In early Philippine history, Barangay is the term historically used by scholars to describe the complex sociopolitical units which were the dominant organizational pattern among the various peoples of the

Philippine archipelago The islands of the Philippines, also known as the Philippine Archipelago, comprises about 7,641 islands, of which only about 2,000 are inhabited. , . in the period immediately before the arrival of European colonizers. The term originally referred to both a house on land and a boat on water, containing families, friends and dependents. These sociopolitical units were sometimes also referred to as barangay states, but are more properly referred to using the technical term "

polity A polity is an identifiable political entity – a group of people with a collective identity, who are organized by some form of institutionalized social relations, and have a capacity to mobilize resources. A polity can be any other group of ...

", rather than "state", so they are usually simply called "barangays", but evidence suggests a considerable degree of independence as a type of "city states" ruled by

datu ''Datu'' is a title which denotes the rulers (variously described in historical accounts as chiefs, sovereign princes, and monarchs) of numerous indigenous peoples throughout the Philippine archipelago. The title is still used today, especial ...

s, rajahs and lakans and

sultans Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, i ...

. Some barangays were well-organized independent villages, consisting of thirty to a hundred households. Other barangays — most notably those in

Maynila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populated ...

, Tondo,

Panay Panay is the sixth-largest and fourth-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total land area of and has a total population of 4,542,926 as of 2020 census. Panay comprises 4.4 percent of the entire population of the country. The City o ...

, Pangasinan, Cebu, Bohol, Butuan, Cotabato, and Sulu — were integrated into large cosmopolitan polities. Anthropologist F. Landa Jocano defines this period of the barangay states' dominance — approximately the 14th to the 16th centuries — as the "Barangic Phase" of early Philippine history. The Barangic Phase of Philippine history can be noted for its highly mobile nature, with barangays transforming from being settlements and turning into fleets and vice versa, with the wood constantly re-purposed according to the situation. However, every information regarding pre-colonial barangay leads to a single source, Juan de Plascencia's 1589 report ''Las costumbres de los indios Tagalos de Filipinas''. Historian Damon Woods challenges the concept of ''barangay'' as an indigenous political organization and considers it as a myth primarily due to lack of linguistic evidence. Based on indigenous language documents, Tagalogs did not use the word ''barangay'' to describe themselves or their communities. Instead, ''barangay'' is argued as a Spanish invention from an attempt by the Spaniards in reconstructing pre-conquest Tagalog society. The term has since been adapted as the name of the basic political unit of the Philippines. So historical barangays should not be confused with present-day Philippine

barrio ''Barrio'' () is a Spanish word that means " quarter" or " neighborhood". In the modern Spanish language, it is generally defined as each area of a city, usually delimited by functional (e.g. residential, commercial, industrial, etc.), social, a ...

s, which were officially renamed ''

barangay A barangay (; abbreviated as Brgy. or Bgy.), historically referred to as barrio (abbreviated as Bo.), is the smallest administrative division in the Philippines and is the native Filipino term for a village, district, or ward. In metropolita ...

s'' by the Philippine Local Government Code of 1991 as a reference to historical barangays.

Origins and etymology

Theories, as well as local oral traditions, say that the original "barangays" were coastal settlements formed as a result of the migration of

Austronesian people The Austronesian peoples, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples in Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, Micronesia, coastal New Guinea, Island Melanesia, Polynesia, and Madagascar that speak Au ...

, who came to the archipelago by boat from

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...

initially, and stayed in the archipelago to create a thalassocratic and highly sea dependent civilization based on outrigger boats, catamarans and

stilt house Stilt houses (also called pile dwellings or lake dwellings) are houses raised on stilts (or piles) over the surface of the soil or a body of water. Stilt houses are built primarily as a protection against flooding; they also keep out vermin. ...

s. This became the mainstays of the Austronesian speaking populations through the expansion from Maritime Southeast Asia out into the Pacific. Noting the mobile and maritime nature of Austronesian culture, these ancient barangays were coastal or riverine in nature. This was because most of the people relied on fishing for their supply of protein and livelihoods. They also travelled mostly by water up and down rivers, and along the coasts. Trails always followed river systems, which were also a major source of water for bathing, washing, and drinking. Early chroniclers record that the name evolved from the term ''

balangay A Balangay, or barangay is a type of lashed-lug boat built by joining planks edge-to-edge using pins, dowels, and fiber lashings. They are found throughout the Philippines and were used largely as trading ships up until the colonial era. The ...

