SINO ANG MGA AUSTRONESYANO?by John Clifford Sibayan on 28 August 2018
Sino ba ang mga Austronesyano?BY LUMANGBAYAN
Marahil naituro dati ng iyong guro sa kasaysayan ang Beyer Wave Migration Theory ni H. Otley Beyer, kung saan tatlong malalaking grupo ng tao ang dumating sa Pilipinas. Ayon kay Beyer, ang nauna ay ang Negrito, tapos ang Indones, at pinakahuli ay ang mga Malay na siya umanong bumubuo sa malaking parte ng populasyon sa Pilipinas. Ngunit alam mo ba na ang teoryang ito ay matagal nang napatunayan na hindi totoo?Si William Henry Scott ay isang historyador na malaki ang nai-ambag sa kaalaman tungkol sa kasaysayan ng Pilipinas bago ito naging kolonya ng mga kanluraning bansa.
Kung ganoon, ano ang pinaniniwalaang teorya na umaayon sa mga nahanap na ebidensya?
Sinasabing may dalawang alon ng pagdayo ng tao sa Timog Silangang Asia at Pasipiko na maaaring magpaliwanag sa kasalukuyang populasyon sa mga nasabing lugar. Ang una ay ang mga Australoid, ang ninuno ng mga kasalukuyang Negrito. Nakarating sila 5,000 - 6,000 taon na ang nakakalipas. Sila ay kilala sa pagkakaroon ng maitim na balat. Pinaniniwalaang ang ninuno ng mga Negrito ay nanggaling sa mga unang tao lumabas mula Aprika.
Ang pangalawang alon ng pagdayo ay ang mga Southern Mongoloid, o mga Austronesian. Sila ay sinasabing may kayumangging balat. Ang mga Austronesian ay nanatili sa malaking bahagi ng Timog-Silangang Asia at Pasipiko, kabilang na ang Malaysia, Taiwan, East Timor, Pilipinas, Indonesia, Brunei, Madagascar, Micronesia, Polynesia, New Zealand, at Hawaii. Ang wika ng mga grupong Austronesia sa mga bansang ito ay bahagi ng Austronesian language family, na ang ibig sabihin ay mayroong iisang lumang wika na pinanggalingan silang lahat.
Ayon kay William Henry Scott, historyador ng kasaysayan ng Pilipinas at eksperto sa 16th century na Pilipinas, halos walang ebidensya at hindi kapani-paniwala ang metodolohiya na ginamit ni Beyer. Ngayon ay halos wala nang antropologo na naniniwala sa Beyer Wave Migration Theory.
Kung titingnan sa itaas, napakalawak ng sakop ng Austronesyano. Itinuturing ang Austronesyano bilang pangkat ng iba’t ibang populasyon na nagsasalita ng wikang Austronesian (at mga variation nito). Ibig sabihin, lahat ng sakop nito ay kabilang sa isang language family. Dala-dala ng mga sinaunang taong naglakbay ang wikang ito, at mahalagang isyu ang paraan ng paglalakbay na ito sa mga archaeologist. Ang pangkat ng Austronesyano ay pinag-aaralan sa pamamagitan ng ebidensyang arkeolohikal, linggwistik, kultural at henetikal (genetics).
Mayroong dalawang malaking teorya ng paglawak ng mga Austronesyano.
1. Out of Taiwan
Nakabatay ang teoryang ito sa ebidensya ng pag-unlad at pagkalat ng wika at ilang mga ebidensyang arkeolohikal. Ayon sa teoryang ito, nagmula sa Formosa (Taiwan) ang mga Austronesyan galing sa China, dala-dala ang kanilang wika at teknolohiya ng pagsasaka o farming. Sinasabing naganap ito sa pagitan ng 5000-2000 taon bago ang kasalukuyan at unang nakarating sa Luzon. Matapos ito, nakarating ang grupo sa iba pang bahagi ng Pilipinas at naglakbay papuntang Borneo at Indonesia.
Sa puntong ito, ang ilang sa mga Austronesian, ay naglakbay pasilangan at nakarating sa mga isla ng Pasipiko, habang ang mga naglakbay pakanluran ay nakarating sa Mainland Southeast Asia at hanggang sa Madagascar.
