Philippine Indigenous Communities

Module 1: The Peopling of the Philippines

I. WHAT IS THE PEOPLING OF THE PHILIPPINES?

Philippine prehistoric times and its peopling is a questionable point inside the disciplines of
humanities, prehistoric studies, hereditary qualities, and semantics up right up 'til now. There is
various information that has been filtered through in thinking of a few hypotheses on how this
archipelago, as well as its adjoining set of islands, has been colonized by the human species
millennia prior. The main proof of human settlement in what is currently the Philippines was
found in Tabon Cavern in Palawan back in 1970. A skullcap was exhumed, aside from creature
remains, and was dated to quite a while back. Be that as it may, a new exhuming in Callao
Cavern in Cagayan yielded a metatarsal (foot bone), which was dated to quite a while back,
making the chance of human presence in Luzon sooner than recently suspected.

For most Filipinos, the verifiable starting point for the peopling of the Philippines has been H.
Otley Beyer's Influxes of Movement theory. It has been educated (and keeps on being) in
rudimentary levels as perhaps the earliest example in essential Philippine history, or all the more
accurately, ancient times, since some set of experiences course books start the conversation of
our set of experiences with the appearance of the Spaniards in 1521. Beyer, the Dad of Philippine
Human studies, formed this speculation while showing history at the College of the Philippines.
He would ultimately happen to establish the Branch of Human studies and become its most
memorable dignitary. This speculation, however broadly acknowledged in the early piece of the
twentieth hundred years, has become undesirable in the academe because of its emphasis on
dispersion and chronologically erroneous classifications; it was his understudies, like the late F.
Landa Jocano, that discredited the Waves of Migration.

In this famous yet disproved hypothesis, Beyer suggested that the Philippines was initially
populated by Negritos- - darker looking, wide-nosed, foragers- - like the Aetas of today. This
piece of the hypothesis remains broadly acknowledged, with Negritos being considered as
Australoids, or the previous group of Homo sapiens to get and reached similar to Australia,
where this gathering makes up its Natives. The archipelago was relocated into in three significant
waves by various gatherings - Malay, Indones A and B. These gatherings had particular societies
and were even expressed to change with regards to nose broadness and size. Such classes
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mirrored the predominant anthropological examinations of the time, with much consideration
given to actual elements with regards to racial contrast. A subsequent issue emerged with the
way that Malaysia and Indonesia didn't exist at that point, and in this way making a misnomer,
yet additionally a problem.

New proof then arisen in the field of etymology, where it was seen that Philippine dialects like
Tagalog, Cebuano, and Ibanag shared a lot of practically speaking with Bahasa
(Malaysia/Indonesia), Malagsy (Madagascar), Maori (New Zealand), and dialects from Taiwan.
Given these cognates (words that look like each other in structure and significance), etymologists
Robert Blust and Lawrence Reid have tried to recreate the first language, which they considered
Austronesian (from Greek, 'south' and 'islands'). The two principal branches in this etymological
genealogical record are Formosan and Malayo-Polynesian. On linguistic examination, it was
seen that Formosan or native Taiwanese dialects included the most noteworthy variety inside its
own characterization, and subsequently, following hypotheses additionally utilized in
transformative science and hereditary qualities, Taiwan (or close by Southern China) apparently
was the Austronesian 'country.'

Given these lingustic information, it was based upon by Robert Bellwood, who tried to add more
substantial help by means of connection of archeological discoveries. Bellwood refined the
Austronesian speculation to have begun in the horticultural networks of Neolithic southern China
in 4000 BC. Some of them then crossed to Taiwan, a couple of families all at once, until there
emerged a tremendous social framework with a complex farming economy, developing rice. As
per Bellwood, this is steady with the archeological record, in the Tapenking society of Taiwan.
Solely after such a general public was laid out might there be tremendous movement by boat to
the remainder of Island Southeast Asia, toward the south to Batanes and the remainder of Luzon.
The Philippines then turns into an entryway toward the west: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Andaman
Islands, to the extent that Madagascar, as well concerning the east: Melanesia, Polynesia, New
Zealand, Hawaii, and Easter Island. Lapita culture- - exceptionally beautified pottery¬¬ found in
the Pacific, dated from 1600 BC to 1 Promotion, is Bellwood's most grounded material reason
for the development, aside from boat plans and fish-snares.

The Austronesian hypothesis was likewise highlighted and promoted in crafted by essayist Jared
Jewel, as "The Express Train to Polynesia." In any case, the utilization of the Philippines as a
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potential springboard to the remainder of the Pacific and Indian Sea has made Bellwood's
hypothesis extremely well known in the country. Etymologists have refered to Ibanag as one
'model' of Austronesian dialects, aside from anthropologists like E. Arsenio Manuel contending
for the renaming of the Malayo-Polynesian part of the etymological genealogy to
Philippineasian, to mirror the populace development, lined up with Formosan. It is fascinating to
take note of that there is unequivocal common understandability between the locals of the
southernmost piece of Taiwan, or Orchid Island (Yami), and those in the northern island of
Itbayat in Batanes. A few history specialists and anthropologists, for example, Zeus Salazar have
likewise had a go at connecting social components of the Philippines with the more Pacific-side
Austronesians, similar to the Cordilleran bulol with the Easter Island/Rapa Nui moai.