'', which refers to a plank boat widely used by various cultures of the Philippine archipelago prior to the arrival of European colonizers.

Description

Historically, the first barangays started as relatively small communities of around 30 to 100 families, with a population that varies from one hundred to five hundred persons. When the Spaniards came, they found communities with only twenty to thirty people, as well as large and prestigious principalities. The coastal villages were more accessible to trade with foreigners. These were ideal places for economic activity to develop. Business with traders from other Countries also meant contact with other cultures and civilizations, such as those of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

Han Chinese The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctive v ...

Indian people Indians or Indian people are the citizens and nationals of India. In 2022, the population of India stood at over 1.4 billion people, making it the world's second-most populous country, containing 17.7 percent of the global population. In ...

, and

Arabs The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

. In time, these coastal communities acquired more advanced cultures, with developed social structures (sovereign principalities), ruled by established royalties and nobilities.

Smaller barangay settlements

The smallest barangays were communities of around 30 to 100 households, led by a

Datu ''Datu'' is a title which denotes the rulers (variously described in historical accounts as chiefs, sovereign princes, and monarchs) of numerous indigenous peoples throughout the Philippine archipelago. The title is still used today, especial ...

, or a leader with an equivalent title. This was the typical size of inland settlements by the time the Spanish colonizers arrived in the late 1500s, whereas larger, more cosmopolitan polities dominated the coasts, particularly river deltas.

Barangays as apex city states

When barangays grew larger, as was the case in

, Tondo, the Madja-as of

, Pangasinan, Cebu, Bohol, Butuan,

Cotabato Cotabato or North Cotabato ( hil, Aminhan Cotabato; ceb, Amihanang Cotabato; Maguindanaon: ''Pangutaran Kutawatu'', Jawi: ڤڠوترن كوتاواتو; fil, Hilagang Cotabato), officially the Province of Cotabato, is a landlocked province in ...

, and

Sulu Sulu (), officially the Province of Sulu ( Tausūg: ''Wilāya sin Lupa' Sūg''; tl, Lalawigan ng Sulu), is a province of the Philippines in the Sulu Archipelago and part of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). Its cap ...

, among others, they took on a more complex social organization. Several barangays, consisting of households loyal to a datu, Rajah or Sultan banded together to form larger cosmopolitan polities as an apex city states. The Rulers of these barangays would then select the most senior or most respected among them to serve as a paramount datu. These polities sometimes had other names (such as bayan in the Tagalog regions) but since the terminology varies from case to case, scholars such as Jocano and Scott simply refer to them as "larger" barangays. Grace Odal-Devora traces the etymology of the term bayan to the word ''bahayan'', meaning a "community", or literally "a place with many households (''bahay'')." The majority of these early "bayan" were economically complex communities situated river deltas where rivers exit out into the ocean, and featured a compact community layout which distinguished them from inland communities, thus the name. Odal-Devors notes that bayan's root word, ''Ba-y'' or ''Ba-i'', is linguistically related to other Philippine words for shoreline and perimeter (both ''baybay''), woman (''babai'' or the Visayan term ''ba-i'' "great lady"), friend (the Visayan term ''bay''), and writing (''baybayin''). She also notes that these terms are the basis for many place-names in the Philippines, such as

Bay, Laguna Bay () (), officially the Municipality of Bay ( tgl, Bayan ng Bay), is a 2nd class municipality in the province of Laguna, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 67,182 people. It is situated from Santa Cruz and s ...

and

Laguna de Bay Laguna de Bay ( Spanish for "Lagoon/Lake of Bay"; tl, Lawa ng Bay, ), also known as Laguna Lake, is the largest lake in the Philippines. It is located southeast of Metro Manila, between the provinces of Laguna to the south and Rizal to the ...

