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Chiefdoms: Mapping the Contours of Complex Societies in the Central Philippines
by Eric S. Casino
There can be no doubt that well before the coming
of Indian religions and writing-systems, well before the
arrival of envoys from the Chinese Empire, South East
Asia already had a flourishing pattern of societies and
communications whose roots are to be sought in the
region's prehistory. (Smith and Watson, Early South East
Asia, p. 14)
1. Introduction
2. Objectives
3. The evolution of chiefdoms and complex societies
4. The ethnohistory map
5. The linguistic history map
6. The archaeology map
7. The Sa-Huynh and Champa connection
8. Contours of chiefdoms and social stratification
9. Tattoos and other forms of status differentiation
10. Conclusion
11. Appendix: The Visayan Datu Ruling Class
1. Introduction
Historians face a number of challenges when attempting to document the commonality among
the societies and cultures of Southeast Asia from the 9th to the 12th century. The first
challenge is the fact that there are two types of societies that have been identified in the
region. The first are the early Indianized states such as Funan and Champa in lndochina, as well
as those of Srivijaya and Madjapahit in Indonesia. These lndianized states are few and
exceptional social formations compared to the second type, the more numerous and
widespread chiefdoms or non-state but complex societies in the rest of the island worlds of
Indonesia and the Philippines. Granted these chiefdoms did not progress towards centralized
state societies using Indian models, they were by no means "a region locked in a cycle of
underdevelopment" (Miksic 2003: xix).
There is more challenge in reconstructing chiefdoms in maritime Southeast Asia in the early
centuries because they are beyond the reach of written historical records. For this reason,
many historians have turned to Chinese dynastic records for reports on overseas trade with
these chiefdoms dating from the Song dynasty onward. Scholars have also turned increasingly
to archaeology and historical linguistics, relying on artifacts and lexifacts. to shed some light on
the material culture and life-ways of these early complex societies. Finally scholars have
learned to tap more recent ethnohistorical and ethnographic accounts from which to
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extrapolate back to these earlier centuries and re-imagine these complex social formations
during the prehistoric and proto historic periods (Junker 2000).
Around 1979 a number scholars interested in these questions held a colloquy in London whose
findings appeared in Early South East Asia: Essays in Archaeology, History, and Historical
Geography. It’s review of Early South East Asia was divided chronologically into the First
Millennium B.C. and the First Millennium A.D. , in other words into late Prehistory and early
Protohistory. What is noteworthy is its general conclusion that is especially apropos to the
2013 SEACOM theme of "Commonality beyond Differences in Culture and History".
The period from the ninth to the thirteen centuries might be called the 'high middle ages'
of South East Asia history . . . . Once we reach that period we are dealing with a
recognizable pattern of political and social life which can be identified at least in
outline, across the region . . . . it is possible in principle to write a continuous history of
south East Asia from that time onwards (smith and Watson 1919: 257).
The SEACOM focus on the 9th-12th centuries is thus a significant and welcome continuing
effort by scholars from within Asia to add texture, color, and drama to our picture of complex
societies at this critical juncture in our regional history. I hope I may be excused for discussing
scattered artifacts and lexifacts from earlier eras, as far back as 500 8.C., for assistance in
inferring and revealing the sociological roots and technological innovations that facilitated the
later socio-cultural and political transitions that we now are examining under the label
chiefdoms.
2. Objectives
The specific focus of this paper are the complex societies of the Central Philippines and their
relationship with the adjacent cultures of mainland Southeast Asia, particularly with Sa-hyunh
and Champa in what is now Vietnam. Concerning complex societies, the basic questions we
address in this paper are: (a) What evidence do we have for the existence and operation of
chiefdoms and complex societies in Central Philippine societies. (b) What forms of ranking and
social stratification do the resources reveal to enable us re-imagine more concretely the
political hierarchies. competitive drive, and regional interconnections of these chiefdoms?
Some of these complex societies are usually referred to as chiefdoms rather that states,
because they do not show the demographic density, institutional formality, and the urbanism of
the formal states patterned after Indian models. Nevertheless these non-state societies show
much originality in their inter-polity relations and in their material productions, such as in
pottery decorations on vessels for practical and ritual uses, personal ornamentation, maritime
transport technology, long-distance trade, and deep religious belief in the afterlife. Their social
organization and life-ways deserve more scholarly analysis and better integration into general
public knowledge. We coined the terms artifacts, lexifacts, and ideofacts as shorthand codes
for data from archaeology, linguistics, and ethnohistory. These three sets of data are like three
distinctive mapping overlays that help us discern the contours of these complex societies.
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The comparative method in historical linguistics has been demonstrated as a “ tool to
Complement, corroborate or contradict the independent testimony of archaeology.” (Blust
1996: 19-43). Linguistic evidence permits inferences which, are practically closed to
archaeology; however, there are also inferences in which archaeology alone is the illuminating
discipline, such as excavated cultural materials provided with c-14 dates. Their combined use
provides "complementary inferences". To illustrate this, although perishable materials cannot
be recovered through archaeology, through comparative historical linguistics, “we can be
virtually certain that Proto-Austronesian speakers used the bow, bamboo trail or pitfall, spikes,
the bamboo basket trap for fish etc., and carried these into the pacific by about 3000 B.C”,
(Blust 1996: 20), ln addition to linguistics and archaeology, data from ethnohistorical accounts
from a later period will be tapped as a reference horizon from which to extrapolate back to
past conditions. Evidence of continuities or discontinuities between earlier and later eras are
useful markers of cultural transitions, benchmarks to determine progress or decline.
3. The evolution of chiefdoms and complex societies
Before focusing specifically on the evidence for chiefdoms in the Central Philippines, first we
need to introduce some basic technical concepts on complex societies. Scholars working in the
field of political evolution and historical anthropology hare constructed a series of evolutionary
stages to trace and explain the emergence of modern state-societies. They theorize that
societies evolve from simple to complex forms, passing through ascending stages or forms of
complexity, such as the series band-tribe-chiefdom-state. “Chiefdoms are intermediate
societies, neither states nor egalitarian [band] societies” (Earl 1991: xi]. While these neat
typologies are useful for theorizing they fail to address multiple variations in reality. Some
scholars realize that the typology of chiefdom "spans too broad a range of variation,, (Earl 1991:
16). Variations occur because each type of society deals differently with the challenges for
survival in specific socio-ecological conditions, such as food production adapted to highland or
lowland environments, inter-personal and inter-group politics, challenges to rank and status
positions in politics and wealth differentiation, innovation or acquisition of new technologies,
the accumulation of power through appear to religious ideas and rituals, etc.
A more nuanced descriptive set of images are needed to characterize the typology of bands,
tribes, and chiefdoms. Band societies are found typically among hunter-gatherer families or
small groups whose social relations are governed by an egalitarian ethos, and are without
permanent hereditary chiefs (acephalous). Hunters and gatherer in band societies do not have
permanent settlements, only temporary camps. ln contrast, tribes are more than bands in that
they may engage in shifting horticulture or primitive fishing and marine collecting, and may
exchange their produce or catch with other tribes or with roving bands. Whereas bands may
live in impermanent shelters, tribes construct semi-permanent dwellings in safe and easily
protected location. ln maritime southeast Asia, during prehistoric times there were also
roving bands on boats, members of tribes who live as sea-nomads dwelling in house-boats;
several of these family-boats may converge seasonally in some favorite cove or trading
anchorage. Coastal tribes may congregate into small settlements to provide defense and
engage in cooperative hunting, fishing, and cultivation of garden plots.
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Both bands and tribes engage in barter trade and economic exchange. Scholars have identified
two kinds of exchange: direct reciprocity and redistributive exchange. Reciprocity or direct
exchange occurs between equals, as in barter trade where the trade-off may be between dried
fish for taro-roots, or salt for bees-wax. Exchanges between bands are often conducted as
direct reciprocity. The other kind of exchange is called redistributive, which implies the
presence of a chief that exacts tributes from subordinate groups and redistributes them as gifts
in communal feasts in order to achieve prestige, attract new followers, and reward loyal allies.
Chiefs also acquire prestige goods obtained from traders from China, Indochina, India, and the
Middle East. These foreign luxury items are used by leaders to increase their economic capital
and political influence. Redistributive exchange is an aspect of political ascendancy and control
in chiefdoms. ln redistributive economies chiefs may maintain some armed followers for
raiding other groups, for collection of tribute, and for exercising authority on their circle of
supporters and subject districts.
The distinction between reciprocity-exchange and redistributive-exchange marks the boundary
Between acephalous bands and tribes on the one hand and the more complex organization of
chiefdoms on the other. Chiefdoms have a territorial focus in a settlement, and these
settlements are ranked as large or small by the number of houses and inhabitants in them. The
largest settlement is usually ruled by a paramount chief recognized as dominant over a number
of smaller settlements. Settlement size in chiefdoms is used to distinguish between simple and
complex chiefdoms. "Simple chiefdoms have polity sizes in the low thousands, one level in the
political hierarchy above the local community, and a system of graduated ranking. Complex
chiefdoms have polity sizes in the tens of thousands, two levels in the political hierarchy above
the local community, and an emergent stratification” (Earle 1991: 3; my emphasis).