Proponents: Blust (1998), Bellwood (1979, 1991)
2. Out of Sundaland
Nakabatay naman sa ebidensyang henetikal (mtDNA) ang teoryang ito na nagsasaad na ang mga Austronesian ay patuloy na nag eevolve sa Timog Silangang Asya ng mas matanda sa sinsasabi ng Out of Taiwan model. Sinasabing dahil sa pagbabago ng klima at pagtaas ng lebel ng tubig-dagat at paglubog ng Sundaland, napilitan ang mga sinaunang Austronesian na maglakbay. SInasabing naganap ito sa pagitan ng 15000-6000 taon bago ang kasalukuyan
Proponents: Oppenheimer
Henry Otley Beyer
Ngunit nang pumasok ako sa UP, nalaman ko na hindi na pala ito pinaniniwalaan ng mga eksperto noong 1970s pa lamang!!! Ha! Deka-dekadang naituro pero hindi na pala totoo? Isang teorya na sinimulan ni antropologong si Felipe Landa Jocano ang nagsasabi na may mga taong nag-evolve na mula rito.
Si Felipe Landa Jocano na pinagigitnaan nina Bernadette Sembrano at Xiao Chua.
Isang buto ng talukap at isang buto ng panga ng isang homo sapiens sapiens ang natagpuan sa Tabon Cave sa Palawan at sinasabing nabuhay mga 28,000 – 7,000/5,000 taon bago si Kristo—Ang “Tabon Man,” ang pinakamatandang labi ng tao na natagpuan noon.
Si Xiao habang pinagmamasdan ang talukap ng Babaeng Tabon.
Ngunit sa pagsusuri ng mga eksperto, hindi naman pala ito lalaki kundi isang babae! Ngunit, tatlong taon lamang ang nakalilipas, natagpuan ni Dr. Armand Mijares sa Kweba ng Callao, Cagayan ang isang isang buto ng paa na mas matanda pa sa taong Tabon. Ang tinatawag na Taong Callao ay nabuhay 67,000 years ago!
Si Xiao Chua kasama ni Dr. Armand Mijares.
Ang ikatlong metatarsal na buto sa paa na natagpuan sa Yungib ng Callao.
Ngunit, ang pinagmulan ng kasalukuyang lahing Pilipino ay ang tinatawag ng mga eksperto na mga Austronesians. Austronesian? Huh? What’s that Pokemón??? Ang salita ay nagmula sa salitang Latin na auster, south winds, at ng Griyegong nêsos, isla. May dalawang teorya kung saan ba nagmula ang mga Austronesians.
Si Xiao Chua kasama ang dalawa sa mga may magkaibang pananaw sa pinagmulan ng Austronesyano: Sina Wilhelm Solheim, II at Peter Bellwood.
Ayon kay Wilhelm Solheim, II, ang ama ng Arkeolohiya sa Timog Silangang Asya, ang mga Austronesians, na tinawag niyang “Nusantao” ay nanggaling sa mga isla sa lugar ng Sulu at Celebes! Sila ay kumalat sa Timog Silangang Asya sa pamamagitan ng mga network ng pangangalakal, kasalan at migrasyon ng mga tao.
Siya ay hinamon naman ni Peter Bellwood ng Australia National University. Para sa kanya, ang mga Austronesians ay nagmula sa Timog Tsina at Taiwan at noong mga 5,000 bago si Kristo ay nagsipagtungo sa Pilipinas.
Paglalarawan ng teorya ni Peter Bellwood.
Anuman ang ating paniwalaan, makikita na ang Pilipinas ay isa sa mga pinakaunang Austronesians, at tayo ang nagsimula ng isa sa pinakahalagang imbensyon sa kasaysayan ng pandaragat—Ang outrigger canoe o ang mga bangkang may katig.
Caracoa–warship ng mga sinaunang mga Pilipino. May katig.
Naging sopistikado ang ating kultura sa paglalayag, hinangaan sa tulin at tibay ang ating mga bangka, at naging posible ang pagkalat ng mga Austronesians sa iba pang mga bahagi ng daigdig, sa Timog Silangang Asya, Oceania, New Zealand, Hawaii, mula Madagascar sa Timog Africa, hanggang sa Rapa Nui o Easter Island sa Timog America!
Dunia Melayu: Ang Lawak ng Mundong Austronesyano mula Madagascar hanggang Easter Island.
Ang laki ng lahi natin!!! Kaya nga kung titingnan ang mga natagpuang sinaunang jadena hikaw o lingling-o sa Pilipinas, Vietnam at Borneo, halos magkakatulad ang disenyo ng mga ito!
Gayundin, dahil iisa ang pamilya ng wika, sa kabila ng 171 na mga wika sa Pilipinas, may pagkakahalintulad ang ating mga salita, halimbawa ang bahay sa Tagalog ay kogneyt ng bale sa Pampanga, balay sa Visayas, at balay din sa Bahasa. Ang mga Austronesians din ang nagpaunlad ng pagtatanim ng palay at ng rice terracing. Naniniwala din tayo sa mga kaluluwa at anito na naglalayag pakabilang-buhay at naglilibing sa banga tulad ng makikita sa isang banga na natagpuan sa Manunggul Cave, Palawan. Pinapakita ang kulturang ito sa likod ng isanlibong piso.
