EMERGENCE OF THE BICOL LANDS AND ITS FIRST INHABITANTSPREPARED BY:

• NELMER BORBE

• BRIAN STEVEN LIM

• JAY KENNETH RANCES

BICOL• According to a folk epic entitled Ibalong, the people of

the region were formerly called Ibalong or Ibalnong, a name believed to have been derived from Gat Ibal who ruled Sawangan (now Legaspi) in ancient times. • Ibalong used to mean the “people of Ibal;” eventually,

this was shortened to Ibalon. • The word Bikol which replaced Ibalon was originally

bikod (meaning “meandering”, "twisted" or "bent".), a word which supposedly described the principal river of that area.

FIRST INHABITANTS• The original Bicolanos were the indigenous people.

e.g. the Agta that roam the peninsula. • They can be found in the area of Mt. Isarog and Mt.

Iriga. They have their own culture and economy, before the foreign commercial influence.• Their cultural practices were friendlier to the

environment even if they practice the traditioinal slash and burn agriculture.• Artifacts from several museums in the region can attest

to this. Some of these artifacts were found in Ticao Island in Masbate. There were artifacts that pre-date the arrival of the Spaniards.

THE AETA/AGTA PEOPLE• The Aeta people in the Philippines are Australo-

Melanesians. • Today other groups of Australo-Melanesians are

the Aborigines in Australia, Papuans and the Melanesians of the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, New Caledonia etc. • Unlike many of their Austronesian counterparts,

the Aetas have shown resistance to change. The attempts of the Spaniards to settle them in reducciones or reservations all throughout Spanish rule failed.

• The history of the Aeta continues to confound anthropologists and archaeologists. One theory suggests that the Aeta are the descendants of the original inhabitants of the Philippines, who, contrary to their sea-faring Austronesian neighbors, arrived through land bridges that linked the country with the Asian mainland about 30,000 years ago. • Commonly referred to as Negritos, Agtas do

belong to the Negrito ethnolinguistic group.

AGTA, MT. IRIGA

• There are many Agta tribes, scattered over Regions I to V in the island of Luzon. The Mt. Iriga Agtas reside west of Lake Buhi in southern Camarines Sur Bicol Region. • The tribe is also on the endangered list,

although there are still substantial members remaining (unlike neighbors east of Lake Buhi, the Mt. Iraya Agtas).

• Agtas are characteristically short, dark-skinned, kinky-haired, thick-lipped, and small-nosed. • Their traditional clothing is tapis (skirt) for

women and bahag (breechcloth) for men. Breastfeeding mothers wear uban, a piece of fabric slung from the shoulders. • Most men scar their bodies, using various

designs that have been passed down to them by their ancestors. • Today, most Agtas have abandoned their tribal

attire for “civilized” clothes.

• Traditional Agta houses are built in clusters and made from indigenous materials such as bamboo, wood, talahib (cogon), coconut leaves, and abaca bark. • Agtas as young as 14 marry the partner chosen by

their parents. • Hunting is their main means of subsistence. They

use pointed sticks called galud to kill birds, wild deer, monkeys, and wild pigs. Agtas exchange part of the meat and some forest products for starchy food and other goods with nearby farmers.

• Their other traditional means of livelihood are farming and fishing. Today, however, many Agtas take on seasonal jobs, such as copra and charcoal making, and gold panning.• The Agtas worship the spirits of their

ancestors or Anitos; their rituals include dances and a depiction of hunting movements. They have no formal leaders. The old males in their community only serve as consultants for arbitration purposes.

OTHER EVIDENCES• No prehistoric animal fossils have been discovered

in Bicol and the people of the region remains obscure. • The Agta from Camarines Sur to Sorsogon strongly

suggest that aborigines lived there long ago, but earliest evidence is of middle to late Neolithic life. • The burial jars excavated in Masbate can be linked

with the Dongson culture, and those dug in the coast of the Bondoc peninsula prove the existence of an ancient cultural community in southeastern Luzon.

• In 1959 stone tools and burial jars were unearthed in Bato, Sorsogon. The University of the Philippines Department of Anthropology Field School in 1984, 1985, 1990, and 1994 also unearthed a number of pre-Spanish primary burial jars in Bahia, Bagatao Island in Magallanes, Sorsogon. • Golden crowns, believed to date from 91 BC to 79 AD,

were also found in Libmanan, Bulan, and Juban.• Recent diggings at the Almeda property in Cagbunga,

Pamplona, Camarines Sur have yielded 14th- and 15th-century ceramic plates, clay pots, and even human skeletons with bronze arm and leg bands

• Also, the many Languages of Bicol are living evidence to this colorful culture. The Bikol Languages were closely linked with austronesian languages of South east asia and the Pacific. This indicate that the Bicolanos had an interaction, culturally and economically, with its Island neigbors.• The economy was based in agriculture and fishing

REFERENCES

• http://ncca.gov.ph/subcommissions/subcommission-on-cultural-communities-and-traditional-arts-sccta/central-cultural-communities/the-bicolanos/• http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php/Bicol_Region• http://www.ethnicgroupsphilippines.com/people/

ethnic-groups-in-the-philippines/agta-mt-iriga/• http://originalpeople.org/the-aeta-people-

indigenous-tribe-of-the-philippines/