Early Societies in the World and in the Philippines

By: Lou Zerda

Hunting and gathering was humanity's first and most successful adaptation, occupying at least 90 percent of human history. The Paleolithic period during the stone age had a society where early humans were largely dependent on foraging and hunting for food towards different kinds of terrain and weather. These practices were presumably the subsistence strategy employed by human societies beginning some 1.8 million years ago, by Homo erectus, and from its appearance some 0.2 million years ago by Homo sapiens.

While hominid species evolved through natural selection for millions of years and the increase of population, alongside with the discovery of fire, they were able to establish small communities such as bands, tribes, and subsisted by gathering plants and fishing, hunting or scavenging wild animals in which they were involved in conflicts, competition over the best land and resources. But it also necessitated cooperation to increase their survival.

Furthermore, most of the earliest societies that is linked to this era were commonly found in Africa due to the fact that the continent is believed to have Anthropologist were able to draw their conclusions on the societies of this period by examining the Khoisan of the African Kalahari Desert. Based on the experiences of modern hunter-gatherer societies, who typically have around 500 members, and based on theoretical mathematical models of group processes in which these tribes are related to the past hominids, Paleolithic bands of people were likely around twenty-five members each and typically about twenty bands constituted a tribe.

Before the rise of agriculture, Paleolithic humans had little control of the environment, so they focused on staking out territory and negotiating relationships with nearby communities. Eventually, groups created small, temporary settlements, often near bodies of water. These settlements allowed for division of labor and labor was often divided along gender lines, with women doing much of the gathering, cooking, and child-rearing and men doing much of the hunting, though this was certainly not the case across all Paleolithic societies.

On the other hand, early inhabitants in the Philippines during the stone age had a unique culture and society. With so little of the artifacts and fossils being recovered, little is known about our forefathers and their way of living in the elements. Fortunately, researchers and anthropologist had dug out several tools that had been used by early Filipinos during this era and it is estimated to 50,000 BC where the phase in the development of proto-Philippine societies, with stone tools still used not only for hunting and gathering but also for the establishment of small communities.

Moreover, early Negritos and Tasadays were able to establish hunter-gatherer communities while living in the mountainous regions of Luzon in which they survive as a group and hunting animals for their meat and fur. Some of these people even formed a group or tribe and some made shelter in caves and even built their own shelter from natural materials. There were little signs of social order during this period wherein life was being based on competitions and the alpha were the strongest among the groups.

It is evident that culture and society in early Philippines were influenced by the Malays and ever since they landed on the archipelago, they brought their ways on establishing small communities beside rivers, seashores, and inland waters, further adapting the tropical environment that is widely abundant during the hunting and gathering era.

Furthermore, Filipino anthropologist F. Landa Jocano refers to the earliest noticeable stage in the development of proto-Philippine societies as the Formative Phase. By this we mean the appearance of local, sedentary groupings of people bigger than the nuclear family. The size of this group however was not big enough to structure a community pattern. These early Filipinos are commonly groups of families characterized by their skills in hunting and gathering of food & resources in order to survive.

In addition, the earliest known carbon-14 dated period of community life in the Philippines is 30,500 BP. Previous estimates, on the basis of tool types, geological stratigraphy, and paleontological evidences, set this date from 500,000 to 250,000 BP