Mga Austronesian Cultural Landmarks: Payo o hagdang-hagdang palayan, Langgal o Bahay Austronesyano at Disenyo ng Bangang Manunggul sa likuran ng isanlibong piso.
Kaya nga kung nakikita natin na parang walang pagkakaisa ang mga tao at kultura sa Pilipinas, alalahanin natin na nagmula lahat tayo sa mga Austronesians, kaya pwedeng-pwedeng magkaisa. Ako po si Xiao Chua para sa Telebisyon ng Bayan and that was Xiao Time.
(Pook Amorsolo, UP Diliman, 4 January 2013)
Reading: "Massive Balangay 'Mother Boat' Unearthed in Butuan" by TJ Dimacali
The largest sailing vessel of its kind yet discovered is being unearthed in Butuan City in Mindanao, and it promises to rewrite Philippine maritime history as we know it.
Estimated to be around 800 years old, the plank vessel may be centuries older than the ships used by European explorers in the 16th century when they first came upon the archipelago later named after a Spanish king, Las Islas Felipenas.
The find also underscores theories that the Philippines, and Butuan in particular, was a major center for cultural, religious, and commercial relations in Southeast Asia.
The find also underscores theories that the Philippines, and Butuan in particular, was a major center for cultural, religious, and commercial relations in Southeast Asia.
'Nails' the size of soda cans
National Museum archeologist Dr. Mary Jane Louise A. Bolunia, who leads the research team at the site, says almost everything about the newly-discovered "balangay" is massive.She holds up her hand and curls her fingers into a circle, as if grasping a soda can. "That's just one of the treenails used in its construction," Bolunia says.
An aptly descriptive term, a "treenail" is a wooden peg or dowel used in place of iron nails in boatbuilding.
So with "nails" that size, exactly how big is this boat?
Bolunia produces a piece of onionskin paper with a carefully-inked map of the archeological site. On the upper corner is a roughly pea pod-shaped boat wreck, about 15 meters long, one of eight similarly-sized balangays discovered at the site since the 1970's.
But right next to it, discovered only in 2012, are what seem to be the remains of a ninth balangay so wide that it could easily fit the smaller craft into itself twice over – and that's just the part that's been excavated so far.
Although the boat has yet to be fully excavated, it's estimated to be at least 25 meters long.
Aside from the treenails, the individual planks alone are each as broad as a man's chest – roughly twice the width of those used in other balangays on the site. The planks are so large that they can no longer be duplicated, because there are no more trees today big enough to make boards that size, according to Bolunia.
Visiting the site
GMA News visited the site on August 14, and found the excavation site waterlogged pending further digging and study. However, Bolunia assured that keeping the artifacts in this condition for now is actually beneficial for their conservation.
"We just let the water seep in and leave it at that because it's more protected than if you dry it. If you expose it without proper conservation then it will disintegrate," she told GMA News.
Jorge Absite, officer-in-charge of the Butuan Museum, is hopeful that the new discovery will yield more insights about our Filipino ancestors.
The Butuan Museum is tasked with supervising the care and protection of the balangay excavations and any artifacts found therein.
"Ito ang kasagutan sa 'missing link' ng kultura natin, kung ano ba talaga ang uri ng pamumuhay meron ang mga ninuno natin (This is the answer to a 'missing link' in our culture, on what kind of life our ancestors really had)," Absite said.
"(Filipinos') ability to construct or build big boats is not something new... Even before the Chinese came to the Philippines, the Filipinos went to China through the Butuanons," Bolunia underscored.
Proceeding with caution
Historians, and Bolunia herself, caution that much work still needs to be done before the boat can be conclusively dated and identified.
"(The newly-discovered boat) will need more technical verification to establish its connection and relationship with the other boats already excavated, so that we can know its date, boat typology, and technology," said Dr. Maria Bernadette L. Abrera, professor and chairperson of the Department of History at the University of the Philippines-Diliman, in an email interview.
"(The newly-discovered boat) will need more technical verification to establish its connection and relationship with the other boats already excavated, so that we can know its date, boat typology, and technology," said Dr. Maria Bernadette L. Abrera, professor and chairperson of the Department of History at the University of the Philippines-Diliman, in an email interview.