As society evolves from simple to complex, there is more elaboration in the characteristic
elements of culture and social organization. The first element to be elaborated is social ranking,
the use of material and symbolic differences to distinguish rich and poor, powerful and
subservient; such rankings often become the basis for later institutionalized social stratification
where wealth, status, and power are inherited through dynastic descent. The second element
is specialization in food production and the skilled production of handicrafts that enter into the
cycle of exchange. The third element is elaboration of religious beliefs and rituals that are used
to enhance the power of the chief and to integrate social life with forces and spirits in the
supernatural order. The leaders of chiefdoms are political specialists who coordinate the
organization of subsistence, exchange, and ritual activities for their polity, which they rule in
alliance or competition with other chiefly polities in their region. As complexity increases there
is more division of labor and differentiation of functions under the guidance and administration
of a ruling family or group. Such are some basic theoretical indicators of complex societies.
As we examine the evidence of bands, tribes, and chiefdoms in the Central Philippines, we
discover that these idealized social types co-existed and were contemporaneous; and
moreover they were not completely isolated from one another but were variously interrelated
through exchanges of war and trade. From the fact of this co-existence and connection, we
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develop my own definition of social complexity. Complex societies, in the case of the Central
Philippines, was an ethno-geographical network which knitted together the coastal communities
with surrounding hinterland bands and tribes, by links of direct reciprocity and redistributive
exchange, as well as by domination and subservience. ln other words, social evolution did not
require the abandonment of one form to replace it with another but involved
the incorporation of the earlier forms as functional components within the later and larger
social formation that bridged across the lowland-highland ecosystems. Complex forms of sociopolitical organizations are thus best measured not exclusively by centralization and vertical
hierarchy but by a loose lateral differentiation of ethno-geographic complexity, facilitated by
trade and exchange, by migration, and by political alliances, inside and between regions. ln
other words, we find in the data some patterns that tend to support the theory of heterarchy as
a useful alternative to the traditional concept of rigid hierarchy with a unidimensional view of
complexity. ln a heterarchy there is more opportunity for choice and context (White (1995:
103-04).
4. The ethnohistorv map
As mentioned earlier, the Central Philippines can be viewed through the three mapping
overlays of historical linguistics, archaeology, and ethnohistory. With the ethnohistory overlay,
we have three actual observations in the 13th and 16th century that allow us to work back to
re-imagine complex societies in the 9th century or earlier. The first set provides two L6th
century Spanish descriptions of lowland-upland distribution of communities; the second is a
Portuguese report from around 1511 about Luzon and Borneo natives actively trading and
residing in the entrepot of Malacca in the 15th century; and the third is Chao Ju-kua's report
describing Chinese trading procedures in the Mindoro-Manila area around L2Z5 AD., more than
four hundred years earlier than the Spanish and Portuguese reports.
(1) Spanish observation [ca. 1582]: There are two kinds of people in this land [Panay],
who although of the same race, differ somewhat in their customs and are almost
always on mutually unfriendly terms. One class includes those who live along the coast,
the other class, those who live in the mountains; and if peace seems to reign among
them, it is because they depend upon each other for the necessities of life. The
inhabitants of the mountains cannot live without the fish, salt, and other articles of
food, and the jars and dishes of other districts; nor, on the other hand, can those
of the coast live without rice and cotton of the mountaineers (Blair and Robertson 5:
121).
(2) Spanish observation [ca. 1663]: they [the Spaniards] found three varieties or kinds of
people. Those who held command of it (i.e., the island of Manila), and inhabited
the seashore and riverbanks, and all the best parts round about . . . . All those whom
the first Spaniards found in these islands with the command and lordship over the land
are reduced to the first class, the civilized peoples. Another kind, totally opposed to the
above, are the Negritos, who live in the mountains and thick forests which abound in
these islands. . . . These blacks were apparently the first inhabitants of these islands,
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And they have been deprived of them by the civilized nations who came later by way of
Sumatra, the Javas, Borney, Macazar, and other islands lying towards the west . . . .
They, the third variety, generally live about the sources of rivers, and on that account
are called Manguianes, Zambals, and other names, for each island has a different name
for them. They generally trade with the Tagalogs, Visayans, and other civilized nations
and for that reason they are midway between the other two classes of people in colour,
clothing, and customs (Blair and Robertson 40: 37).
Note that the first report, given by Loarca ca. 1582, uses a two-fold division of the population.
The second report, by Colin ca.1663, has a three-fold division, suggesting more accurate
Spanish knowledge of Philippine ethnography gained after a century of colonial and missionary
work in the islands. Loarca gives no explicit testimony as to the presence of Negrito groups in
the Central Philippines, but we know from other sources that they were there, as evidenced, for
instance, by the name of the Island of Negros, between Panay and Cebu.
The Portuguese captured Malacca in 1511, just 10 years prior to Magellan's arrival in Mindanao
in 1521. They reported the presence of native traders from Luzon and Borneo, coming to trade
and reside in the international port of Malacca. These traders were most likely already active in
previous centuries, before the arrival of the PortuguesePortuguese observation [ca. 1511]: The Lucoes [natives of Luzon] are about ten days'
sail beyond Borneo. They are nearly all heathen; they have no king, but are ruled by
groups of elders. They are a robust people, little thought of in Malacca. They have two
or three junks at the most. They take the merchandise to Borneo and from there they
come to Malacca. The Borneans go to the land of the Lucoes to buy gold, and foodstuffs as well, and the gold which they bring to Malacca is from the Lucoes and from the
surrounding islands which are countless; and they all have more or less trade with
one another. And the gold of these islands where they trade is of low-quality -- indeed
very low quality.
The Lucoes have in their country plenty of foodstuffs, and wax and honey; and they take
the same merchandise from here [Malacca] as the Borneans take. They are almost one
people; and in Malacca there is no division between them. They never used to be in
Malacca as they are now, but the Tomunguo [minister of police] whom the governor of
India appointed here was already beginning to gather many of them together, and they
were already building many houses and shops. They are a useful people; they are
hardworking. lnMinjam there must be five hundred Lucoes, some of them more
important men and good merchants, who want to come to Malacca . . . . (Tome Piresvol
1,1944:133-134).
Early Chinese trade with the Philippines is indicated by remains of trade ceramics dating back to
the Song dynasty. How these export ceramics were brought into and distributed in the
Philippines is graphically described in a year-long Chinese trading expedition into the Mindoro-
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southern Luzon area known then as Ma-i, as recounted in Chao Ju-Kua's "Chu Fan Chih" around
1225.
Chinese observation [ca. 1225] The country of Ma-i is to the north of Po-ni [probably
Brunei]. Over a thousand families are together along both banks of a creek. When
trading ships enter the anchorage, they stop in front of the official's place, for that is
the place for bartering of the country. After a ship has been boarded, the natives mix
freely with the ship's folk. The chiefs are in the habit of using white umbrellas, for which
reason the traders offer them as gifts.
The custom of the trade is for the savage traders to assemble in crowds and carry the
goods away with them in baskets; and even if one cannot at first know them, and can
but slowly distinguish the men who remove the goods, there will yet be no less. The
savage traders will after this carry these goods on to other islands for barter, and, as a
rule, it takes them as much as eight or nine months till they return, when they repay the
traders on shipboard with what they have obtained [for the goods]. . . . The products of
the country consist of yellow wax, cotton, pearls, tortoise-shell, medicinal betelnuts,
andyuta cloth; and the foreign traders barter for these porcelain, trade-gold, iron pots,
lead, colored glass beads, and iron needles [quoted in Scott 1984: 58-59].
Extrapolating from the above ethnohistorical reports, we can begin to construct the outlines
and component elements of chiefdoms and complex societies in the Central Philippines with
the following empirical observations.
(1) that the lowland-upland structure of the islands' geography shaped the distribution and
inter-group relations of the natives; that there was reciprocal trade between lowland
communities and highland tribal groups;
(2) that some upland groups were bands of Negritos, physically different from the lowland
groups, the latter being considered the more "civilized" nations;
(3) that trading was not confined between two neighboring localities, but included active interisland and inter-regional commerce, as between Luzon, Borneo, and the Malay Peninsula;
(4) that trade with the Chinese followed a pattern of seasonal trading circuit, from a central
location where goods are redistributed through local trader-entrepreneurs who take them to
the surrounding islands to barter for local products; the same inter-island distributors were also
the collectors of native products brought to the main port to pay for the Chinese trade goods;
(5) that there was a demand for "colored glass beads" and "iron needles" implies among the
tribes a strong social interest in personal appearance and ornamentation and therefore social
differentiation, with active female participation.
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The overall impression from these ethnohistorical descriptions is that during the nearly four
hundred years between Chao Ju-Kua's reports 1225, and that of Tome Pires in 1511, Loarca in
1582, the peoples of Southern Luzon, the Central Philippines, Northern Mindanao were
sociologically and politically complex and were actively engaged in distance trading inside and
outside the Central Philippines. To this picture we now must add what historical linguistics and
archaeology can tell us. The questions to ask are: (a) How far bock in prehistory did this pattern
of complex societies extend, that was characterized by lowland-upland, inter-island, and interregional trade? (b) What additional facts and insights can linguistics and archaeology add to
our picture of the life-ways and social differentiation of these past societies?
The London Colloquy cited above concluded that "by the latter part of the first millennium B.C.,
there was an observable distinction between maritime and hinterland societies in several parts
of South East Asia" (Smith and Watson 1979:258). It is this evolving symbiosis of coastal and
highland societies that appears as the fundamental framework for re-imagining the emergence
of complex societies in the Central Philippines.
5. The historical linguistics map
The second mapping overlay is historical linguistics, specifically the Austronesian linguistic
expansion within Southeast Asia and the Philippines. Our choice of the Central Philippines as
the region for investigating chiefdoms and complex societies was originally dictated by these
linguistic reconstructions.