, and Baybay. The earliest documentation of the term "Bayan" was done by early Spanish missionaries who came up with local language dictionaries to facilitate the conversion of the peoples of the Philippine archipelago to Roman Catholicism. Among the most significant of these dictionaries was the ''

Vocabulario de la lengua tagala ''Vocabulario de la lengua tagala'' () was the first dictionary of the Tagalog language in the Philippines, It was written by the Franciscan friar Pedro de San Buena Ventura and published in Pila, Laguna in 1613. Juan de Plasencia had written a ...

'' by the Augustinian missionary Fray Pedro de San Buenaventura, who described it as a large town with four to ten datu lived with their followers, called dulohan or barangay. After the various polities of the Philippine archipelago were united into a single political entity during colonial times, the term gradually lost its original specific meaning, and took on more generic, descriptive denotations: population center (''poblacion'') or capital (''cabisera''); municipality; or in the broadest sense, "country".Another word, ''bansa'' or ''bangsa'', is translated "nation". Among the most prominent of these bayan entities were those in

, Tondo,

Pangasinan Pangasinan, officially the Province of Pangasinan ( pag, Luyag/Probinsia na Pangasinan, ; ilo, Probinsia ti Pangasinan; tl, Lalawigan ng Pangasinan), is a coastal province in the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region of Luzon. Its cap ...

Cebu Cebu (; ceb, Sugbo), officially the Province of Cebu ( ceb, Lalawigan sa Sugbo; tl, Lalawigan ng Cebu; hil, Kapuroan sang Sugbo), is a province of the Philippines located in the Central Visayas region, and consists of a main island and 16 ...

, Bohol, Butuan,

, and

. Although popular portrayals and early nationalist historical texts sometimes depict Philippine paramount rulers as having broad sovereign powers and holding vast territories, critical historiographers such as Jocano, Scott, and Junker explain that historical sources clearly show paramount leaders exercised only a limited degree of influence, which did not include claims over the barangays and territories of less-senior datus. For example, F. Landa Jocano, in his seminal work ''Filipino Prehistory: Rediscovering Precolonial Heritage'', notes: Keifer compares this situation to similarly-structured African polities where "component units of the political structure consist of functionally and structurally equivalent segments integrated only loosely by a centralized authority dependent on the consensual delegation of power ''upwards'' (sic) through the system." Junker, expounding further on Keifer's work, notes: This explanation of the limited powers of a paramount leader in cultures throughout the Philippine archipelago explains the confusion experienced by Martin de Goiti during the first Spanish forays into Bulacan and Pampanga in late 1571. Until that point, Spanish chroniclers continued to use the terms "king" and "kingdom" to describe the polities of Tondo and Maynila, but Goiti was surprised when Lakandula explained there was "no single king over these lands", and that the leadership of Tondo and Maynila over the Kapampangan polities did not include either territorial claim or absolute command. Antonio de Morga, in his work ''Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas'', expounds:

Titles of rulers

Because the peoples of the Philippine archipelago had different languages, the highest ranking political authorities in the largest historical barangay polities went by different titles. The titles of the paramount datu also changed from case to case, including:

Sultan Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it c ...

in the most Islamized areas of Mindanao; lakan among the Tagalogs;

Thimuay Labi ''Thimuay'' (also spelled ''thimuway'', ''timuay'', and ''thimuway'', among other variations) is the name of the most senior ancestral leader among the Subanon people of the Zamboanga Peninsula in the Philippines. Less senior ancestral leaders are ...

among the Subanen;

raja ''Raja'' (; from , IAST ') is a royal title used for South Asian monarchs. The title is equivalent to king or princely ruler in South Asia and Southeast Asia. The title has a long history in South Asia and Southeast Asia, being attested ...

h in polities which traded extensively with Indonesia and Malaysia; or simply Datu in some areas of Mindanao and the Visayas. In communities which historically had strong political or trade connections with Indianized polities in Indonesia and Malaysia, the Paramount Ruler was called a ''rajah''. Among the Subanon people of the

Zamboanga Peninsula Zamboanga Peninsula ( tl, Tangway ng Zamboanga; cbk, Peninsula de Zamboanga; ceb, Lawis sa Zamboanga) is an administrative region in the Philippines, designated as Region IX. It consists of three provinces (Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga Sibu ...