"We have to be careful," said Ramon Villegas, a scholar who has done extensive research on pre-colonial Philippine history. "There has not been enough time to study (the artifacts). It could be a Spanish boat or Chinese junk."
Aside from carbon dating to determine the age of the wood, the construction techniques used and even the type of wood itself need to be ascertained before anyone can come to a definitive conclusion.
"Everything depends on the construction, on how the boat was built, before you can properly call it a 'balangay'," explains archeologist and anthropologist Dr. Jesus Peralta. He said he has yet to see the newfound boat for himself.
Nevertheless, the boat's proximity to previous sites of buried balangays promises to send ripples through the academic world.
"It's a 'mother boat'," Bolunia says with little hesitation, "and it's changing the way we think about ancient Filipino seafarers."
Rewriting Philippine history
It has long been established that Filipinos traveled across Southeast Asia as early as the 10th century, reaching as far as Champa – what is now the eastern coast of Vietnam – in groups of balangays.
These groups or flotillas have always been thought to consist of similarly-sized small vessels, an idea perpetuated by the term "barangay" – the smallest administrative division of the present-day Philippine government.
But, according to Bolunia, this new discovery suggests that these may just have been support vessels for a much larger main boat, where trade goods and other supplies were likely to have been held for safekeeping.
The discovery also suggests that seafaring Filipinos were much more organized and centralized than previously thought.
"This balangay reinforces the findings of the earlier excavations about the role of Butuan as a commercial and population center in precolonial Philippines," Abrera told GMA News.
"Butuan seaport had long-time trade links with Champa and Guandong (China). You can retrace the importance of (the newly-discovered boat) by utilizing it as an archeological key to that period when Butuan was a busy link to the pan-Asian cultural and commercial intercourse," historian Arnold M. Azurin told GMA News via Facebook chat.
In fact, Filipino seafarers from Butuan were already exploring Asia over a thousand years ago, well ahead of our Chinese neighbors: as early as 1001, the Song Dynasty recorded the arrival of a diplomatic mission from the "Kingdom of Butuan."
"In 1003 AD, a Butuan chieftain petitioned the Chinese Imperial Court to allow it to bring its products direct to Guandong—instead of using Champa as the entrepôt (main trading post)," Azurin added.
However, according to Azurin, the petition was declined because the Court insisted on regulating trade via Champa.
He also says that Butuan may also have played a major role in the spread of culture and religion in the Philippines long before Christianity and even Islam came to the islands.
"The boat's possible deeper significance is that it may be one of the carriers of Hindu-Buddhist cultural influence in the Philippine Archipelago long before Islam and Christianity arrived here. Many scholars also say that the baybayin script arrived here through the same connection with Champa. Hence, you can deepen the cultural legacy of our ancestors," Azurin said.
Butuan as a major center of culture and trade
"This balangay reinforces the findings of the earlier excavations about the role of Butuan as a commercial and population center in precolonial Philippines," Abrera told GMA News.
"Butuan seaport had long-time trade links with Champa and Guandong (China). You can retrace the importance of (the newly-discovered boat) by utilizing it as an archeological key to that period when Butuan was a busy link to the pan-Asian cultural and commercial intercourse," historian Arnold M. Azurin told GMA News via Facebook chat.
In fact, Filipino seafarers from Butuan were already exploring Asia over a thousand years ago, well ahead of our Chinese neighbors: as early as 1001, the Song Dynasty recorded the arrival of a diplomatic mission from the "Kingdom of Butuan."
"In 1003 AD, a Butuan chieftain petitioned the Chinese Imperial Court to allow it to bring its products direct to Guandong—instead of using Champa as the entrepôt (main trading post)," Azurin added.
However, according to Azurin, the petition was declined because the Court insisted on regulating trade via Champa.
He also says that Butuan may also have played a major role in the spread of culture and religion in the Philippines long before Christianity and even Islam came to the islands.
"The boat's possible deeper significance is that it may be one of the carriers of Hindu-Buddhist cultural influence in the Philippine Archipelago long before Islam and Christianity arrived here. Many scholars also say that the baybayin script arrived here through the same connection with Champa. Hence, you can deepen the cultural legacy of our ancestors," Azurin said.
Older than Magellan and Jung He
While the newfound boat has yet to be accurately dated, its construction and position directly alongside a balangay from the 1200's strongly suggest that it is also a balangay from the same time period.
If so, then the boat predates by hundreds of years Magellan's arrival, and death, in the Philippines in 1521 and even the Chinese explorer Zheng He's expedition across Asia in 1400.
"For more than a thousand years, the trade and settlement patterns and routes across Asia connected certain islands (of the Philippines), especially those with good harbors and steady supply of local products," Azurin said.