Blust (1991, 2005) has advanced a hypothesis he calls the GCP or "Greater Central Philippines",
to explain the stronger degree of similarities among languages spoken in the Central
Philippines. "ln sharp contrast with the linguistic situation in the northern and southern regions,
almost the entire central region of the Bisayas and southern Luzon constitutes an extended
dialect network with roughly 45 million first-language speakers of Tagalog, Bikol and
intergrading varieties of Bisayan (Blust 2005: 38). The label "Greater Central Philippines" was
introduced in order to account for some languages in northern Sulawesi which are genetically
related to those in the Central Philippines, even though their speakers historically did not live
within the political and geographic confines of the Philippines. We omit the technical linguistic
formula and computations used to arrive at the GCP hypothesis; we only extract the ideas that
are needed for examining the general characteristics of complex societies in the Central
Philippines. What can be clearly inferred is that the linguistic history of the central Philippines
included a major episode of linguistic extinction of earlier language families and expansion of
the later more dominant families.
"To summarize, around 500 8.C., for reasons unknown, speakers of Greater Central
Philippines began to expand outward from a center somewhere in northern Mindanao
or the southern Visayas. Through conquest and absorption of weaker populations, they
reduced the linguistic diversity of the Visayas, Palawan, and southern Luzon. Only a few
remnant populations, such as the lnati of Panay and the Kalamian group survived . . . .
Last, but not least, one branch of Greater Central Philippines migrated southward past
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The Sangiric and Minahasan peoples to establish a foothold on the northern peninsula
of Sulawesi" (Blust 1991: 103-4; my emphasis).
This bold reconstruction "turns critically on the notion that languages may disappear if their
speakers are overwhelmed by technically superior populations that speak a different language,,
(Blust 1991: 104). The evidence for such marginalization in the Central Philippines are the lnati
speakers of Panay who appear to be descendants of a Negritos group, and the speakers of
Calamian and related Tagbanua language of Palawan who retain non-GCP vocabulary and loans
from other sources. ln other word, a possible socio-political correlate of linguistic leveling may
have been the emergence and expansion of demographically and culturally dominant groups
of GCP speakers who overran and displaced speakers of other languages in the area of
expansion. His overall conclusion opens some space for critical anthropological perspectives
relative to the problem of complex societies being explored in this paper. A set of significant
archaeological records of this area in this period, presented in the following sections, provides
congruent evidence for the theory of such a Greater Central Philippine linguistic expansion and
leveling starting around 500 B.C.
The other function of historical linguistics is the reconstruction of realms of meanings and
material referents that can be gleaned from surviving Austronesian vocabulary. This second
function is the more traditional branch of historical linguistics - the comparative study of
"form-meaning" pairings. Although the match between one sound-shape with a specific
referent is arbitrary, changes in the sound-shape alone follow a predictable regularity so that
one could trace the derivation of one sound-shape from an earlier form. The comparison of
such "form-meaning" pairings across time, space, and language families constitutes what is
known as the Comparative Method (Blust 1995: 455). The application of this method has
resulted in a growing compilation of reconstructed vocabulary and their socio-cultural referents
in Malayo-Polynesian languages, including those of the central Philippines. The reconstructed
vocabulary may be used to draw inferences both about the physical environment and the
culture of those who used it (Blust 1995: 455). A pattern of inferences from a compilation of
reconstructed vocabulary, can be independently tested through other sources of evidence from
archaeology palynology, physical anthropology, genetics, etc. Below are three illustrative
examples of reconstructed realms of experience, meanings, and material culture that
characterized the societies in the central Philippines, from 500 B.C. onwards.
(a) boat and navigation. Since Polynesians, as ancients navigators, are believed to have
originated from parts of Indonesia and the Philippine, it is not difficult to imagine that the
societies from which they originated had substantial knowledge of boat-making and navigation.
It was this maritime mobility that, sometime around 500 B.C., facilitated the spread of speakers
of Central Philippine languages over the territory bounded by southern Luzon and Bicol
peninsula in the north, Mindanao and parts of Sulawesi in the south, and the entire band of
Bisayan islands between Palawan and Samar-Leyte. Accordingly the cultural reconstruction in
this area of society and technology is well attested to in the literature of historical linguistics
for the Malayo-Polynesian world in general, and for the Central Philippines in particular.
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"PMP [Proto Malayo-Polynesian] speakers had a fully developed outrigger canoe complex
which included several types of boats, sails and sailing techniques, paddles, rudders, canoe
bailers, cross seats inside the hull, rollers for beaching canoes, and of course the outrigger itself.
In addition they added a great deal of new information regarding such matters as hull
construction, planking, the keel, carved projecting end-pieces, platforms, cabins, and the like.
All in all we are given a rather detailed picture of the material vehicles which carried AN
[Austronesian] speakers halfway around the world from island Southeast Asia to Madagascar in
the west, and across the Pacific to Hawaii and Easter Island" (Blust 1995: 487-BB).
(b) house and settlement. lf the people of the Central Philippines by 500 B.C. had a highly
developed culture of boat-making and navigation, they were even more capable of building
houses and establishing settlements. And so, linguistic reconstructions provide us glimpses of
cultural and social practices which survived as indicated by lexifacts. ln his study of the term for
"house" and related concept of "settlements," Blust came up with the following conclusions.
The Proto Malayo-Polynesian term "banua" represented the concept of an inhabited territory
(as opposed to wilderness). This included the village and its population, together with
everything that contributed to the life-support system of the community (farms and gardens,
fruit groves, sources of water and the graves of the ancestors. There was no separate term for
"village". The term "ruma"' ("house") referred exclusively to family dwellings. The term "balay"
was a public building as opposed to a family dwelling, probably used for community meetings.
The term "lepaw" appears to have meant "granary", but may include the meaning "house,',
"hut", "back veranda" and the like. The term "kamalig" could refer variously to "granary",
"fieldhut" "workshop for blacksmith", or "men's house" (Blust 1995: 485).
(c) fishing and coastal economic orientation. The reconstructed vocabulary of fishing and fish
names is quite large. It appears likely that fishing strategies were broadly divided into those
appropriate for women and children, and those appropriate for men. The former included the
collection of mollusks, crustaceans, echinoderms, and the like from coastal shallows or lagoons,
while the latter were focused on fishing from boats, or on shore fishing with large nets that
required cooperative effort. Among terms for marine invertebrates that probably had
economic value were: cowrie, octopus, squid, cuttlefish, cateye shell, mangrove crab, coconut
crab, shrimp, lobster, snail, barnacle, conch, and oyster. . . . One other shell was of great
importance: the large shell of the conch, which served as a trumpet in many Austronesianspeaking societies, and was sounded at specific occasions, as the launching of a canoe on a
major voyage, or in other ceremonial contexts (Blust 1996:477)
Elaboration in boats and sea-oriented culture
Let us extrapolate forward to the 16th century A.D. A second source of lexifacts is William
Henry Scott's book, Barangay. This is an ethnographic reconstruction of Central Philippine
culture and society based on early missionary dictionaries of the Bisayan languages. Scott's
lexifacts are not produced through Blust's "comparative method" of historical linguistics; they
are rather ethnographic linguistic data from the 16th century, with interesting examples
attached to them. Scott's vocabulary list obviously relates to referents from a later period
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compared to Blust's Austronesian word list. And therein lies the value of Scott's later
vocabulary list for complementing and enlarging the realms of meanings available through
historical linguistic data. Scott's word list helps us track social and cultural changes over time in
the Central Philippines, from 500 B.C. to around 1500 A.D. or about 2,000 years of both
continuity and elaboration of sea-oriented culture and technology of chiefdoms in the Central
Philippines.
The boats called balangay and karakoa are iconic vessels of Visayan maritime culture. ln its
physical appearance, the balangay was very different from an outrigger canoe in size, function
and construction. Balangay was a large boat intended for cargo capacity or seagoing raids.
They were built on squared keels with stems at both ends. As long as 25 meters, they had five
or six planks to a side, each carved to the desired curve beforehand, preferably in one
continuous stroke. Since it was their flare and curvature which determined the contour of the
hull and consequently the speed of the vessel, the skill to produce them was the hallmark of the
master panday. The planks were edge-pegged together, with thin wooden nails run through
each peg in place, plank and all, and the chinks between the planks caulked tight." Only after
the whole shell is completed are the ribs added (Scott 1994:62)
But the most celebrated Visayan vessel was the warship called karakoa -- a sleek, double-ended
cruiser with an elevated fighting deck amidships, and catwalks mounted on the outrigger
supports to seat as many as six banks of paddlers [and rowers]. They displayed tall staffs of
brilliant plumage fore and aft as a sign of victory. . .(Scott 1994:63). The karakoa cruisers were
designed for coastal seas full of reefs and rocks, and interisland passages with treacherous
currents. They therefore drew little water, had low freeboard, had outriggers on both sides and
steering oars instead of center-line rudders, and their flexible hulls could absorb underwater
blows . . . . They had one or more tripod masts that carried matting sails woven of palm fibers .
. . . Paddles, a meter or LZQ centimeters long (bugsav) and with a leaf-shaped blade, were
carved of a single piece of wood. Oars (gaor), however, had a blade shaped like a dinner plate.
The karakoa could mount forty of them on a side, and its speed was proverbial. As Father
Combes said, "The care and technique with which they build them makes their ships sail like
birds, while ours are like lead in comparison" (Scott 1994: 63).
