Learning Outcomes:

1. Analyze how Rizal got his knowledge about the preconquest past of the Philippines
2. Evaluate Rizal’s beliefs on the origin of the Filipinos even with today’s scientific findings
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Where did the Filipinos come from? This was the question that faced Filipino propagandists
to prove that the Filipino people did not descend from beasts – or monkey’s as the Spaniards used
to say as an insult. Filipino ilustrados referred to European scientists and experts for answers.
Currently two theories on the peopling of the Philippines are accepted by Filipino
historians. The first is the Out-of-Taiwan Theory which was proposed by Peter Bellwood in the
1980s. according to Bellwood the Filipinos belonged to a race called Austronesians, from the word
Austros (South) and Nexos (which means Island – people from the southern islands.) the
Austronesians originated from what is now Southern China and Northern Vietnam. They were
responsible for building the massive rice terraces in Kunming and in Lan Son in Vietnam.
The Austronesians crossed the Taiwan strait into Formosa. From there the Austronesians
moved Southward towards the Philippines. Indonesia and Malaysia. They became the descendants
of today’s Filipinos, Indonesians and Malaysians. Some moved eastward towards the Pacific to
become the Chamorros of the Mariana Islands, the Carolinians and the Polynesians who inhabited
the islands of Hawaii and Christmas Island to the east and New Zealand as the Maori people. To
the west the Austronesians reached the island of Madagascar of east Africa.
Bellwood based the migration patterns from the artifacts left by the wandering
Austronesians and by examining the age of the artifacts he discovered a southward trend from
Taiwan towards Southeast Asia.
Bellwood’s theory was challenged by the contemporary Wilhelm Solheim who introduced
his Nusantao Theory. The nusantao comes from two terms, Nusa meaning island Tao meaning
people. In contrast to the Southward movement proposed by Bellwood he said that the migration
came from what is now Java in Indonesia and it moved Northward. Like Bellwood he based his
theory on the age of artifact found on the route that he proposed. He also said that migration
came both ways after the first big northward movement.
Filipino anthropologists like F. Landa Jocano and historian E. Arsenio manuel proposed
their own theories. Jocano proposed a central origin theory in which he said that the Filipinos came
from one group of immigrants. Manuel proposed his Philippinesian theory saying that the origin
of the Filipinos can be explained by the family of their languages and dialects.
 Before Bellwood Solheim and the rest of the theorists the accepted theory of the origin of
the Filipino was the wave theory of migration. Under the wave theory it was believed that the first
wave of people in the Philippines were the aeta or negrito people. These were followed by people
who became the inhabitants of the highlands of the Philippines. The third group of immigrants
came from Southeast Asia.
Ferdinand Blumentritt who was doing a study on the people of the Philippines considered
the Tagalogs, Pampangos, Visayans, Bicolanos, Pangasinense, and Cagayanonons who inhabited
the plains and seashores as members of the third wave of immigrants. These people were more
culturally advanced and were more mobile compared to the two earlier groups.
Blumentritt made the first systematic formulation of the migration wave theory on 1882
and wrote a paper called “An Attempt at Writing a Philippine Ethnography”. According to
Blumentritt the Filipinos are a combination of two races, the negroids and the Malay and various
diverse cultural groups.
Related to Blumentritt’s research was the work of Ferdinand J. Montana who published his
paper as a result of his scientific mission and he classified three races in a discussion of Philippine
anthropology. These were the negritos who were short, dark skinned with curly hair; the
Indonesians who were tall, fair-skinned with straight hair and the Malays who were darker, more-
heavy built. According to him waves of migration pervaded the Southeast Asian region.
The wave theory was accepted by the scientific community regarding the origin of the
Filipinos. It was adopted by H. Otley Beyer who was considered as the Father of Philippine
Anthropology. Beyer believed that the waves of migration eventually pushed the earlier migrants
to the mountains and interior of the Philippines. The Wave Theory was eventually debunked by
1the findings of Bellwood and Solheim. Both stated that there were no waves of migration but
rather people came gradually and in the theory of Solheim people came originally from the south
but they would later move to other directions as they search for better environments.
Meanwhile, the findings of the scientific community in Europe in the 19th century fired up
the minds of Filipino nationalists who began to imagine the past before the coming of the
Spaniards. There is however no uniform ideas formulated among the Ilustrados. Each of them had
their own approach in imagining the Philippines before the coming of the western colonizers.
With the knowledge acquired from studies the young Europeanized Filipinos began to
search their past. To them knowledge of the Filipino ancestry is an important matter for their
political agenda. It would prove to them that the Filipinos already had civilization and they were
reclaiming their ancient birthrights as civilized men.
Isabelo de los Reyes who would later find the Iglesia Filipina Independiente began to
reconstruct an image of the past before colonization through the “new science of folklore”.
Graciano Lopez-Jaena began to expound on the indigenous origins of the Filipinos. T.H. Pardo de
Tavera began to make a study on ancient Tagalog writing; Pedro Paterno did some work on the
precolonial Philippine civilization. As for Rizal, he relied on science to construct history and define
the identity of the Filipinos. Racial science provided that knowledge.
 However, racial science also had flaws. Using Darwinian approach, which was popular at
that time. It prevented the white men as the final stage of human evolution and thus had the right
to colonize and oppress the perceived interior people.
The approach of Blumentritt and other European academics while recognizing the various
races and cultural past of the Philippines justifies racism. It shows one race was superior to
another.
Rizal on the other hand used the scientific findings to answer the question on WHO ARE
WE AND WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OR ROOT OF OUR NATION?
CONTRIBUTION OF BLUMENTRITT
Blumentritt’s “An Attempt of Writing a Philippine Ethnography” provided broad template
within which race, nation and civilization of the precolonial past were incised in the ilustrado’s
mind. Rizal used racial sense to face the fundamental and existential question of collective being.
Through Blumentritt’s “Ordering of the Races “ i.e. wave theory, Rizal found answers while in
search a narrative self. Rizal saw himself in the third wave of immigrants. These is the race that
traded and travelled within Southeast Asia-the ancestors of the Filipino nobles.
When Blumentritt told Rizal about the existence of a rare copy of Morga’s Sucesos delas
Islas Filipinas at the British Museum, it sparked an effort for the ilustrados to include themselves
as the descendants of those natives in Morga’s book. Rizal defended them from the accusations
of the Spaniards.
CRITICS IN THE APPROACH
Blumentritt’s approach to racial science however had some critics. One critic, Mosse said
that the search for a people’s roots through it is essential to the formation of nationalism also
leads to racism. According to him the roots of the race were though to determine its future as
well. Another critic, Tom Nairn said racism is derived from nationalism. This could be the extreme
case.
A systematic and usually extensive written discourse on a subject such as an origin of a
race, creates a longing for an ancient achievement or civilization that was lost. This leads to a
rebuilding of lost powers through a harsh and dictatorial regime such as the Fascists in Italy and
the Nazis in Germany. To the Italians, the Fascists were trying to restore the glory of the old Roman
Empire while the Nazis were trying to build a Reich that would last for 10,000 years.
Anderson for his part says that the creation of irredentist ideologies and a rediscovery of
self are distinct and separate in their origins, aspirations and expressions. The search in identity
does not necessarily lead to racism and totalitarianism. It is also possible that racism and
nationalism are reciprocally determinative of each other.
There is the question of some people getting marginalized if one race becomes dominant.
They become cultural minorities. In the Philippines however, there are already cultural minorities
prior to the colonial period. They were indistinguishable from the minorities when the whole
country becomes hispanized.
 In the case of the Philippines where the Spanish arrived, our ancestors were regressed or
set in the sidelines. The old precolonial society was replaced by two types of people. These were
the:
1. CIVILIZED – the ones that embraced Christianity and Spanish authorities.
2. UNCIVILIZED or UNEDUCATED – these are the people who opposed Spanish colonialism