"Highly interesting is the mention of slaves-for-sale in (Magellan's chronicler) Pigafetta's account of the first circumnaviation: Raja Humabon boasted to Magellan that some boatloads of slaves had just left Cebu for Cambodia and Champa—likely in need of warm bodies for their wars of succession, or for new stonecutters for their megalithic shrines," he added.
Could Filipino craftsmen, sent abroad on balangays, have helped build ancient Asian monuments like Angkor Wat?
"That's a possible conjecture, considering that archeologists like Robert Fox, H. Otley Beyer and others have pointed out that some islands in southern Philippines had communities linked to (these places)," he said.
"Highly interesting is the mention of slaves-for-sale in (Magellan's chronicler) Pigafetta's account of the first circumnaviation: Raja Humabon boasted to Magellan that some boatloads of slaves had just left Cebu for Cambodia and Champa—likely in need of warm bodies for their wars of succession, or for new stonecutters for their megalithic shrines," he added.
Could Filipino craftsmen, sent abroad on balangays, have helped build ancient Asian monuments like Angkor Wat?
"That's a possible conjecture, considering that archeologists like Robert Fox, H. Otley Beyer and others have pointed out that some islands in southern Philippines had communities linked to (these places)," he said.
Continuing a seaworthy tradition
In any case, the "mother boat" and the smaller balangays in Butuan were definitely made for exploring the high seas, according to Dr. Bolunia.
She says their overall shape and construction are suited to navigating deep ocean waters more than shallow rivers. The presence of a quarter rudder and sails would also indicate a sea-going vessel, although these have yet to be found, Dr. Bolunia says.
"That's especially true for a boat this size," she says of the giant balangay.
Even today, the Sama-Badjao of Sulu still practice boatbuilding techniques that are strikingly similar to those used in constructing the Butuan boats.
In 2010, replica balangays built by Sama-Badjao craftsmen and manned by Filipino adventurers completed a 14,000-km journey across Southeast Asia, proving the seaworthiness of the original balangays and the traditional woodcraft used to construct them.
One of the boats, the 15-meter-long "Diwata ng Lahi," is now on permanent display outside the National Museum in Manila.
Textual evidence of large boats
Villegas believes it was only a matter of time before a boat of this size was found, pointing out the historical accounts about similarly grand Filipino vessels.
For example, Pigafetta also documented the existence of a boat fit for a king: "We saw come two long boats, which they call Ballanghai, full of men. In the largest of them was their king sitting under an awning of mats," he wrote.
Native boats "intended for cargo capacity or seagoing raids" could be "as long as 25 meters," said noted historian Dr. William Henry Scott in his book, "Barangay: Sixteenth-Century Philippine Culture and Society".
Scott also hinted at the existence of even more impressive vessels: "The most celebrated Visayan vessel was the warship called karakoa, (which) could mount forty (meter-long oars) on a side."
"The care and technique with which (Filipinos) build them makes their ships sail like birds, while ours are like lead in comparison," Scott quoted a Spanish priest as having written in 1667.
However, no large Filipino vessels have been discovered and excavated – until now, if the Butuan "mother boat" is indeed of ancient origins.
"Historians have always known there were other (large) boats. We should expect to find big boats because (we know) they existed," Villegas said.
"It's just that the National Museum only now has the funds to do the excavations. There's a lot to be found even just in Butuan," he added.
Lingering mysteries of Butuan
Dr. Bolunia and her team plan to return to Butuan in September to complete the excavation, and hopefully to date the massive new find.
They also plan to take a core sample from the ground in the hopes of answering one of the biggest mysteries surrounding the Butuan balangays.
Dr. Bolunia explains that the archeological site, although now inland, was once an alcove that opened out to the sea. She says that all the balangays were found "drydocked" on what was once the Butuan seashore.
That the vessels were so well preserved is largely because they were buried intact, and the submergence of the area over succeeding centuries kept the wood from decaying.
But exactly how did the Butuan balangays get buried there in the first place?
Dr. Bolunia says there are two competing theories: either the boats were intentionally buried, or they were left behind after a sudden cataclysm – such as a landslide from an earthquake.
If the boats were purposely abandoned, why did the builders take the trouble of burying them? But, on the other hand, where is the evidence of any natural calamity that might have befallen the boats and their builders?
These are among the many remaining questions that face probers of the Philippines' ancient past. If Dr. Bolunia's hunches are correct about the latest find in Butuan, the mother boat could be the key to unlocking answers about how our Filipino ancestors lived, explored, and fought. — with Howie Severino/ELR, GMA News
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