, a settlement's datus answer to a ''thimuay'', and some thimuays are sometimes additionally referred to as ''thimuay labi'', or as ''sulotan'' in more Islamized Subanon communities. In some other portions of the Visayas and Mindanao, there was no separate name for the most senior ruler, so the Paramount ruler was simply called a datu, although one datu was identifiable as the most senior.

Alliance groups among paramount rulers

Often, these paramount datus, rajahs and sultans formed ritual alliances with the leaders of nearby polities, and these "alliance groups" spread their political influence (but ''not'' their territorial claims) across an even larger geographic area. One prominent example was the case of the Paramount Rulers of

and Tondo, who were said to have political sway among the peoples of Bulacan and Pampanga before the arrival of the Spanish.

Social organization and stratification

The barangays in some coastal places in Panay, Manila, Cebu, Jolo, and Butuan, with cosmopolitan cultures and trade relations with other Countries in Asia, were already established Principalities before the coming of the Spaniards. In these regions, even though the majority of these ''barangays'' were not large settlements, yet they had organized societies dominated by the same type of recognized aristocracy (with birthright claim to allegiance from followers), as those found in established Principalities. The aristocratic group in these pre-colonial societies was called the

Class. Its members were presumably the descendants of the first settlers on the land or, in the case of later arrivals, of those who were

s at the time of migration or conquest. Some of these Principalities have remained, even until the present, in unhispanized and mostly Islamized parts of the Philippines, in Mindanao. Babaylan were highly respected members of the community, on par with the Maginoo. In the absence of the

(head of the community), the Babaylan takes in the role of interim head of the community. Babaylans were powerful ritual specialists who were believed to have influence over the weather and tap various spirits in the natural and spiritual realms. Babaylans were held in such high regard as they were believed to possess powers that can block the dark magic of an evil datu or spirit and heal the sick or wounded. Among other powers of the babaylan were to ensure a safe pregnancy and child birth. As a spiritual medium, babaylans also lead rituals with offerings to the various divinities or deities. As an expert in divine and herb lore, incantations, and concoctions of remedies, antidotes, and a variety of potions from various roots, leaves, and seeds, the babaylans were also regarded as allies of certain datus in subjugating an enemy, hence, the babaylans were also known for their specialization in medical and divine combat.According to William Henry Scott (Barangay: Sixteenth-Century Philippines Culture and Society) a Katalonan could be of either sex, or male transvestites (bayoguin), but were usually women from prominent families who were wealthy in their own right. According to Luciano P. R. Santiago (To Love and to Suffer) as remuneration for their services they received a good part of the offerings of food, wine, clothing, and gold, the quality and quantity of which depended on the social status of the supplicant. Thus, the catalonas filled a very prestigious as well as lucrative role in society.

Variation in social stratification

Because of the difficulty of accessing and accurately interpreting the various available sources, relatively few integrative studies of pre-colonial

social structure In the social sciences, social structure is the aggregate of patterned social arrangements in society that are both emergent from and determinant of the actions of individuals. Likewise, society is believed to be grouped into structurally rel ...

s have been done – most studies focus on the specific context of a single settlement or ethnic group. There are only a handful of historiographers and anthropologists who have done integrative studies to examine the commonalities and differences between these polities. In the contemporary era of critical scholarly analysis, the more prominent such works include the studies of anthropologist F. Landa Jocano and historian-historiographer William Henry Scott. More recently, anthropologist Laura Lee Junker conducted an updated comparative review of the

social organization In sociology, a social organization is a pattern of relationships between and among individuals and social groups. Characteristics of social organization can include qualities such as sexual composition, spatiotemporal cohesion, leadership, s ...

