Looking Back 6: Prehistoric Philippines: Looking Back Series, #6

By Ambeth R. Ocampo

"In these beguiling essays on what lies beyond the fringes of Philippine recorded history–whether pointing out the laughing carabao on the margins of a centuries-old map, or combing for shards of Ming porcelain on a coral beach–Ocampo reminds us that the endless gathering and joining and breaking apart of apparently 'useless' bits is, after all, what makes us what we are, and connects us with others in their own quest for identity." -Tina Cuyugan, author and editor

• Language: English
• Publisher: Anvil Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 13, 2021
• ISBN: 9789712736827

Book preview

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AMBETH R. OCAMPO is a public historian and independent curator whose research covers the late 19th century Philippines: its art, culture, and the people who figure in the birth of the nation.

At present he is Full Professor and former Chairman, Department of History, Ateneo de Manila University. He has held previous appointments at: University of the Philippines (Diliman), De La Salle University, San Beda College, Chulalong University (Thailand), Kyoto University, and Sophia University (Tokyo, Japan).

He also served as: President, Philippine Historical Association; Chairman, National Historical Commission of the Philippines; Chairman, National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

He has published over thirty-five books, writes a widely read editorial page column for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and moderates a growing Instagram and Facebook fan page.

Other books by AMBETH R. OCAMPO:

The Paintings of E. Aguilar Cruz (1986)

Rizal Without the Overcoat rev. ed. (2011)

Makamisa: The Search for Rizal’s Third Novel rev. ed. (2009)

A Calendar of Rizaliana in the Vault of the Philippine National Library rev. ed. (2011)

Aguinaldo’s Breakfast (1993)

Bonifacio’s Bolo (1995)

Mabini’s Ghost (1995)

Teodora Alonso (1995)

Talking History: Conversations with Teodoro A. Agoncillo rev. ed. (2011)

Luna’s Moustache (1997)

The Centennial Countdown (1998)

Bones of Contention rev. ed. (2014)

Meaning and History: The Rizal Lectures rev. ed. (2013)

Bones of Contention: The Andres Bonifacio Lectures rev. ed. (2014)

60 Years and Bon Vivant: Philippine French Relations (2008)

101 Stories of the Philippine Revolution (2009)

Looking Back rev. ed. (2009)

Looking Back 3: Death by Garrote rev. ed. (2015)

Looking Back 4: Chulalongkorn’s Elephants rev. ed. (2016)

Looking Back 5: Rizal’s Teeth, Bonifacio’s Bones (2012)

Looking Back 6: Prehistoric Philippines (2012)

Looking Back 7: Storm Chasers (2014)

Looking Back 8: Virgin of Balintawak (2014)

Looking Back 9: Demonyo Tables (2015)

Looking Back 10: Two Lunas, Two Mabinis (2015)

Looking Back 11: Independence X6 (2016)

Looking Back 12: Quezon’s Sukiyaki (2016)

Looking Back 13: Guns of the Katipuan (2017)

Looking Back 14: Dirty Ice Cream (2019)

Looking Back 15: Martial Law (2020)

Rizal Without The Overcoat new ed. (2018)

Looking Back 6

Prehistoric Philippines

Ambeth R. Ocampo

Anvil Publishing

Looking Back 6

Prehistoric Philippines

Copyright © Ambeth R. Ocampo, 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher.

Published and exclusively distributed by

Anvil Publishing, Inc.

7th Floor Quad Alpha Centrum

125 Pioneer Street, Mandaluyong City

1550 Philippines

Trunk lines: 8477-4752; 8477-4755 to 57

Fax: [phone]

www.anvilpublishing.com

[e-mail],

[e-mail],

[e-mail]

www.anvilpublishing.com

First printing, 2012

Second printing, 2013

Third printing, 2016

Fourth printing, 2017

Fifth printing, 2020

Cover design by Robbie Villegas

Edited by Rene E. Guatlo and Renán S. Prado

All images from Ambeth R. Ocampo Collection

eBook conversion by JP Meneses

eISBN: 978-971-xx-xxxx-x

Contents

Introduction

Mapping the Nation

Been There, Done That

Isang Bansa, Isang Diwa?

Merlion in Singapore and Manila

Araw ng Maynila, Araw ng Kastila

John Paul II’s Blood, Christ’s Foreskin

Crocodiles

The Boxer Codex

Anting-anting

Stone-age Philippines

Piloncitos and the Philippine Golden Age

Isulat Mo Sa Tubig, Itaga Mo Sa Bato

Two Monkeys on a Boat

Indigenous Indio Genius

The Bolinao Skull

Dragon Boats and the Barangay

Death Blankets

Body Armor

Saved from the Pawnshop Melting Pot

Introduction

E. Arsenio Manuel was a byline I always associated with the four-volume Dictionary of Philippine Biography. As a college student I went through Manuel’s DPB volumes to marvel at the meticulous research that went into them. Manuel not only dug up libraries and archives, he actually went around cemeteries copying off dates of birth and death from tombstones! Nicanor Tiongson introduced me to Manuel when I wanted to buy a set of DPB then unavailable in bookstores. Manuel and I liked each other immediately encouraging me to visit from time to time to listen and be inspired by his stories on research. While telling me about the pre-war University of the Philippines campus on Padre Faura he said that he originally planned to be a historian, but since his friend and contemporary Teodoro A. Agoncillo was already plowing that field he decided to shift to anthropology and started off by as one of the assistants of H. Otley Beyer.

A retired Emeritus professor of Anthropology at UP, Manuel invited me to attend his graduate class on Philippine Prehistory in the late 1980s and for a while it seemed I was the only one left awake in class after three hours of monotone monologue lecturing. He came to class on the first day and wrote on the board, Where History ends Anthropology begins. I took that as a cue to abandon history and go further down the timeline but there was no Archeological Studies Program anywhere in the Philippines at the time. I flirted awhile with Anthropology only to realize that I was not meant to be an archeologist digging in an open field. I am more comfortable researching in an airconditioned library or archive. I funded an excavation in Laguile, Batangas in 1990 and that became my hands-on training in Archeology. I saw and learned how test pits were made, how stratification of the soil gave clues to age and chronology. I watched archeologists evaluate the materials that came out of the earth: bones, rocks, fossils, broken pieces of earthenware. This was all very engaging but required: Botany, Biology, Anatomy, Chemistry, etc. Subjects I avoided in college had returned to haunt me. I think I became a historian because I was bad in math and science.

We didn’t find anything spectacular or even moderately important in that Batangas expedition but there were two highlights: first when

Reviews for Looking Back 6

[Marcelino Decena · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another epic history book from Ocampo. Must read for all history aficionados.