The balangy and the karakoa were definitely associated with political ranking and power
projection in Central Visayan chiefdoms. Technologically, their physical construction required
highly-skilled master carpenters, and sociologically their operation demanded high-level
coordination that should be expected from a developed chiefdom. ln other words, the
sociological and political correlates of the balangay and karakoa required the presence of social
stratification, and the action of political elites capable of strategic planning, deployment, and
projection of coordinated manpower for the attainment of economic and political gain.
Elaboration in house-building and settlements
The Visayan word for house is balay, and its Tagalog equivalent is bahay. The cultural and social
meanings of these two words happen to be central to the concept of community and township.
12
when pluralized, balay becomes kabalayan which means a group of houses, a settlement. ln
Batangas there is still a community called Balayan. The Tagalog bahay is pluralized as bahayan
which is further compressed as bayan, the current term for town, community, nation. Hence
the term kabayan or kababayan came to mean a person from the same community, town, or
province.
ln 16th century Central Philippines, the size and style of houses and pattern of settlement
reflect the ranking and social stratification characteristic of those with or without chiefly status.
There were three basic types of houses -- permanent wooden structures that might be called
town houses, cottages built of light materials near the fields, and tree houses.
The large town houses were supported on tall hardwood pillars, reaching some up to the
ridgepole and the others to the flooring. There were five to ten of these large pillars on a side,
planted deep in the ground. Thus houses were elevated off the ground on posts and
dominated by steep roofs, "both features appropriate to a tropical environment characterized
by heavy rains" (Scott 1994: 57).
"The ruling datu had the largest house in the community -- even 30 meters long - and it
was not only his dwelling, workplace, and storehouse, but also served as the community
center for civic and religious affairs, with a kind of public lounging platform below or in
front. Wooden partitions carved foliage in high relief provided separate chambers for
him and his wife, family, binokot [protected] daughter, concubines, and house slaves.
Partial flooring laid over the tie beams made a kind of loft or attic. Similar grandeur was
forbidden other datus: to construct a house large enough to entertain the whole
community was in itself a form of competition amounting to lese majesty” (Scott 1994:
60).
"Non-datus, on the other hand, lived in cottages built of light materials ready to be
moved every few years to be near shifting swiddens -- and so did datu farmers live in
such houses seasonally. They did not stand on harigis and contained little timber:
instead of the sturdy crossbeams called batangan in both houses and ships, they had
unsquared poles called sagbat. Much time, and many nights, was spent in a variety of
field huts and temporary shelters convenient to their labor. . . . Travelers, farmers,
hunters, and fishers, even seamen beaching their boats for the night, put up so many of
them that they could usually be found already standing along well-traveled roads or
river fords" (Scott 1994: 60).
"Tree houses were occupied only in time of war, built either in actual trees 15 or more
meters above the ground, or on tall posts. lf they were intended only for male warriors,
they were reached simply by a vine which could be pulled up; but if a whole family
occupied them, they were full-scale dwellings with a platform midway up reached by a
removable ladder, with a second ladder up to the house itself" (Scott 1994:61-62).
13
These traditional stratified house architecture and customs of the Visayans disappeared after
Spanish pacification during the early stages of colonization. The large datu mansions also
disappeared, as their public functions were taken over by government buildings and churches.
We can be confident that in the preceding centuries, back to the 9th century, traditional
architecture flourished, perhaps in slightly less grand dimensions and style for the datu
mansions. Similar field cottages and tree houses would have been found, in as much as
shifting agriculture and inter-tribal raids were also characteristic of these earlier societies.
ln his archaeological investigation of an lron Age site in the Novaliches outside Manila, Beyer
reported finding indication of house-post holes in the ground, whose diameters were found to
measure about 15 inches. Their arrangement and shape were interpreted by him as
"supporting a wooden building of considerable size and importance -- possibly the dwelling of a
local chief or ruler, of the later Iron Age horizon." It appears thus that for nearly 2,000 years
chiefdoms in the Central Philippines produced more elaborate cultural forms, as evidenced by
the architecture of datu houses.
6. The archaeology map
Archaeology, the third mapping overlay, provides very colorful and tangible evidence of
chiefdoms and developing complex societies in the Central Philippines. We briefly review three
archaeological investigations: (a) Wilhelm Solheim’s Sa-Huynh-Kalanay pottery complex; (b)
Robert Fox's Tabon Caves discoveries with their reconstructed chronologies; and (c) basic
information on Sa Huynh and Champa culture and society and their role in regional trade.
The Sa Hyunh-Kalanay construct
In The Archaeology of Central Philippines, Wilhelm Solheim first introduced three major pottery
complexes – Kalanay, Novaliches, and Bau – which continue some forty years later to
be important areas of archaeological investigation of native potteries in terms of their
temporal-spatial and contextual significance (Bacus 2004: 128). Solheim’s research in the
1950’s was done with no help from C-14 dates nor from controlled stratigraphy. “Without
stratified sites, the one chronological indicator in the sites covered is the presence or absence
of Chinese or Asiatic ceramics. It is not a certain indicator as the absence of these ceramics
does not preclude a late date, however, their presence does indicate a date later than their
manufacture on the mainland. If several scattered sites without porcelain or stoneware
present a fairly consistent assemblage, it is reasonable to assume that they are roughly
contemporaneous and that their time of occupation was previous to the introduction of the trade
porcelain” ( Solheim 2002: 94).
The Central Philippine focus of Solheim’s original work was not exclusively based on the Kalanay
cave excavation; it included an extensive comparative laboratory analysis of thousands of
archaeological materials previously collected between 1922 and 1925 in an expedition headed
by Dr. Carl Guthe, first trained archaeologist to work in the Philippines. Guthe identified 542
archaeological sites and collectedmore than 30 cubic tons of archaeological specimens now
stored at the University Museum of the University of Michigan (Ronquillo 2011: 5). The sites
14
from which Guthe collected pottery and other artifacts are not evenly scattered throughout the
area [of the central Philippines]. one site each comes from southern Mindanao, Negros,
Masbate and Mindoro. The only sites from Palawan and Leyte are on their extreme northern
tips and there is no site from Panay. The majority of the sites are from the central Visayan
Islands of Siquijor, Cebu and Bohol, with a neighboring cluster in Surigao, Mindanao and a
distant cluster at the northern end of Palawan and in the Calamianes group_(Solheim 2002: 63).
The Purpose of this expedition was to collect ceramics from the central Philippines, and it was
hoped that the study of these artifacts would shed light on the trade relationships between
China and the Philippines from A.D 800 to the arrival of the Spanish” (Solheim 1981: 17; my
emphasis).
As Solheim expanded his interest into regions outside the central Philippines, he introduced
two regional constructs: "Sa Huynh-Kalanay" and "Bau-Malay" pottery traditions. Sa Huynh is
related to a Champa culture area in Central Vietnam; and Bau is a site in Sarawak, East
Malaysia. Explaining his decision to use hyphenated descriptors to highlight region-wide
commonalities, Solheim wrote:
"It has become obvious from the very wide distribution of this [Kalanay-like pottery]
in Southeast Asia and the great duration in time, what was at first considered the
Kalanay Pottery Complex could not be the pottery of one widely spread [single]
culture. . . . What I was classifying as the Kalanay Pottery Complex in the first edition
is two or more pottery complexes and so, in referring to the total related pottery
group in the Philippines, I should call it a pottery tradition. I have used the name SaHuynh-Kalanay Pottery Tradition for this and hereafter use this term when referring to
theKalanay related pottery of all of the Philippines and/or Southeast Asia. It is likely
that the same holds for what I have been calling the Bau pottery Complex and for that
reason, I now use the title Bau-Malay Pottery Tradition" (Solheim2002: 173).
The Tabon Caves Discoveries
About 10 years after Solheim started research on pottery in Kalanay Cave in Masbate, Robert
Fox of the Philippine National Museum excavated Tabon cave, including other cave sites
aroundLipuun Point, in Western Palawan, that are designated generally as “Tabon Caves.”
During the period of explorations, twenty-nine caves used for habitation and/or burial were
discovered on Lipuun Point. The extensive work done on the archaeology of these sites went on
from July 1962 to June 1965, yielding significant benchmarks in the study of the evolution of
Philippine complex societies.
"These caves . . . contained an astonishing wealth and an extensive time-range of
cultural materials: a flake tool tradition which dates from the Late Pleistocene and early
post-Pleistocene period, including fossil human bones and the bones of a deer now
extinct inn Palawan; a highly developed jar burial complex which first appeared during
the Late Neolithic and continued into the Developed Metal Age; and finally, in two
caves, porcelains and stonewares indicating local trade with China during the Sung and
15
Yuan Dynasties. The excavations have revealed more than 50,000 years of Philippine
prehistory!" (Fox 1970: 8)."
The National Museum's work in Palawan is especially important because it expands our
knowledge of complex societies in the Central Philippines, in terms of areal distribution and
chronologies. For the first time we have cultural sequences correlated with archaeological data
firmly grounded in both C-14 and in-situ stratigraphic analysis, in addition to type-comparison.
Fox was thus able to reduce Beyer's Neolithic period to just two phases, Early and Late
Neolithic, with subdivisions into local phases in sub-areas.
ln Palawan there was no definite cultural boundary between Beyer's postulated Bronze Age
and Iron Age, and so Fox combined them into his Metal Age, divided into Early (ca 700 to 200
B.C.)and Developed Metal Age (ca 300 to 700 A.D. ) . "The brief period when bronze and
copper first appeared (and "drift" iron may have appeared together with these metals) did not
represent a major phase of technological development in the Philippines". ln the new
chronology the Developed Metal Age is followed by and overlapped with the Age of Contacts
and Trade (ca. 1000 A.D.).