However, not every person concurs with Bellwood's hypothesis because of a few reasons. That's
what some contend, in light of environment and current information, the cross from South China
to Taiwan, considerably less the Taiwan-Batanes crossing, appears to be unrealistic for
straightforward kayaks to achieve, since the common breezes and flows are major areas of
strength for generally the other way (toward the north). This prompted a hypothesis that
examined development from Southern China towards Indochina then into the Malaysian
Landmass, however little proof has been found to help this. In the contradicting view, the
archeological record is by all accounts unfit to help this fabulous, oversimplified hypothesis,
since it is enormously pivoted upon phonetic guess as opposed to material culture. One of these
is William Meacham, who, however settled on the idea of an Austronesian country, was very
unconvinced by the out-of-Taiwan hypothesis, and on second thought, determined a land
between Taiwan, Sumatra, and Tenggara.

Wilhelm Solheim's Nusantao hypothesis was an elective hypothesis that zeroed in on the oceanic
idea of the peopling of the Philippines and Southeast Asia, as opposed to following’supremacy’
of semantics and farming strategies. The support or 'country' of these Austronesian-talking
people groups lay not in Taiwan or Southern China, yet rather, in the space of Celebes Ocean,
Island South East Asia (ISEA). He thought about that the Nusantao would presumably be like the
native gatherings like the Badjao and Samal, who keep on being nautical in nature. Solheim
accepts that the Proto-Austronesian created as a 'bargain language' among the people groups who
start in the Northern Mindanao-Southern Indonesian region in 5000 BC, who then moved into
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the Philippines then vertical to Taiwan. Right now, he and Bellwood concur that there is
development toward the west to Madagascar then east into Melanesia and Polynesia. In any case,
Solheim likewise set that the Nusantao additionally arrived at the banks of Vietnam, as well as
Southern Korea and Japan. He likewise named an earthenware custom that fortifies the cases -
Sa-huynh-Kalanay stoneware.

The Nusantao hypothesis has been firmly acknowledged by some in the academe who can't help
contradicting Bellwood's diffusionist model. By zeroing in on sea exchange or bargain, Solheim
got away from an examination that was deterministic in a one-manner transitory cycle that
appeared to be ridiculous external the language studies; the Nusantao Maritime Trading and
Communication Network (NMTCN) or its complete name, stressed effective reaches as an
organization, as opposed to simply transitory examples. Truth be told, this speculation is the
common view in state foundations like the Public Exhibition hall of the Philippines, as found in
their 2009 Journey of the Balangay undertaking that that highlighted similar group of Filipinos
who scaled Mt. Everest, going to Madagascar from Manila Cove, in a reproduction of an
exhumed longboat in Butuan, which is currently shown at the entrance of the Museum’s main
building.

A significant determinant in mapping human migration is genetic analysis, and over the course
of the last ten years, a few studies have clarified the matter. Mitochondrial DNA and Y-
chromosomal investigations were particularly attempted, since, as uniparental qualities (coming
just from the mother and father, individually), changes or adjustments all through ages are not
many, making them ideal for concentrating on relocation. In his initial Y-chromosomal
examination, there appeared to be support towards an out-of-Taiwan view, seen in haplogroup
M119, which was available in all Austronesians. Nonetheless, later examinations have
discredited this, showing that Western Austronesians (Indonesians) had various variations of
haplogroup O1a-M119 from those in Taiwan, and consequently a fatherly heredity from ISEA as
opposed to Taiwan. Indeed, even the Yami and Ivatan were displayed to have not many
similitudes in their Y-chromosomes regardless of the previously mentioned phonetic closeness.
Concerning mtDNA, a review dating varieties in haplogroup E among people from ISEA
(counting Filipinos) and Taiwan uncovered expanded variety inmaternal heredity from ISEA,
discrediting a beginning of Austronesians from Taiwan.
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Studies by Stephen Oppenheim, a geneticist who dealt with Southeast Asian and Pacific people
groups, have shown that the "express train" relocation might have been a "slow boat" because of
the hereditary variety among ISEA and Polynesia, which would take significantly longer than the
time period given by Bellwood. With the new information, another hypothesis has been put out
by Oppenheim et al., expanding on Meacham's and Solheim's speculations of beginnings in
ISEA. As per the hereditary information, there is by all accounts a "huge scope dispersal" in the
space of ISEA as soon as 15,000 to quite a while back because of rising ocean level from
environmental change (glacial melting) in the now-immersed Sunda Landmass (presently
containing the islands of Western Indonesia and Borneo), with prompted more seasoned
variations haplogroup E becoming present in Taiwan and Oceania. This out of Sundaland idea
professes to have archeological proof as stone devices and technocomplexes.

Given the different types of information - linguistic, archeological, hereditary and social - it is
significant not to excessively depend on one source and basically try to fit in the rest, as all have
their constraints; qualities can't determine what language is spoken nearby, while it is of minimal
down to earth use to contend whether a pot was utilized for horticulture or was dealt for. It is
very conceivable that the Austronesian dialects, the earthenware customs or stone apparatus
collections, the haplogroups, and customs all tell various pieces of a similar story, which will
keep on changing as new proof is uncovered and found. “Absence of evidence is not evidence of
absence," the saying goes. However, while hypothesis stays, there can scarcely be any agreement
on the starting points of advanced Filipinos and their neighbors. Theories will be disproven, as
Waves of Migration was, while new ones are distributed, requiring basic investigation and
cautious combination of the proof within reach.