of early polities throughout the archipelago, alongside her study of inter and intra-regional trade among Philippine coastal polities. In the middle of the seventeenth century, the Jesuit missionary Francisco Colin made an attempt to give an approximate comparison of the social stratification in Tagalog culture with that in the Visayan culture. While social mobility was possible in the former, in the Visayas, the ''Datu'' (if had the personality and economic means) could retain and restrain competing peers, relatives, and offspring from moving up the social ladder.Cf. William Henry Scott, Cracks in the Parchment Curtain, Quezon City: 1998, p. 125. The term ''Timawa'' came into use in the Tagalog social structure within just twenty years after the coming of the Spaniards. The term, however, was being applied to former ''

Alipin The ''alipin'' refers to the lowest social class among the various cultures of the Philippines before the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the Visayan languages, the equivalent social classes were known as the ''oripu ...

'' (Third Class) who have escaped bondage by payment, favor, or flight. The Tagalog ''Timawas'' did not have the military prominence of the Visayan ''

Timawa The ''Timawa'' were the feudal warrior class of the ancient Visayan societies of the Philippines. They were regarded as higher than the '' uripon'' (commoners, serfs, and slaves) but below the '' Tumao'' (royal nobility) in the Visayan soci ...

''. The warrior class in the Tagalog society was present only in Laguna, and they were called the '' Maharlika'' Class. At the early part of the Spanish regime, the number of their members who were coming to rent land from their Datus was increasing. Unlike the Visayan Datus, the Lakans and Apos of Luzon could call all non-''Maginoo'' subjects to work in the ''Datu’s'' fields or do all sorts of other personal labor. In the Visayas, only the ''Oripuns'' were obliged to do that, and to pay tribute besides. The Tagalog who works in the ''Datu’s'' field did not pay him tribute, and could transfer their allegiance to another ''Datu''. The Visayan ''Timawa'' neither paid tribute nor performed agricultural labor. In this sense, they were truly aristocrats. The Tagalog ''Maharlika'' did not only work in his ''Datu’s'' field, but could also be required to pay his own rent. Thus, all non-''Maginoo'' in Luzon formed a common economic class in some sense, though this class had no designation. In other parts of the Archipelago, even though the majority of these

s were not large settlements, yet they had organized societies dominated by the same type of recognized aristocracy and Lordships (with birthright claim to allegiance from followers), as those found in more established, richer and more developed Principalities.

Barangays in the Visayas

In more developed barangays in

Visayas The Visayas ( ), or the Visayan Islands ( Visayan: ''Kabisay-an'', ; tl, Kabisayaan ), are one of the three principal geographical divisions of the Philippines, along with Luzon and Mindanao. Located in the central part of the archipelago, ...

(e.g.

Bohol Bohol (), officially the Province of Bohol ( ceb, Lalawigan sa Bohol; tl, Lalawigan ng Bohol), is an island province of the Philippines located in the Central Visayas region, consisting of the island itself and 75 minor surrounding islands. ...

, and

) which were never conquered by Spain but were subjugated as vassals by means of pacts, peace treaties, and reciprocal alliances, the ''

'' was at the top of the social order in a ''sakop'' or ''haop'' (elsewhere referred to as ''barangay'').William Henry Scott, ''Cracks in the Parchment Curtain'', Quezon City: 1998, pp. 102 and 112 This social order was divided into three classes. The members of the ''tumao'' class (which includes the ''datu'') were the nobility of pure royal descent, compared by the

Boxer Codex The ''Boxer Codex'' is a late sixteenth century Spanish manuscript that was produced in the Philippines. The document contains seventy-five colored illustrations of the peoples of China, the Philippines, Java, the Moluccas, the Ladrones, and Sia ...

to the titled Spanish

lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power (social and political), power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the Peerage ...

s (''señores de titulo''). Below the ''tumao'' were the vassal warrior class known as the ''

timawa The ''Timawa'' were the feudal warrior class of the ancient Visayan societies of the Philippines. They were regarded as higher than the '' uripon'' (commoners, serfs, and slaves) but below the '' Tumao'' (royal nobility) in the Visayan soci ...