It is important to briefly go back to the cultural sequences of the Late Neolithic, the Early Metal
Age, and the Developed Metal Age. These periods laid the cultural, sociological, and
technological foundations for the emergence and growth of complex societies and chiefdoms in
the Central Philippines. A brief examination of cultural development especially from about 500
B.C. to 1000 A.D. can reveal how simple societies became complex in response to the
introduction of new technologies and increasing opportunities for local and foreign trade.
The period of the Developed Metal Age saw iron coming fully into its own as a new technology.
Trade in iron and expansion of iron-making replaced the earlier artifacts of rare "drift iron"
objects. Increasing use and application of iron revolutionized not just the weapons of war such
as bladed weapons and spear-heads, but also the implements for more efficient agriculture,
woodworking, and hunting. More importantly it stimulated the expansion of small-scale
barangay communities into supra-tribal chiefdoms. Political and trade entrepreneurs
increasingly used iron as medium and motivation for expanding a network of allies for
extracting island products to exchange for iron and other trade goods coming in from overseas.
A redefinition of the role of political leadership now included that of chief blacksmith of the
community.
"Blacksmiths were panday - or, more accurately' pandaysaputhaw, workers in iron, to
distinguish them from other craftsmen like goldsmiths, master carpenters, and boat
builders, all of whom were called panday. Smithing was considered the noblest
profession, probably because only the wealthiest datus had the means to import the
raw material. lf they were indeed the ultimate source of all metal tools, including the
swidden farmers' bolos, they would have exercised effective control over Visayan means
of production. As Father Alcina said, "it is certain that no profession among the
16
16
Visayans is more profitable than this, and so it is the most honored and esteemed
among them, since the greatest chiefs are the best iron-workers” (Scott(1994:54-55).
ln the Early Metal Age, bronze and copper objects were more numerous and implied
innovation in local metallurgy in these metals. Excavated in Palawan were molds for casting
socketed bronze adzes whose closest relationships were with forms found in mainland
southeast Asia- As tin is not found in the Philippines and is needed in bronze casting, it is
apparent that either tin was imported or bronze was reworked in the islands during the Early
Metal Period (Fox 1979: 238). These early metals which date to about 500 B.C. or slightly later,
were also associated with the appearance of a unique series of nephrite ornaments, probably
ear-pendants known as lingling-o. "Absolutely identical types of these jade ornaments are
found in northern Indochina, South china, and the Hong Kong area,, (Fox 1979: 239). Another
diagnostic ornament sourced from overseas is the jade ear-pendant in the shape of a doubleheaded animal. other objects found include semi-precious stones -- carnelian, banded onyx,
jasper, agate- caustic etched carnelian beads appear to originate from south Asia but also
appear in Sa-huynh and eventually found their way to the Philippines {Fox 1979:240}.
Both chamber A and chamber B of Manunggul cave yielded some dramatic evidence of early
pottery and later jar burial assemblages. The earlier assemblage in Chamber A has two C- 14
dates: 710 B.C. and 890 B.C. chamber B has one C-14 date of 190 B.C. The presence of earlier
bronze and later iron artifacts in chamber B puts its associated materials within the Metal Age.
ln chamber A, seventy-eight jars, jar covers, and smaller earthenware vessels were found on
the surface and in the subsurface levels.. . the range of forms and designs is remarkable. . .
presents a clear example of a funerary pottery, i.e. vessels which for the most part were potted
specifically for burial and ritual purposes" (Fox 1970: 112). It was in chamber A where the now
famousManunggulburial jar was discovered, which featured a ship-of-the-dead on the jar lid.
This vessel provides a clear example of a cultural link between the archaeological past
and the ethnographic present. The boatman is steering rather than paddling the “ship”
The mast of the boat was not recovered. Both figures appear to be wearing a band tied
over crown of the head and under the jaw; a pattern still encountered in burial
practices among the indigenous peoples of the southern Philippines. The manner in
which the hands of the front figure are folded across the chest is also a widespread
practice in the Islands when arranging the corpse (Fox 1970: 113-140).
The dates and cultural sequences from both chambers of Manunggulcave, range from gg0 B.C.
in the Late Neolithic to 190 B.C. in the Metal Age. lt is within this time horizon that the
speakers of Greater Central Philippines began to expand around 500 B.C. according to Blust’s
linguistic reconstruction. we now begin to see some convergence of data from archaeology
and linguistics to supplement later data from ethnohistory and ethnography. The people who
17
made the Manungguljar, who practiced jar burial in caves, used bronze implements, and had
pendants and earrings and beads made of shell and jade and other semi-precious stones
arguably were interacting with or were themselves speakers of Greater Central Philippine
17
languages, the ancestors of the Tagalogs, Bicolanos, Bisayans, and Butuanons of Northern
Mindanao. During the Early and Late Metal Age and following centuries, people in Palawan and
the Central Philippines were regionally in contact with Borneo, Champa, and South china, a
connection underscored both by Solheim's Sa Huynh-Kalanay construct and Fox's discovery of
bronze implements and jade ornaments that are traceable to Indochina.
Both Solheim and Fox viewed Sa Huynh as a regionl source of cultural influences as viewed
mostly from the side of the Philippines as recipient. It is time to look at Sa Huynh in itself to
appreciate its growth as a vital cultural center of innovation; and at Champa as the later
continuation of the earlier inter-regional relationship between the Philippines and mainland
Southeast Asia.
Vietnamese archaeologists have intensified research into the prehistory of Central Vietnam,
particularly on Sa Huynh and Champa. Since 1975 about a thousand Sa Huynh burials which
date from 500 to 100 B.C. have been recorded. The Can Goi area, southeast ofSaigon, and the
Thu Bon area south of HoiAn, Quang Nam province, are recognized as settlement cores of
particular importance. A radiocarbon dating of 400 BC was obtained from Giong Ca Vo, in Can
Goi, where excavations revealed ten inhumation graves and 339 jar burials containing grave
goods that included twenty-one double-headed ear pendants, three split earrings, and
hundreds of carnelian or other stone beads. According to Higham's report, the site’s strategic
location and wealth of excavated ornaments indicate a rich society that was involved in
widespread exchange relationship. Similarly, the Go Ma Voi burial grounds in the Thu Bon area
ofQuang Nam Province yielded a great variety of artifacts including twenty-nine bronze objects
and twenty-two made of iron, mostly socketed axes. These bronze weapons and implements
represent "the greatest number found in Sa Huynh site to date . . . the team involved in the
excavations perceives a relationship to contemporaneous bronze production in northern
Vietnam and southern China" (Diem 2004 :46g-69).
Previous French scholars believed that the Austronesian-speaking people of Champa, an early
Indianized polity, were intrusive to Central and South Vietnam and that they replaced the
earlier Sa-Huynh culture. More Vietnamese scholar, however, have rejected this theory as
they maintain that the Sa Huynh culture was the "direct predecessor of Cham populations,'
(Diem 2AA4;470). They see, for instance, evidence of continuity from the Late
Sa Huynh culture to the early Cham culture from the first century BCE to the first centuries CE
at the HauXa jar burial site in Quan Nam province. They are more willing to assume, given the
diversification of Chamic languages in Vietnam, that Austronesian languages were spoken in the
18
central coastal region by about the middle of the first millennium BCE”(Diem 2004:470)..
The continuity of contact between central Vietnam and central Philippines can no longer be
doubted given the massive evidence of archaeological artifacts from countries on both sides of
the South China Sea. Champa by the 9th century was actively involved in trade with Butuan
and Brunei. The trade/tribute mission to China from Butuan in 1003 AD, the very first from the
Philippines, was "beneath Champa". It was through Champa that these island-based trading
polities were able to join the trade tribute missions to China (Casino 2013). Indian cultural
influence in the southern Philippines and Borneo appear to have been partly mediated through
Champa which had earlier embraced Hindu-Buddhist models for its religion and political
culture.
The popular stereotype of Chinese ceramics exported to Southeast Asia in the thousands
throughout the history of Chinese dynasties is so widespread that when an exception occurs,
we take notice of the existence of non-Chinese pottery trade. An example of this was the
discovery of the "Pandanan junk", a trade vessel that was wrecked in the sea passage between
North Borneo and the tip of southern Palawan, the passage that opens out into the southern
and central Philippines. The Pandanan junk, recovered in 1gg5, contained ceramics from
Central Vietnam, "comprising nearly three quarters of the archaeological specimens from this
site " (Diem 2004:2001). The kilns that produced these particular ceramics are in present-day
BinhDinh Province, an area known in the past as Vijaya and was one of the polities of Champa.
Vijaya was conquered in 1,471 AD by forces of DaiViet kingdom that ruled the Red River area of
northern Viet Nam. This pivotal date, associated with blue-and-white ceramics from the ship's
cargo that are dated to the mid 15th century implies that the Pandanan junk sank sometime
during the third quarter of that century. "The prevalence of Cham wares among the Pandanan
cargo clearly indicates that involvement of Southeast Asians in the production and longdistance transportation of goods for overseas market in the past. And this evidence also
challenges the popular view that mostly Chinese merchants played a dominant role in maritime
trade in the South China sea basin prior to the sixteenth century (Diem 2004:464).
