Barangay Analysis

a. The main objective of William Henry Scott in writing his book, barangay, was to further explain the Spaniard’s view on Filipinos. Also, as the title itself suggests, the word barangay was also discussed. The Philippine languages, the migrations, and word Filipino was also tackled. The author also wanted to, and successfully did, describe the way of life and the culture, itself, of the Filipinos even before the Spaniard came into view.
b. The main societies that existed back at the 16th century were the Visayans, the Tagalog from Luzon, and Mindanao. The hierarchal organization that existed on the Visayans were the Datos, timawas, and oripun. The datos or datu was the head of the Visayan community. They were the ruling class of the society. A datu’s authority arose from his lineage, but his power depended upon his wealth, the number of his slaves, and his reputation for physical powers. A datu was expected to govern his people, settle their disputes, protect them from enemies, and lead them into battle. The timawa was always defined as freemen or freed-men. Timawa paid tribute and were free to transfer their allegiance to some other datu. They give their service to the datu.

Bikolandia had also three social classes like the Visayans. The datu and ginoo as “rich and elite”, the timawa who were refered to as ordinary people on the 17th century, and the slaves who were also called the oripun.
c. One cultural practice that must’ve ceased to exist on the present day in the Philippines is the skull moulding of the Visayans which was used of enhancing one’s beauty. Another one is the clothing of the earlier Visayans. Their basic garments were the G-string and the tube. Though some natives may still be seen wearing these, it is quite evident that the modern Filipinos have adapted to the fashion of the new generation and have forgotten the cultural clothing of the Filipinos, except for maybe some special