'', characterized by the Jesuit priest Francisco Ignatio Alcina as "the third rank of nobility" and by the

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, ...

Miguel de Loarca --> Miguel is a given name and surname, the Portuguese and Spanish form of the Hebrew name Michael. It may refer to: Places *Pedro Miguel, a parish in the municipality of Horta and the island of Faial in the Azores Islands * São Miguel (disamb ...

as "free men, neither chiefs nor slaves". These were people of lower nobility who were required to render military service to the ''datu'' in hunts, land wars ('' Mangubat'' or ''Managayau''), or sea raids (''Mangahat'' or ''Magahat''). Aside from this, the ''timawa'' also paid taxes and tribute (''buwis'' or ''handug'') and were sometimes called upon for agricultural labor to the ''datu'', though the personal vassals of the ''datu'' may be exempt from such obligations (the latter were characterized by the Boxer Codex as "knights and hidalgos). Below the ''timawa'' were the '' oripun'' class (commoners and slaves), who rendered services to the ''tumao'' and ''timawa'' for debts or favors. To maintain purity of bloodline, the ''tumao'' usually marry only among their kind, often seeking high ranking brides in other ''barangay'', abducting them, or contracting brideprices in gold, slaves and jewelry. Meanwhile, the ''datu'' keep their marriageable daughters secluded for protection and prestige. These well-guarded and protected highborn women were called ''binokot'' (literally "veiled" or "swaddled"), and the ''datu'' of pure descent (at least for four generations) were called ''potli nga datu'' or ''lubus nga datu''.

Barangays in the Tagalog Region

The different type of culture prevalent in Luzon gave a less stable and more complex social structure to the pre-colonial Tagalog barangays of

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populated ...

Pampanga Pampanga, officially the Province of Pampanga ( pam, Lalawigan ning Pampanga; tl, Lalawigan ng Pampanga ), is a province in the Central Luzon region of the Philippines. Lying on the northern shore of Manila Bay, Pampanga is bordered by Tarlac ...

and Laguna. Taking part in a more extensive commerce than those in Visayas, having the influence of Bornean political contacts, and engaging in farming wet rice for a living, the Tagalogs were described by the Spanish Augustinian friar

Martin de Rada Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Aust ...

as more traders than warriors, and possessed distinct religious practices concerning

anito ''Anito'', also spelled ''anitu'', refers to ancestor spirits, nature spirits, and deities in the indigenous Philippine folk religions from the precolonial age to the present, although the term itself may have other meanings and associa ...

s and dambanas. The more complex social structure of the Tagalogs was less stable during the arrival of the Spaniards because it was still in a process of differentiating. A Jesuit priest

Francisco Colin Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Nicknames In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco (name), Paco". Francis of Assisi, San Francisco de Asís was known as '' ...

made an attempt to give an approximate comparison of it with the Visayan social structure in the middle of the 17th century. The term ''

'' or '' lakan'', or ''apo'' refers to the chief, but the noble class to which the ''datu'' belonged to was known as the ''

maginoo The Tagalog ''maginoo'', the Kapampangan ''ginu'', and the Visayan ''tumao'' were the nobility social class among various cultures of the pre-colonial Philippines. Among the Visayans, the ''tumao'' were further distinguished from the immediate ...

'' class. Any male member of the ''maginoo'' class can become a ''datu'' by personal achievement.Cf. William Henry Scott, Cracks in the Parchment Curtain, Quezon City: 1998, p. 125. The term ''timawa'' referring to freemen came into use in the social structure of the Tagalogs within just twenty years after the coming of the Spaniards. The term, however, was being incorrectly applied to former ''

alipin The ''alipin'' refers to the lowest social class among the various cultures of the Philippines before the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the Visayan languages, the equivalent social classes were known as the ''oripu ...