What we have briefly indicated above are three periods when Central Vietnam and Central
Philippines were continually connected by trade and cultural exchange. The first period was
associated with Sa Huynh, started around 500 BC, whose influence is reflected in Solheim's
Kalanay pottery tradition and in Fox's Tabon pottery tradition, with its associated bronze
implements and jade ornaments. The second period was Champa in the 9th century during
whichChampa facilitated the participation of Butuan and Brunei in the China trade/tribute
missions. The third period was post-Champa Viet Nam showing ceramic trade with the
Philippines in the 13th century. Through several centuries Philippine polities continued to enjoy
regional trade and cultural exchange with Central Vietnam, importing Vietnamese exotic and
manufactured trade goods and technology in exchange for Philippine forest and sea products.
All this suggests an amazing continuity on a regional scale that has not been popularized
enough in the history curriculum in the schools and in popular culture.
What additional insights do we gain from the discoveries associated with the Kalanay Cave and
19
Tabon Cave archaeology, relative to the question of chiefdoms in the central Philippines? The
following are clearly indicated.
1. That the large volume of materials recovered from burial caves, habitation caves, open field
cemeteries, camping sites, and village sites, as well as their wide geographic distribution across
many islands, point to only one conclusion - that the Central Philippines from 500 B.C. to 1500
A.D., was continuously populated by a mixed group of energetic hunter-gatherers, sea-nomads,
coastal dwellers, handicraft makers. boat-builders, navigators, and traders who coalesced
chiefdoms.
2. That there were several levels of technological development co-existing. That is to say,
earthenware pottery making coexisted with imported ceramics, just as bronze and iron tools
were used in some privileged localities serviced bytraders, while some peripheralareas
continued using stone tools and shell tools.
3. That personal ornamentation, as evidenced by many hundreds of beads, shell and glass
bracelets, shell necklaces, ear-rings, pendants, semi-precious stones imported and locally
fashioned, all testify to a strong social differentiation according to gender, wealth, and political
status among the peoples of the Central Philippines.
At the beginning of this paper, chiefdoms are defined as polities functioning between a complex
state-society on one side and a simple hunting-gathering band on the other side. As noted
previously, a simple chiefdom has a polity size of a low thousands, one levet in the political
hierarchy above the local community, and a system of graduated ranking. A complex chiefdom
has a polity size in the tens of thousands, two levels in the political hierarchy above the local
community, and an emergent stratification (Earle L99L: 3.). ln addition, chiefdoms are
characterized by an extended authority structure able to command the extraction of both labor
and material wealth from subordinate communities, for the pursuit of political and economic
advancement in the face of competing rival chiefly groups. Below are descriptions of two
chiefdoms, the first being that of Ma-i which we had briefly cited in the earlier section on the
"ethnohistory map". The other is the chiefdom of Butuan, which sent the very first Philippine
Tribute/trade mission to China in 1003 A.D.
The balangay matrix of chiefdoms
We introduce both examples of chiefdoms by a discussion of the balangay [usually spelled
Baransay] as a socio-political formation whose name is derived original from the iconic
maritime vessel also called a balangay. The balangay boat complex represented both the
vessel and the social organization that grew from the extended family associated with it. Here
is an early explanation of the political organization growing out of the balansaysocial group.
"This people have always had chiefs called datos who ruled them and led them in war,
and whom they obeyed and respect . . . . These chiefs did not have large followings: a
20
hundred households at the most, and even less than thirty. Such a group is called in
Tagalog a barangay. My understanding of why it is so called is as follows. lt is clear from
their language that these people are Malays [and hence immigrants]; and when they
landed in this country the master of a barangay {which is properly the name of a ship)
must have retained rule as dato. Thus even today it is understood that the term
barangay means originally a family consisting of parents, children, kinsmen and slaves.”
20
" A large number of these barangays would form a single town, or at least would settle
not far from each other, for the sake of mutual defense in case of war. They were not,
however, subject one to another, but bound together by friendship or kinship; and the
chiefs each with his barangay fought side by side in the wars they waged” (de Plasencia
quoted in de la Costa 1965:3).
The above describes a polity that is just below the threshold of a chiefdom, judging from its
small size and the fact that "they were not subject one to another.,, A simple chiefdom,
according to Earle, has a polity size of a low thousands, one level in the political hierarchy
above the local community, and a system of graduated ranking. A mature barangay political
system already shows the marks and tendencies of a chiefdom, with its hierarchy of statuses
and privileges, as described below.
"Besides the chiefs, who may be considered as composing the nobility, there were three
estates: gentlemen, commoners and slaves.
The gentlemen [maginoo, in Tagalog] were free men, and were called maharlikas. They
paid neither tax nor tribute to the dato, but were bound to followhim to war brining
their own weapons and gear. The chief, for his part, gave them a feast before setting
out and divided the spoils with them at the end of the campaign. So, too, when the
dato set out to sea they manned the oars, those whom he chose for this service; if he
had a house to build they helped him, during which time he fed them, and this too was
the understanding when the entire barangay set a day aside to help him plant a rice
field.
The commoners are called alipingnamamahay. They are household who serve a lord whether it be the dato or someone else - (with half the yield of their farm, this being
what had been agreed upon in the beginning; and they row for him when has a mind to
set out to sea' They have houses of their own; their goods and gold are their private
property, which their children inherit; and they have the free disposal of their chattels
and their lands. Moreover, this estate is permanent and hereditary, and hence neither
they nor their children can be made slaves (saguiguilir) nor can their lords sell them.,,
The slaves are those called alipingsaguiguilir, who serve their lord in his house and
21
farm; these can be sold. The lord allows them some share or the harvest, what he wills.
This he does to make them work better; they thus derive some profit from their labor.
For a slave born and reared in the lord's own house to be sold is extremely rare; but
slaves captured in war, or born and raised as field hands, are more easily sold” (de
Plasencia quoted in de la Costa 1965:4).
The Ma-I Chiefdom
Ma-i was described in Chao Ju-kua's 1225 A.D. account as a trading port located somewhere in
Mindoro or southern Luzon area. The natives lived in large villages -- literally of more than a
thousand households -- on the opposite banks of a stream. The trading port had a public
structure in front of which trading ships anchored and where barter and trade transactions
were conducted' The local chieftains stand out because of their habit of using white umbrellas,
and so foreign merchants present them with these gifts. Ma-i was ,,the most important. . . It
was the only one referred to as a 'country' and it had delivered trade wares to canton 250 years
before' lt was an international entrepot well situated to control the flow of Chinese products
into the archipelago and beyond" (Scott 1984: 71). Its location at the interface of Mindoro and
southern Luzon sits at the northwestern gateway into the inner seas and islands of the central
Visayas and northern Mindanao. Ma-i, as described by Chao Ju-Kua, displays very well the
parameters of a chiefdom.
There were other neighboring settlements, under the generic name “san-hsui” whose customs
for the most part were similar to those of Ma-i, but which lacked the political cohesion of Ma-i.
Each group had its own tribes living sparsely scattered through the islands who come out to
trade when ships arrived. Each tribe had a large number of families, ”more than a thousand,”
according to Scott's interpretation of the original Chinese text {Scott 1984: 69). But because
the people did not belong to a common jurisdiction, it is difficult to consider them a chiefdom
like Ma-i.
The Butuan Chiefdom
The Butuan chiefdom is better appreciated in the context of two historical patterns by which
foreign goods entered the archipelago. The first was when foreign ships sailed to the
Philippines to trade in a primary trading port such as Ma-i, from where foreign goods were
redistributed throughout the islands, through a chain of local distributors, reminiscent of a
dialect chain in linguistics. The other pattern was for a trading group from a powerful chiefdom
to send a tribute/trade mission to china where they obtain goods to bring back to their home
ports for redistribution in the local economy. An example of this second pattern is the Butuan
trade mission to china in 1003 A.D., the very first reported from the Philippines. Two centuries
separate the trade activities of Butuan in 1003 AD from those of Ma-i in 1225 AD. The Butuan
mission of 1003 was followed by other missions in 1007 and 1011A.D. They were organized
during the period of intensifying tribute missions to china from overseas, the early song period
when such missions were encouraged by the Chinese court. "A total of seventy-one missions
were received by the Song courts between 960 and 999, while thirty-five missions were
22
received during the first two decades of the eleventh century” (Heng 2004: 39).
Butuan, however, did not evolve overnight into a chiefdom only in 1003. There were
preceding centuries during which Butuan expanded its political influence over neighboring
island settlements and tribal groups in its hinterlands. Here we must re-introduce the
“dendritic" metaphor first used by Bronson in 1977 in an influential theoretical paper,
"Exchange at the upstream and downstream endsː notes towards a functional model of the
coastal state in Southeast Asia." The term "dendritic" is ta ken from the branching, tree-like
pattern characteristic of a major river system with its multiple tributary streams in it’s
catchment area. A major trade settlement, such as Butuan, typically forms at the delta in the
rnouth of the main river, where a trading fort is set up because traders here serve to funnel the
flow of products from the hinterlands to the coast, while at the same time controlling the redistribution of foreign trade goods to upriver and upland communities. River-mouth trade
centers were de facto "gateway communities" facilitating a region-wide, multi-tribal,
lowland/upland exchange sνstem (Junker 2000: 224).
An unexpected archaeological find provided evidence of this ancient trading port in Butuan,
when remains of an ancient ocean-going balangay were uncovered. There are now a total of
ten vessels of this type, not all have been completely excavated nor dated. But of those
excavated and given C-14 dates, Balanghay is dated back to 320 AD; and a second to 900 AD,
and a third to 1250 AD. The third date overlaps with Ma-¡, but ¡t was noted that the trade
ceramics found in Butuan are frorn earlier periods, and not all of them were of Chinese origin.
