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The Philippine Prehistory

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The Philippine Prehistory Civilization and Culture Culture is the way of living of certain people. How they dress, how they eat, how they court and bear children, how they are buried, and many more refer to their culture. Edward B. Taylor defined culture as that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, moral, laws, customs, and any capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society and Leslie A.White refers to culture as an organization of phenomena which includes arts, objects, ideas and sentiments. The ancient Filipinos were divided into social classes. These were the nobles, freemen, and the dependents. Among the dependents were classified into aliping namamahay and the aliping sagigilid. Among the Bisayans, …show more content…

Last to migrate to the Philippines, according to Beyer, were Malays. They were believed to have come from Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and the Malay Peninsula more than 2,000 years ago. Like the Indonesians, they also traveled in boats. The Malays were brown-skinned and of medium height, with straight black hair and flat noses. Their technology was said to be more advanced than that of their predecessors. They engaged in pottery, weaving, jewelry making and metal smelting, and introduced the irrigation system in rice planting. Influence of Indian, Chinese, Japanese and Arabic civilization Hinduism has been a major cultural, economic, political and religious influence in the archipelago that now comprise the Philippines. At present, however, it is limited to a small recent immigrant Indian community, though traditional religious beliefs in most parts of the country have strong Hindu and Buddhist influences. Influences from the Indian subcontinent may be traced earlier to before the arrival of the Arabs and the Europeans during the 15th and 16th centuries respectively. The rulers of many of the islands were called Rajas, or Rajahs. Christianity with the Spaniards in 1521. Although Hinduism is now a minority religion in the country, some of its beliefs still pervade the national psyche; it is socially and culturally ingrained in Filipinos, most of whom are either part of the Christian majority (Roman Catholic

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