'' (commoner and slave class) who have escaped bondage by payment, favor, or flight. Moreover, the Tagalog ''timawa'' did not have the military prominence of the Visayan ''timawa''. The equivalent warrior class in the Tagalog society was present only in Laguna, and they were known as the '' maharlika'' class. At the bottom of the social hierarchy are the members of the ''alipin'' class. There are two main subclasses of the ''alipin'' class. The '' aliping namamahay'' who owned their own houses and served their masters by paying tribute or working on their fields were the commoners and

serf Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which developed ...

s, while the '' aliping sa gigilid'' who lived in their masters' houses were the servants and slaves.

Hispanization

Upon the arrival of the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

, smaller ancient barangays were combined to form towns in a resettlement process known as ''Reducción''. The policy coerced inhabitants of several far-flung and scattered barangays to move into an centralized ''cabecera'' (town) where a newly built church was situated. This allowed the Spanish government to control the movement of the indigenous population, to easily facilitate

Christianization Christianization ( or Christianisation) is to make Christian; to imbue with Christian principles; to become Christian. It can apply to the conversion of an individual, a practice, a place or a whole society. It began in the Roman Empire, conti ...

, to conduct population counts, and to collect

tributes A tribute (; from Latin ''tributum'', "contribution") is wealth, often in kind, that a party gives to another as a sign of submission, allegiance or respect. Various ancient states exacted tribute from the rulers of land which the state conq ...

. Every barangay within a town was headed by the '' cabeza de barangay'' (barangay chief), who formed part of the '' Principalía'' - the elite ruling class of the municipalities of the Spanish Philippines. This position was inherited from the ''datu'', and came to be known as such during the Spanish regime. The Spanish Monarch ruled each barangay through the ''cabeza'', who also collected taxes (called tribute) from the residents for the Spanish Crown.

Difference from the modern barangay

The word

in modern use refers to the smallest

administrative division Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...

in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

, also known by its former Spanish adopted name, the

. This modern context for the use of the term ''barangay'' was adopted during the administration of

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Ferdinand Marcos Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. ( , , ; September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino politician, lawyer, dictator, and kleptocrat who was the 10th president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled under martial ...

when he ordered the replacement of the old barrios and municipal councils. This act was eventually codified under the 1991

Local Government Code Codification of laws is a common practice in the Philippines. Many general areas of substantive law, such as criminal law, civil law and labor law are governed by legal codes. Tradition of codification Codification is predominant in cou ...

. There are a number of distinctions between the modern Barangay or Barrio, and the city-states and independent principalities encountered by the Spanish when they first arrived in 1521 and established relatively permanent settlements in 1574. The most glaring difference would be that the modern entity represents a geographical entity, the pre-colonial barangays represented loyalty to a particular head (datu). Even during the early days of Spanish rule, it was not unusual for people living beside each other to actually belong to different barangays. They owed their loyalty to different Datus. Also, while the modern barangay represents only the smallest administrative unit of government, the barangay of precolonial times was either independent, or belonged to what was only a loose confederation of several barangays, over which the rulers picked among themselves who would be foremost - known as the ''Pangulo'' or Rajah. In most cases, his function was to make decisions which would involve multiple barangays, such as disputes between members of two different barangays. Internally, each datu retained his jurisdiction.

Related concepts

Feudalism

The organization of pre-colonial Philippine states has often been described as or compared to feudalism (see non-Western feudalism), particularly in light of Marxist socioeconomic analysis. Specifically, political scientists note that political patterns of the modern

Republic of the Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

, supposedly a

liberal democracy Liberal democracy is the combination of a liberal political ideology that operates under an indirect democratic form of government. It is characterized by elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into ...