This strongly suggests that Butuan traders were ¡n touch with other trading centers outside
China. The identities of these other trade ceramics, on the basis of decreasing frequency are
the following:
●Chinese(10th-15th Centuries AD)
● Khmer/Cambodian (9th – 10th centuries AD)
● Thai (14th – 15th centuries AD)
● Pre-Thai Satingpra (900-1100 AD)
● Haripunjaya (800-900 AD)
● Pre-trade Vietnamese (11th-13th centuries AD)
● Persian (9th - 10th centuries AD)
Competition in political ranking between trading ports and their trading elites was the driving
force behind these trade/tribute missions. The surface appearance such missions had a lot
of ritual and ceremonial aspects, but behind them were hard-driving transactions of trade and
barter, between Chinese trade goods against island products and exotica. The foreigners
presented exotic gifts such as red parrots and pearls of unusual size. The Chinese ¡n turn gifted
the envoys with "caps, belts and robes, dishes and presents and strings of cash." The envoys
23
most of all desired to obtain letters and titles that elevate their status among their subiects and
rivals in their home country. There was obvious competition for Chinese recognition of their
rights to trade directly with China. Hence the Butuan petition that it be elevated at par
with and no longer be treated as "beneath Champa". Such competition among traders from
with in and outside the Philippines clearly shows that chiefdoms were powerful political
formations even though they were not designated as formal state-societies.
The Butuan polity is an interesting case of how some chiefdoms which experienced Indian
influences did not evolve into an Indianized state. There are several indications of Indic influences
in the Butuan trading community. First indication is what the officials who went on the first
Butuan tribute/trade missions to China had Hindu/Buddhist names, e.g. “Sari Bata Shaja”.
Secondly, some gold strips found in Butuan contained scripts that are related to Javanese scripts
that date back to the 12th and 15th century. Thirdly, the Golden Tara of Agusan, that is now kept
at the Field Museum of Natural History in Agusan, is said to be “the image of a goddess of the
Buddhist pantheon, in the Mahayana group . . . may be a female Bodhisattva, or the counterpart
of the Hindu goddess Sakti” (Hontiveros 2004: 22). Fourthly, a
number of gold ornaments and sword handles uncovered in Butuan and Surigao diggings show
designs suggestive of garuda or naga both deriving ultimately from Indonesian/Indian
iconography (ViIIagas 2013: 107- 111).
9. Tattoos and other forms of status differentiation
The book Raiding, Trading, and Feasting (2000), is a major study of the political economy of
Philippine chiefdoms. Its main thesis is that chiefs and political elites competed with rival
groups in attracting more followers to expand their power, influence and wealth (bahandi)by
organized raiding, trading, and competitive feasting. Bahandi included fine porcelain, along
with gold jewelry and bronze gongs. l will cite other examples of social differentiation as
manifested ¡n personal ornamentation to further high light ranking and status differentiation in
Central Philippines chiefdoms. Tattooing was a widespread form of personal and social
differentiation among the Visayans, which prompted the Spaniards to call them ρintados.
'' Both Visayan men and women wore earrings and earplugs, necklaces and collars of
beads or gold chain, bracelets, wristlets, anklets, and finger rings, as well as brooches,
clasps and gold sequins on their clothes besides which men wore arm― and legbands.
These ornaments were made of tortoise shell, mother-of―pearl, precious stones, giant
clam shells (which the Spaniards mistook as marble), and gold 32)" (Scott 2004:. 32).
Moreover, the people of the Visayas were known to the Spaniards as los pintados
because they were covered with heavy tattoos.
Pigafetta, MageIIan’s faithful cronista, left us the most graphic and memorable portrait of a
tattooed and noble-looking chief,Rajah Colambu of Butuan and Calagan.
"According to their customs he was very grandly decked out, and the finest 1ook¡ng man
that we saw among those people. His hair was exceedingly black and hung to h¡s
24
shoulders. He had a covering of silk on his head, and two large golden earrings
fastened in his ears. He wore a cotton cloth all embroidered with silk, which covered
him from the waist to the knees. At his side hung a dagger, the haft of which was
somewhat long and a∥ of gold, and its scabbard of carved wood. He had three spots of
gold on every tooth, and his teeth appeared as if bound with gold He was perfumed
with storax and benzoin, He was tawny and painted all over. That island of his was
called Butuan and Calagan" (BIair and Robertson 1903, vol. p. ).
「We have reasons to believe that this practice of chiefly persons being made to stand out
Through their physical appearance and personal effects goes back to the 21th century and even
to the Late Neolithic. Archaeological finds ¡n the Visayas and Palawan reveal a long history of
people using a variety of personal ornaments and jewelry -- beads, bracelets, earrings, ear
pendants, necklaces etc. The materials ranged from the earliest stone, bone, shell, clay, and
glass; to precious metals like gold, bronze, and iron; to later semi-precious gems such as jade,
carnelian, jasper, etc. "Fragments of eight distinct bracelets were also found ¡n Chamber A of
Manunggul Cave: four of jade, three of an agate, and two made from Iarge Limpet shells. One
perfect jasper ear―pendant was recovered and a superb thin and translucent ellipsoid-shaped
pendant of a red colored chalcedony (?) (Fox 1979: 116-17).Leta Leta Cave alone yielded 5,508
stone and shell beads (Fo× 1979: 107).
Such personal ornaments and their refinement and elaboration through time argue for a strong
and deeply-rooted sense of personal value and status differentiation not just between
individuals within a given community but perhaps between communities and groups.
ornaments may have been used to reinforce ethnic and class differences.lt is instructive ’to
compare the appearance and ornaments of Rajah Colambu in the 16th century to another male
from the Late Neolithic found buried in Duyong Cave in Palawan, who appears to be a person of
a chiefly class.Their personal effects differ as between gold and shell ornaments, but the
underlying motive to assert personal differentiation and ranking is dearly expressed in both
cases.
"The skeletal remains were those of a muscular male adult, 20 to 30 years of age, and 179 cm.
height as reconstructed from the length of two long bones. ... The body was buried in a flexed
position, face down, with arms and legs doubled beneath the body. Neatly arranged along both
sides of the body was one large polished atone adze―axe and four adzes―axes made from the
Giant Clam '(Tridacna gigas). Two shell disks perforated in the center were recovered -- one
ne×t to the right ear -- and these are believed to be ear ornaments. Similar disk-like ear
pendants are found today among pagan peoples in the Philippines, such as the Agta and Ilongot
of Northeastern Luzon. A similar round and flat shell disk but perforated on the edge was found
at the chest; it is presumed to be a pendant. These shell disks were all made from the tops of
Conus Litteratus" (Fox 1979: 61-62).
Near the feet were six whole Arca shells. One had a round hole on one side and the shell was
25
filled with lime. They are believed to be I¡me containers and probably associated with betel nut
chewing. While no portion of the skin survived, it is possible that the man was tattooed, as this
custom dates back to the Austronesian period.
The most widespread mode of achieving a distinctive appearance was through tattooing.
Tattoos were called patik or batuk (cognate to Indonesian batik). They were considered
symbols of male valor, being applied only after a man had performed in battle with fitting
courage˛ Some women, however, also had tattoos but only on one hand or both, and the lines
were exceedingly fine as to resemble the !ook of damask or embroidery. For the men, tattoos
were Just like military decorations and insignias, which accumulated with additional feats.
Tattooing itself was painful enough to serve as a test of manhood. There were those who
showed great bravado by adding labong scars on their arms with burning moxa. The more
rugged were those who submitted to facial tattooing; those with tattoos right up to the eyelids
constituted a Spartan elite. ’'Such countenances were truly terrifying and no doubt intimidated
enemies in battle as well as townmates at home. Men would be slow to challenge or
antagonize a tough with such visible signs of physical fortitude" (Scott 2004: 20).
Successful warriors or raiders at sea were regarded as popular heroes and enjoyed interisland
reputations. They tattooed in proportion to their prowess and were entitled to wear distinctive
attire. Their exploits became the stuff of local legend, and the most famous among them were
karanduun,. That is to say, worthy of being memorialized in heroic epics called kandu(Scott
2004 156-7).
10. Conclusion
Although not formally comparable to early Indianized states, we have evidence of chiefdoms
with complex social organizations in the Central Philippines already active in interisland and
regional trade. Such trading activities could not have been organized by a small local barangay
community; it had to haνe the oversight of political elites in a chiefdoms with an effective supralocal authority structure th at could insure the orderly exchange of local products for foreign
goods. We searched for the roots of such socio-political development back to around 500 B.C.'
corresponding to the late phase of the Neolithic and the beginning of the Metal Age. For this
exploration ¡nto the past, we util¡zed the combined findings of historical linguistics,
archaeology, and ethnohistory.
From historical linguistics, we noted BIust's Greater Central Philippines hypothesis. "To
summarize, around 500 B.C., for reasons unknown, speakers of Greater Central Philippines
began to expand outward from a center somewhere in northern Mindanao or the southern
Visaνas. Through conquest and absorption of weaker populations, they reduced the linguistic
diversity of the Visayas, Palawan, and southern Luzon. only a few remnant populations, such as
the Inati of Panay and the Kalamian group survived . . Last, but not least, one branch of
Greater Central Philippines migrated southward past the Sangiric and Minahasan peoples to
establish a foothold on the northern pen ¡nsu la of Sulawesi" (BIust 1991: 103-4).
26
With historical Iinguistics as a starting point, we asked whether the events around 500 B.C.
could be correlated with the rise of chiefdoms and complex societies in the Central Philippines.
What can the archaeology of the Central Philippine contribute to clarifying this basic question?
