Philippine Prehistory: Lessons from the Historical Past Essay

Throughout the weeks of this course, I’ve learned a lot more about the Philippines as a place, as well as the people themselves and about the things they do. Before, I just went with the stereotypes that everyone says about Filipino’s, they’re all short, they’re poor, etc. In some cases, that remains true, but not for all of them out there. They also seem to be more advanced in technology than I thought they were. There is a lot more to the people, the country, the culture and their rich history. Some things I didn’t know about the Philippines were that they had established their own writing system before they had any contact or knowledge about other people or languages in the world. Baybayin or Alibata consisted of 14 consonants and 3 vowels, while using dots on the tops and bottoms of characters to distinguish consonants with certain vowels and a cross beneath character which takes out the vowel, leaving just the consonant. They also had technology of tools, using them to engrave the Baybayin writing into bamboo poles and creating the Angono Petroglyphs and the Laguna Copperplate Inscription (LCI). The LCI was found and nobody knew what it was, nor did anyone want it. But it held important information about how society was back then. The inscription was about the forgiveness of a debt. It was linked to several cities that still exist now. The Angono Petroglyphs exist in a cave in the province of Rizal. They contain images on rock walls of animals and humans that date back to 3000 B. C. Now days, due to erosion of the walls and defacing of the walls, some images have become indistinguishable. Another thing about the Philippines that I didn’t know about was the Tabon man. The Tabon man is reported the oldest known set of bones found in the Tabon Caves said to date back 30,000 years making it the oldest remains found in the Philippines. Some also believe it to be a woman. Some geologic things I didn’t know about were that the Philippines have three sections; Palawan, Mindanao, and Visayas. Within these areas, there are over 100 different languages spoken, although the national language is Filipino. In Mindanao, it is the place where the Islam religion is most prominent. It was introduced 100 years before Christianity. The Philippines consist of 7,100 Islands, but some of them only being above sea level in low tide, and under sea levels in high tide. There are only around 500 islands that are larger than 1 square mile and only 800 of the 7,100 are inhabited. The Philippines, as a whole, is about 194 times larger than Hawaii. There are two pronounced seasons, wet and dry, where June – November is wet and December – March is dry. Manila is the Capital of the Philippines and the Philippines has the 2nd largest mall in the world, the Mall of Asia. The Philippines is different than how I had looked at it before, and now I know more about their culture and how they live. This history is important because it shows where these people have been and where they are going. Although there might be some bad things throughout history here and there, it’s what brought the country to where it is now. This Country has more to offer than what I previously had thought and in my eyes, it seems like a pretty nice place to visit or live in.