Content and Contextual Analysis of

“Customs of Tagalogs”
by Juan De Plasencia

Module 4:
Readings in Philippine History
 Study Objectives
01
Analyze the context, contentand perspective of different kinds of primary sources.

02
Determine the contribution of different kinds of primary sources in understanding
Philippine history.

03
Develop critical and analytical skills with exposure to primary sources.

04
Appreciate the early Filipino civilization and acknowledge the rich Filipino culture
even before the advent of colonialism.
 Meet the Team

-------------------------------
Alexis Cedric Abagat Donn Emmanuel S. Matias

Kharylle Ciara V. Alto Shan Kerby S. Torno

Earl Jerome G. Balingit Karl Adrianne P. Viernes

01 • It was intentionally published to
provide exotic description of the
Tagalog natives.
Custom of • A colonial text written during the
Colonial period
Tagalogs
“Las Custumbres de los Indios
Tagalos de Filipinas”

Juan de Plasencia
Who is Juan de Plasencia?

Miguel Juan de Plasencia was a

Spanish friar of the Franciscan
Order.

He authored the Doctrina Cristiana

(Christian Doctrine), the first book
ever printed in the Philippines.

He was also known to be a

defender of the native population.
Take a look back!

The Bisayans
"The Bisayans are accustomed to paint their
bodies with some very elegant tattoos. They do
this with iron or brass rods, the points of which are
heated on fire. These are done in the manner
illuminations, paintings all parts of the body, such
as the chest, the stomach, legs, arms, shoulders,
hands, and muscles, and among some, the
posteriors.”
Tagalog Noble Couple
A Tagalog Noble couple dressed in gold accessories.
"The dress of the women is not as neat nor as
elegant as that of the Bisayans, because they wrap a
cotton or taffeta mantle around the body with very
little polish. They wear jackets and skirts in the same
way we have described of the Bisayans. They also
wear their dress skin-tight, gathering it at the waist
and breast because they use no chemise or
stockings...All carry over their dress some small
mantles, which reach to the waist, these are of
colored cotton, and some are ofsatin, taffeta, and
damask obtained from China."
Tagalog Common Men
Tagalog common men. "The Moros (Islamized
Tagalogs) are dressed with clothes of cotton and
are not naked like the Bisayans...from the calves
of the knees they wear many chainlets often made
of brass, which they call bitiques (bitik). These are
worn only by the men who regard them as very
stylish."
CUSTOMS OF THE TAGALOGS
 The Datos

● This are the chiefs who

govern the tagalogs
● Captain in their wars, and
whom they obeyed and
reverenced.
The three Castes

● Nobles
● Commoners
● Slaves
 The Maharlicas

This are the nobles were the

free-born.
 The Aliping
Namamahay

These are the commoners who are

married, and serve their master,
whether he be a dato or not, with
half of their cultivated lands, as was
agreed upon in the beginning.
 The Aliping sa
Guiguilir
These are the slaves who serve
their master in his house and on his
cultivated lands, and may be sold.
Customs of The
Tagalogs
By: Karl Adrianne P. Viernes
Maharlicas
The Maharlicas (meaning
freeman or freedman) were the 
feudal warrior class in ancient 
Tagalog society in Luzon, the 
Philippines. The Spanish
translated the name as Hidalgos
 (or libres).
They belonged to the lower
nobility class similar to the 
Timawa of the Visayan people.
In modern Filipino, however, the
term has come to mean "royal
nobility", which was actually
restricted to the hereditary 
Maginoo class.
 Children of Maharlica and their slaves
*The Children and mother became free.

Children of Maharlica and Slave Woman of

Another
*The slave woman was compelled to give
her master half of the goal tael because of
the risk in her pregnancy.

Children of Freeborn Woman and Slave

*Providing that the slave is not her husband,
they’re all free.

Marriage between Maharlica and Slave

*The odd number children belonged to the
father and even number children belonged to
the mother.
 Classes of Slaves

1. Namamahay
*Can’t be sold
*Can’t be transferred to other
barangay unless by
inheritance, provided they
stay in the same village

2.Guiguilir
*Can be sold
 Dato or Chief
*Who governed the member of
the barangay

*They were the captains of wars

and they’re obeyed and
reverenced
Customs of
Tagalog
P R E S E N T E D B Y A L E X I S C E D R I C A B A G AT
Inheritance
In the case of a child by a free married woman, born while she was
married, if the husband punished the adulterer this was considered a
dowry; and the child entered with the others into partition in the
inheritance.

Adoption
Adopted children inherit double of what was paid for their adoption, but
if the child dies first, the child do not inherit from the second father.

R E A D I N G S I N P H I L I P P I N E H I S T O RY
Dowry
• Given by men to women's parent
• Half of the dowries are given immediately even
when they are only a child

R EA D IN GS I N PH ILI PP IN E H IS TORY
 In Terms of BE FO RE T H E B I RT H O F TH E CH I L D

Divorce ⚬ If the wife left husband for the purpose of marrying another, all
the dowry will fell to the husband, but if she left him, and did
not marry another, the dowry was returned.
⚬ If the husband left his wife, he lost half of the dowry and the
other half return to him.