According to Jesuit historian John Schumacher:

*In the Philippines the pagan Igorots and Muslims Moros were considered and treated by
Christian Filipino as outside the civilized Filipino community, 1887 Madrid exposition many
educated Filipinos identify themselves with their countrymen (Igorots).*
Rizal on the other hand
Another approach adopted by the propagandists was national inclusiveness. National
inclusiveness happens if the one advocating it include elements that are not theirs. They would
include the era of the ancestors as part of the heritage. Rizal believed that our ancestors are more
perfect and more civilized than the Europeans.
When Spain colonized the Philippines, our ancestors were regressed. They became
subjects of the King of Spain whose command became law. Rizal expected the Philippines to be
reared by Spain like an adopted child who grew up in another culture but is now searching. The
Philippines was reared by Spain and is now an independent nation. Spain was the Madre España
to the Ilustrados but not to the revolutionaries like Bonifacio. The cry was an important part
towards that separation.
While Rizal’s ideology is very inclusive, he became selective. Like Blumentritt the Negritos
are the first inhabitants of the Islands and he calls them owners of the land. However, Rizal refused
to be included among the Negritos as his ancestors. According to Rizal the Negritos are of a wild
race and that they have an incapacity for civilization. That the Negritos were regarded as outside
the Ilustrados sphere of legitimate knowledge and pursuit of justice.
In the same way the race where Rizal belonged remained as indios. Unless they had
themselves educated, they remain indios. They can be still called by their regional identities such
as Tagalogs, Visayans, and Ilocanos. Rizal wished to appropriate the status of the Filipinos – the
locally born Spaniards. But unless they were educated enough, they still remain as indios.
The Spaniards however rejected the efforts to have equal status with the rising class of
Chinese mestizos and indios. In their minds even if they gained wealth, lived in lavish Spanish-style
houses and even educated in Spanish institutions, they remain indios. The Spaniards had a
disparaging name for the rising Middle Class – bestias cargadas de oro (beast laden in gold. No
matter how you clothe a monkey even with the best European finery they still remain and
monkeys.
In the face of his rejection, Rizal had the indios strive for excellence. This opportunity was
given when the two painters from the Philippines his friend Juan Luna and Felix Resurreccion
Hidalgo won top prizes in Madrid. From then on Rizal urged the indios not to imitate the Spaniards
but to be proud of their race. Inspired by the show of William Cody (Buffalo Bill) in Paris where
American Indians rode proudly on their horses while clad in eagle feathers, he called on the Filipino
indios to be proud of their race and heritage. He formed an organization called Indios Bravos which
lasted for a very short time. Also within the Indios Bravos was a sub organization called the RDLM
– the Redencion de los Malayos in which he intended to work for the freedom of all the Malay
peoples under foreign rule.
 ACTIVITY
1. What were the theories of the formation or the peopling of the Philippines?
2. What was the Wave Theory accepted then as the theory of the peopling of the Philippines?
3. Why was the Wave Theory criticized as endorsing racism?
4. Why did Rizal did not consider the Negritos as his ancestors?

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