Wilhelm Solheim's work on the archaeology of the Central Visayas, that produced the construct
called Kalanay Pottery Tradition, became a highly influential theoretical construct in Southeast
Asia prehistory research. Solheim's Kalanay work indirectly shed some light on the linguistic
26
Levelling hypothesis. It turns that a greater deal of similarity in Kalanay-type vessel shapes
and decorations was found in Central Visaνan pottery; these styles were distributed over a
wide area, in multi-island sites, suggesting population movements and inter-island trading in
the Central Philippines before and during the centuries of trade with China.
Even more useful information carne from Robert Fox's Tabon Caves archaeological explorations
and excavations ¡n western Palawan that tended to go beyond Solheim's Kalanay findings. It
turns out that the Tabon pottery tradition goes bad< to the Neolithic period, unlike Kalanay
which goes back only to the Metal Age. “It is probable too that most of the basic features of
prehistoric
Philippine culture – patterns of agriculture, residence, social and political organization, had been
Shaped during the earlier Neolithic period” (Fox 1979: 240).
Furthermore, the Tabon archaeological assemblages in the Early and especially in the Late Metal
Age
contain more data on jar burials and trade goods originating from the mainland of Asia, across
the South
China Sea.
"Sites of the Metal Age are far more numerous than Late Neolithic sites, which cannot
be attributed simply to an expansion of the local population; for there is no evidence of
a basic change at this time in agricultural practices, such as from swidden farming to wet
rice agriculture, which would have supported marked population growth. Abrupt
changes in the artifactual record during Early Metal Age tmes, as well as the greater number of
sites,
would indicate that extensive movements of people into the Philippines occurred during the
second half
of the first millennium B.C.Movements into the Philippines at this time were, it would appear,
stimulated by development among the civilizations of northern Indochina and South China” (Fox
1979:
240; emphasis added)
The “ second half of the first millennium B.C” clearly corresponds to the 500 B.C. that Blust
postulated as
27
the beginning of the linguistic levelling event in the Central Philippines. Do we have here an
instance of
“ complementary inferences” from historical linguistics and archaeology as supportive evidence
for the
rise of complex societies and the beginning of chiefdoms? Can Blust’s “reasons unknown” be now
clarified and substantiated by inferred “technological and demographic inputs” instigating
dramatic
socio-political changes in the Central Philippines in the centuries between 500 BCE to 1500 A.D? I
believe the triangulated data and inferences presented in this paper lean strongly towards this
intriguing
correlation.
27
Appendix: The Datu Ruling Class among the Visayans of the 16th Century
From William Henry Scott's Barangay (1994: L28-L3L)
The head of a Visayan community was a datu, what the Spaniards called principal, chief or "a
lord of vassals" and kadatoan were those datus regarded as autonomous. The word meant a
political office and a social class, both an incumbent ruler and all members of the ruling class of
either sex. The right to rule depended on direct descent from former rulers, so members of the
datu class jealously guarded their lineage: a man who became a datu simply by marrying one
was called sabali. They married within their rank, either at home or abroad, limited their heirs
by birth control, and kept their daughters seclud ed as binokot princesses -- even their young
sons, according to the epic of Humadapnon. The rulers of Butuan, Limasawa, Cebu, and
Maktan in Magellan's day were all related.
But datus also took secondary wives (sandal) who produced a lesser order of nobility called
tumao if they were of high rank themselves , or timawa if they were slaves of commoners. Potli
or lubus nga datu meant one of pure or unmixed ancestry, and kalibutan ("all around") meant
pedigreed on all four sides - that is, all four grandparents. Brothers who were potential
competitors often married into royal families in other islands, or hived off locally, so to speak,
to found a new swarm. Alliances, especially marriage alliances, recognized rank and
precedence. The celebrated Si Katuna of Bohol had vassals in Leyte but was himself junior to Si
Gala, and both were ranked by Dailisan of Panglao.
There was no word for a primary datu or paramount chief, but those recognized as primus inter
pares were known as pangulo, head or leader; kaponoan, most sovereign (from puno root or
trunk); or makaporos nga datu, a unifying chief. Those who controlled seaports with foreign
trade generally took Malay-sanskrit titles like Rajah (Ruler), Batara (Noble Lord), or "sarripada"
(His Highness). Magellan met three chiefs called "rajah" - Awi of Butuan, Kolambu of
Limasawa, and Humabon of Cebu - a title Spaniards always translated as king, though Magellan
learned too late that they had neither kingdom nor power over other datus. Sarripada, or its
28
variants Salipada, Sipad, and Paduka, came from Sanskrit Sri Paduka, and was used by Humabon
and at least three of his contemporaries - Kabungsuwan's son Makaalang of Maguindanao,
Dailisan of Panglao, and the sultan of Brunei. Humabon's brother was his Bendahara (Prime
Minister), whose son Tupas was married to Humabon's eldest child and was his heir; one of his
fellow datus was a Batala, and Humabon himself was married to Lapulapu's niece. We do not
know what title Lapulapu claimed, but Maktan's location put him in a position to intercept
shipping in Cebu harbor. When Magellan tried to force him to acknowledge Humabon as
overlord, he replied that "he was unwilling to come and do reverence to one whom he had
been commanding for so long a time" (Anon. n.d.a. 21). None of these titles appear in Spanish
lexicons, but old Javanese hadi is listed as king - though no Visayan chief was named with this
title - and mantili (minister) as "a rich timawa" or "one who is like a king in a town" (Mentrida
1637,264).
28
These datus were part of what social anthropologists call a chiefdom -- a loose federation of
chiefs bound by loose ties of personal allegiance to a senior among them. The head of such a
chiefdom exercised authority over his supporting chiefs, but not over their subjects or territory
and his primacy stemmed from his control of local or foreign trade, and the ability to
redistribute luxury goods desired by the others. Philippine chiefdoms were usually located at
river mouths where they could facilitate the sort of highland-lowland exchanges described by
Loarca (1582,120) in Panay.
Those of the mountains cannot live without the fish and salt and other things and jars
and plates which come from other parts, nor can those on the coast live without the rice
and cotton which the mountaineers have.
A datu's authority arose from his lineage, but his power depended upon his wealth, the number
of his slaves and subjects, and his reputation for physical prowess. Some were therefore
autocratic and oppressive: a courageous, frightening datu was called pamalpagan from palpag,
split and flattened bamboo. Others were not, those whose subjects were followers rather than
vassals -- "very free and unrestricted," as Juan Martinez said. A ruling datu boasted heirloom
wealth called bohandi-- goldwork imported porcelain, and bronze gongs - but not real estate.
Bahandi was required for status display, exchanged in marriages, shared among close relatives,
held as collateral for loans, and loaned out itself to men who mortgaged themselves into
bondage to obtain the bride of their or their family's choice. Bahandi was originally acquired
through raids, the sale of local produce and the control of trade - including honos, anchorage
fees; bihit, tariffs on both domestic and foreign imports; and lopig, discounts on local purchases
running as high 75 percent. lt was this commerce which enabled a datu to win and retain the
loyalty of subordinate datus. When Tupas lost control of Cebu harbor to Legazpi, his brothers
quickly undercut his authority, and within one year, datus from Leyte to panay were paying
Spanish tribute and exchanging rice directly for European manufactures and Latin American
silver.
A datu was expected to govern his people, settle their disputes, protect them from enemies,
29
and lead them in battle. He was assisted by a considerable staff. His chief minister or privy
counselor was atubang sa datu * literally, "facing the datu" - and his steward or majordomo
was paragahin, dispenser, who collected and recorded tribute and crops, and distributed them
among the datu's relatives, retainers, and house slaves, as well as allocated them for work
gangs or public feats. His sheriff or constable was bilanggo, whose own house served as a jail,
bilanggowan. These officers were generally tumao, either from the datu's own clan or the
descendants of a collateral ancestor, and tumao in general were called sandig sa datu,
supporters of the datu. A kind of town crier, paratawag, however, was a slave. He announced
proclamations, mantala, either by shouting them out from the top of a tall tree, or by delivering
them to the persons concerned - for example, timawa being summoned for a hunt or sea raid.
Both tumao "supporters" and timawa "citizens" served as the datu's military forces, armed at
their own expense.
29
In return for these responsibilities and services, a datu received labor and tribute from his
people. They harvested his fields, rowed his boats, and built his houses, and joined his hunting
parties or fishing crews. They gave him a share of the crops, either as regular seasonal tribute
or in lieu of personal labor, and a variety of :gifts" - for example, himuka from a timawa for
permission to marry or bawbaw from any litigant to whom he had awarded the decision in a
lawsuit. Takay was to divide his palay among his people to be milled for him, cotton to be spun,
or chickens to be raised.
Sixteenth century datus seem to have exercised no control over agricultural land -- that is,
swiddens – beyond settling disputes between rival claimants; but their prerogatives included
control, or personal use, of communal resources. Balwang decrees or interdicts restricted
hunting and fishing grounds or limited access to public forest, and hikun was a lion's share in
making any division of property.
Datus had these advantages which enabled them to specialize their activities, perfect
professional skills, and accumulate wealth; but they did not constitute an unproductive leisured
class. They could afford the best hunting dogs and were proud of their dexterity in handling
casting nets, and among them were skillful blacksmiths working imported metal. They owned
cargo vessels and war cruisers, and all maritime expeditions whether for raid or trade were
captained by datus with the necessary seafaring skill and experience. Their ladies wove the
elegant textiles with ornate borders which were the distinctive marks of their class. Butuanon
King Awi's silk kerchief was no doubt a Chinese import, but his cotton G-string decorated with
silk thread was probably produced in his own household.