The Philippines During the

Pre -colonial Period

Peopling of the Philippines

‘Land bridge’ Theory

Up to the early 1970s, it had been assumed that the

Philippines was a part of mainland China. It was theorized
that during the Pleistocene or Ice Age, the waters
surrounding what is now the Philippines fell about 156 feet
below the present levels. As a result, a vast area of land
was exposed and became sort of land bridges to the
mainland of Asia.
Peopling of the Philippines

Dr. Voss’ study

In February 1976, however, this theory
of the “land bridges” to Asia was
disputed by Dr. Fritjof Voss, a
German scientist who studied the
geology of the
Philippines. According to Dr. Voss, the
Philippines was never a part of the
mainland of Asia but that it arose
from the bottom of the sea and
 “continues to rise as
the thin Pacific crust moves below it.”

As proof that the Philippines was never a

part of the Asia mainland, Dr. Voss points
to the fact that when scientific studies were
done in 1964-67 on the thickness of the
Earth’s crust it was found out that the 35-
kilometer thick crust underneath China
does not extend to the Philippines.
Hence, the later could not have been a part or “land
bridge” to the mainland of Asia. On the other hand,
the Philippines lies “along the great earth faults
extending to deep undersea trenches” and so through
violent earthquakes what is now Philippines rose to
the surface of the sea.
Theories on the Origin of the
Filipino People

Austronesian Migration Theory

Wave Migration Theory
Jocano’s Theory
Jocano’s theory of earlier
evolution and movement
Anthropologist F. Landa Jocano of the University of
the Philippines contends that what fossil evidence of
ancient men show is that they not only migrated to
the Philippines, but also to New Guinea, Borneo,
and Australia. He says that there is no way of
determining if they were Negritos at all. However,
what is sure is that there is evidence the Philippines
was inhabited as early as 21,000 or 22,000 years ago.
In 1962, a skull cap and a portion of a jaw,
presumed to be those of a human being, were found
in a Tabon Cave in Palawan.
 Tabon
cave in
Palawan

Tabon
man skull
remains
Jocano’s theory of earlier evolution
and movement
 The discovery may show that man came
earlier to the Philippines than to the Malay
Peninsula. If this is true, the first
inhabitants of the Philippines did not come
from the Malay Peninsula. Jocano further
believes that the present Filipinos are
products of the long process of evolution
and movement of people.
As to the present Filipinos, Indonesians, and Malays of
Malaysia, Jocano maintains that they are the “end
results of both the long process of evolution and the
later…..movements of people. They stand co-equal as
ethnic groups, without any one being the dominant
group, racially or culturally. Culturally, it is likewise
erroneous to state that Filipino culture is Malay
orientation. Even our historical experiences and social
organization differ from those of the people identified as
Malays.”
The differences, according to Jocano, are due
to the differences in their responses to their
environment. On the other hand, the
similarities found among them are due to the
adjustment to their environment.
Summarizing his findings,
Jocano maintains that;
1. The peoples of prehistoric Island Southeast
Asia belonged to the same population. It grew
out of the combination of human evolution
which occurred in Island Southeast Asia about
1.9 million years ago, as evidenced by the fossil
materials recovered from different parts of the
region, and of the movements of other peoples
from Asia mainland during historic times.
2. This core population shared a common
cultural orientation that included both flake
and core implements and their complex
ceramic industries… Other shared cultural
elements consist of similar ornaments,
pendants, house types, belief systems, ritual
complex, and funerary practices.
4. None of these ancient men could be
categorized under any of the historically
identified ethnic groups (i.e., Malays,
Indonesians, Filipinos) today. The Wetern
colonizers were the ones who fragmented
the population into ethnic groups as they
partitioned the region into their respective
colonies.
 The British popularized, in scholarship, the term
Malay to characterize the group of people
they encountered in the Malay Peninsula. The
Portuguese, the Germans, and the Dutch introduced
the Indonesians to the Western
world. The Spaniards strongly worked for the
conversions of Filipinos (formerly Indios) to
Christianity. Later on the Americans came and
further differentiated the Filipinos from their
Southeast Asian cousins.
 5. …. the explanation of the peopling of the Philippines
through a series of wave migration, as documented
by folk history like the Maragtas, has to be
reconsidered. The undue credit given to the Malays
as the original settlers of the region and dominant
cultural transmitter must be corrected. Emerging
from a common population with the same base
culture, the Malays, the Filipinos, and Indonesians
½ are coequal as ethnic groups in the region of Island
Critic Southeast Asia, without any one of them being
the racially or culturally dominant.
Jocano’s theory of the origin of the Filipinos.