of growing social unrest and the world was divided between reactionaries and the liberals, the latter demanding that the nobility share the powers of the king and the former refusing to relinquish his divine rights. In the Philippines, Manila's High Society became the liberals that demanded representation in the King's parliament, give me liberty or give me death!


    The reactionaries refused to comply and like a squabbling couple it resulted to a divorce, that is the birth of the Kataastaasang Kagalanggalang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (KKK) or the Katipunan (Los Hijos Del Pais), the end result was a civil war between the reactionaries and the liberals, with the latter had carved the Philippines separate from Spain.


    The leaders of the KKK, including Bonifacio were all educated and came from the middle and a sector of the Principalia (nobility). In fact, the lone photograph by Andres Bonifacio did not wear a barong but rather a tuxedo! Bonifacio's adviser Emilio Jacinto preferred to speak in Spanish. Bonifacio also spoke fluent Spanish and a bit of English due to his business with a British firm.


    His business was no ordinary worker, but the old term for bodeguero means manager of the warehouse. He was responsible for all the inventories in the warehouse. He was not poor either. His mother was a mestiza working as a supervisor in a cigarette factory and his father was a teniente mayor.


    In 1900, the United States had completed its conquest of the Spanish Empire with the gradual defeat of the Ilustrados whom they made senators and assemblymen in the American Colonial Government in Manila, the last of whom was El Vibora, or Artemio Ricarte who refused to surrender until his death in the highlands of the Mountain Province in retreat among with the Japanese Imperial Army.


    Now where was the peasant or indio during all of this?


    The Philippine Revolution, a reaction for change against the old order had the character of the French and American Revolutions, a trendy phenomena of the world-wide Industrial Revolution wherein the source of wealth shifted from the traditional hacienda to factories. At the peak of the Industrial Revolution, characterized by poor working conditions in the factories, Karl Marx predicted the uprising of the working class and the peasants.


    His prophecy was fulfilled in 1917 with the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the Anarchist Revolution in Spain,the communist takeover of mainland China and the peasant insurrections in the Philippines. In short the Philippine Revolution was not an Asian Revolution in any sense, but the insurgency of the NPA is an Asian Revolution, a revolution against the revolution. It was an irony that Elias' descendants are pushing for the renaming of our country to Maharlika, an irony indeed for isn't that just empowering the hegemony of Imperial Manila, for the greatness of their wealth and power derives from the elegance of its character and the noble blood of the Maharlika? Do we forget that the surnames that these peasants hate like the Macapagals and the Solimans are Maharlikas!


    These people hate elitists but they are championing the name of the elite! They are nothing but a bunch of contradicted people who still believes that nationalism is not dead. Do these people have forgotten how nationalism had engulfed the world into two world wars that had claimed the lives of millions? Finally, the Philippine Revolution was nothing but a civil war. The ancestors of the Ilustrados had betrayed their roots and became simply the new oligarchs who controlled almost everything by refusing economic liberalisation, federalism and a shift of government. They are and speaking and fighting for the masses, but rarely for their own benefit.


    Another thing that I shall debunk is the Code of Kalantiaw. It was nothing but a hoax, a propaganda like Sa Aking Mga Kabata. Sa Aking Mga Kabata was not written by Rizal and Ambeth Ocampo have presented a ton of evidences that a poet had published it in 1906, a decade after the Philippine Revolution. The latter was written by Jose Marco. Other authors throughout the 20th century gave credence to the story and the code.


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