, can more accurately be described using the term " Cacique Democracy"

Cacique democracy

Present-day political scientists studying the Philippines have noted that the reciprocal social obligations that characterized the pre-colonial bayan and barangay system are still in place today, albeit using the external trappings of modern liberal democracy. The term "cacique democracy" has been used to describe the feudal political system of the

where in many parts of the country local leaders remain very strong, with almost warlord-type powers. The term was originally coined by

Benedict Anderson Benedict Richard O'Gorman Anderson (August 26, 1936 – December 13, 2015) was an Anglo-Irish political scientist and historian who lived and taught in the United States. Anderson is best known for his 1983 book '' Imagined Communities'', which e ...

from the

Taíno The Taíno were a historic Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, indigenous people of the Caribbean whose culture has been continued today by Taíno descendant communities and Taíno revivalist communities. At the time of European contact in the ...

word ''Cacique'' and its modern derivative "caciquismo" (sometimes translated as "Bossism"), which refers to a

political boss In politics, a boss is a person who controls a faction or local branch of a political party. They do not necessarily hold public office themselves; most historical bosses did not, at least during the times of their greatest influence. Numerous of ...

or leader who exercises significant power in a political system.

Mandala

In the late 20th century, European historians who believed that historical Southeast Asian polities did not conform to

classical Chinese Classical Chinese, also known as Literary Chinese (古文 ''gǔwén'' "ancient text", or 文言 ''wényán'' "text speak", meaning "literary language/speech"; modern vernacular: 文言文 ''wényánwén'' "text speak text", meaning "literar ...

or European views of

political geography Political geography is concerned with the study of both the spatially uneven outcomes of political processes and the ways in which political processes are themselves affected by spatial structures. Conventionally, for the purposes of analysis, po ...

began adapting the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...

word "Mandala" ("circle") as a model for describing the patterns of diffuse political power distributed among

Mueang Mueang ( th, เมือง ''mɯ̄ang'', ), Muang ( lo, ເມືອງ ''mɯ́ang'', ; Tai Nuea: ᥛᥫᥒᥰ ''muang''), Mong ( shn, ''mə́ŋ'', ), Meng () or Mường (Vietnamese), were pre-modern semi-independent city-states or principali ...

Kedatuan ''Kedatuan'' (ancient or Sundanese spelling: ''kadatuan''; Javanese romanization: ''kedaton'') were historical semi-independent city-states or principalities throughout ancient Maritime Southeast Asia in present-day Indonesia, Malaysia, and th ...

(principalities) in early Southeast Asian history. They emphasized that these polities were defined by their centre rather than their boundaries, and it could be composed of numerous other tributary polities without undergoing administrative integration. This model has been applied to the historical polities of Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia which traded extensively with various Bayan polities in the Philippines. However, Southeast Asian historians such as Jocano, Scott, and Osbourne are careful to note that the Philippines and Vietnam were outside of the geographical scope of direct Indian influence, and that the Philippines instead received an indirect Indian cultural influence through their relations with the Majapahit empire. Philippine historiographers thus do not apply the term "Mandala" to describe early Philippine polities because doing so overemphasizes the scale of Indian influence on Philippine culture, obscuring the indigenous Austronesian cultural connections to the peoples of

Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of about 2,000 small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: the Philippines to the west, Polynesia to the east, ...

Melanesia Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from Indonesia's New Guinea in the west to Fiji in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea. The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, V ...

, and

Polynesia Polynesia () "many" and νῆσος () "island"), to, Polinisia; mi, Porinihia; haw, Polenekia; fj, Polinisia; sm, Polenisia; rar, Porinetia; ty, Pōrīnetia; tvl, Polenisia; tkl, Polenihia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of ...

Origins and etymology

Description

Smaller barangay settlements

Barangays as apex city states

Titles of rulers

Alliance groups among paramount rulers

Social organization and stratification

Variation in social stratification

Barangays in the Visayas

Barangays in the Tagalog Region

Hispanization

Difference from the modern barangay

Related concepts

Feudalism

Cacique democracy

Mandala

See also

Notes

References

See also