The Land: Pre-History of the Philippine Archipelago

In conclusion, Filipinos are an assemblage of heterogeneous people, a diverse culture with each individual differing from one another, lacking purity. Every other Filipino has ancestors from blended regions of the world, mainly the densely populated and complex vicinity of Southeast Asia. In essence, most Filipinos today have the slightest clue of their ethnic background; these people are part of a confused race, ignorant of their heritage, raped of their true identity.

which is the nation’s capital (Britannica).

David Levinson states that “Southeast Asia has served as a north-south funnel for peoples and cultures for thousands of years, resulting in a hodgepodge of linguistic and ethnic groups” (119). Southeast Asia is an intersection of migrating traffic. Physically, most Southeast Asian peoples belong to either the Asiatic or the Australian geographic race, with significant variations within each group. Australian groups include the Semang of Malaysia, the Andamanese, and some Cambodian groups. Intermediate Asiatics include the Thais, Malay, Lao, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Filipinos, and Indonesians. Many different types of cultures have influenced the Philippines. As newcomers arrived, the earlier settlers moved inland and formed small communities. Each group developed its own culture, but the Chinese, Spanish, American, and Japanese have the most influence on the population’s culture as well as its ethnic mixture (Levinson 122).

Known as the aboriginal Filipinos, the Philippine Negritos were the original settlers on the land. The Negritos, in reference to their darker skin, are short, kinky-haired, Mongoloid people and are believed to be descendants of the Asian pygmies. A local tribe called the Aeta were the first humans who lived in the Philippines. Anthropologists believe they arrived from the Southeast Asian mainland by way of land bridges, that no longer exist, through the Malay peninsula about 30,000 years ago, during the last glacial period. Traditionally they were hunter-gatherers, but with the arrival of the Malays 20,000 years later, the Negritos entered into a pattern of trade relations that persists to this day. The Aeta, or sometimes referred to as Baluga, is only one of four remaining Negrito tribes (Aeta, Atis, Itas, and Tasaday) in the Philippines left today (Grossholtz).

Today, various ethnic tribes still choose to live isolated from modern civilization, preserving their culture and abiding by their traditional laws. They still live in the mountainous regions of the country or in the vast and luscious rain forests. Each tribe consists of 15 to 40 people in the immediate group ranging from infants to elders. Mangayan is the collective name given to Mindoro’s indigenous Proto-Malayan people. The Mangayans can also be found on the islands of Panay and Luzon. The more recent Malays are somewhat common and are widely spread across the nation. Tribes such as the Igroto live in the jungles of Baguio, Batangas, and Tarlac on the main island of Luzon. The Bontoc tribes are on the islands of Samar, Leyte, Masbate, and a few in the forests of Negros. The Tinguians can be found mainly in the island of Palawan, but some are known to have migrated to Mindanao. These are just some of the many ethnic tribes that inhabit the Philippine islands (Levin!

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