W I TH C H I L D
⚬ Whole dowry and fine went to the children and was held by
grandparents or relatives

R EA D IN GS I N PH ILI PP IN E H IS TORY
 In Terms of
Death ⚬ If the wife dies with no born child, her parent should return
one-half of the dowry to the husband.
⚬ If the husband dies with no born child, one-half of the dowry
should return to the relatives of the husband

R EA D IN GS I N PH ILI PP IN E H IS TORY
 Relationship of the Worship of the
Tagalogs, Their Gods, and Their
Burials and Superstitions.
SLIDESMANIA

By: Kharylle Ciara V. Alto

Simbahan
A temple or place of
adoration Pandot or
“worship”
Sibi A festival which they
a temporary shed on each
celebrated in the large
side of the house with a
house of thief
roof

SLIDESMANIA.
 The posts of the house
 Sorihile- small lamps
Compartments
of the house
The center of the house
 one large lamp
SLIDESMANIA
 Nagaanitos people from the whole barangay or
family who joined in the worship
SLIDESMANIA
Badhala
whom they especially worshiped

SLIDESMANIA.
 They also worshiped the following:

SUN

STARS
MOON
SLIDESMANIA
 Tala
 Morning star

Seven little goats

 the Pleiades

Mapolon
 the change of season

Balatic
 our great bear
SLIDESMANIA
 Lic-ha
 people’s idols were images with different shapes
 some particular dead man who was brave in war and endowed
with special faculties, to whom they commended themselves
for protection in their tribulations.
SLIDESMANIA
 Dian Masalanta

 the patron of lovers and of

generation
SLIDESMANIA
 Lacapati and
Idianale
 the patrons of the cultivated
lands and of husbandry
SLIDESMANIA
  crocodiles or water-lizards which
they paid reverence to from fear of
being harmed by them

Buaya
SLIDESMANIA
  They were liable to find auguries

 Tigmamanuguin
 a serpent or rat, or a bird

 Example of Auguries
 Tigmamanuguin which was singing in the tree
 If Anyone who sneezed

 2 different form of the song

1. It was considered as an evil omen
2. It was considered as a good omen

 They also practiced divination

SLIDESMANIA
 The winter and summer are
distinguished as sun-time and water-
time.

SLIDESMANIA.
 Their manner of offering sacrifice was to proclaim a feast, and offer to
the devil what they had to eat. This was done in front of the idol, which
they anoint with fragrant perfumes and praise it in poetic songs sung
buy catolonan.

 Catolonan- officiating priest, male or female

 In some of their idolatries they were accustomed to place a good piece

of cloth, doubled, over the idol, and over the cloth a chain or large,
gold ring.

SLIDESMANIA.
 The objects of sacrifice were goats, fowls, and swine.

 They performed another ceremony by cooking a jar of rice until the

water was evaporated

 Buyos -which is a small fruite wrapped in a leaf with some lime -

food generally eaten in these regions.

 The heads of the animals, after being “offered,” they cooked and eaten
also.

SLIDESMANIA.
 Reasons of Offering their Sacrifice and Adoration

 personal matters,

 the recovery of a sick person,

 the prosperous voyage of those embarking on the sea,

 a good harvest in the sowed lands, a propitious result in wars,

 a successful delivery in childbirth, and

 a happy outcome in married life.

SLIDESMANIA
 Thank You 
SLIDESMANIA

By: Kharylle Ciara V. Alto

 DISTINCTIONS
AMONG THE PRIESTS
OF THE DEVIL
 Catalonan / Katalonan Mangagauay / Witches
who deceived by pretending to heal
(also spelled Catalonan, Catalona; the sick.
Catulunan in Kapampangan) is a priest
or priestess in the indigenous religions of
the Tagalog and Kapampangan people.
 Manyisalat Mancocolam
whose duty it was to emit fire from
has the power to apply remedies (similar himself at night, once or oftener
to the mangagauay). These priests had each month.
the power of applying such remedies to
lovers that they would abandon and
despise their own wives
 Hocloban Silagan
whose office it was, if they saw
which is another kind of witch, of greater anyone clothed in white, to tear out
efficacy than the mangagauay. Without his liver and eat it, thus causing his
the use of medicine, and by simply death.
saluting or raising the hand, they killed
whom they chose.
 Magtatangal Osuang
his purpose was to show himself at night
which is equivalent to ” sorcerer;”
to many persons, without his head or
they say that they have seen him fly,
entrails.
and that he murdered men and ate
their flesh
 Mangagayoma Sonat

They made charms for lovers out of herbs, which is equivalent to ” preacher.” It
stones, and wood, which would infuse the was his office to help one to die, at
heart with love. Thus did they deceive the which time he predicted the
people, although sometimes, through the
salvation or condemnation of the
intervention of the devil, they gained their
ends. soul.
 Pangatahojan Bayoguin

was a soothsayer, and predicted the signified a ” cotquean,” a man

future. This office was general in all the whose nature inclined toward that of
islands. a woman.
 Casanaan / Kasamaan Sitan

which was “a place of anguish;” they The guardian of Kasamaan and the
also maintained that no one would go to keeper of all souls therein, the
heaven, where there dwelt only Bathala, counterpart of Satan.
“the maker of all things,” who governed
from above.
 Summary
● Friar Juan de Plasencia wrote the “Custom of the
Tagalogs” for he was asked to do it so by the King of
Spain.

● There were barangays being chiefed by “datos”.

● People were categorized: Maharlica, Aliping

Namamahay and Aliping Saguiguilir.

● Maharlicas’s classification can change due to

marriage of different classes.

● Aliping Namamahay are “free”.

● Aliping Saguiguilir are “slaves”

 Summary
● “Badhala” – all-powerful, maker of all things

● In burials:
● Normal people: buried beside their house
● Datu: buried under a porch
● Warrior: a slave is tied beneath the warrior’s body

● People believed in the concept of life after death

called “Maca”.

● People believed in witches: hocloban, mancocolam,

mangagauay and the likes.

● This starts the influence and introduction of the

Spanish customs to the Philippines.
“When life gives you lemons, make
lemonade.”
— Elbert Hubbard