We
cannot look forward to posterity if we never look backward to our ancestors.
Because we are not the maker of history, we are made by history. History along
with the early people in it is our molder and the reason of our existence
today. So for a while, it’s a good thing to take a glimpse of the past and
recognize our roots.
There
are many theories that sprouted about the origin of our existence. And one of
the most recognized theories is the Wave of Migration. According to this
theory, the trace of our early ancestors were said to be from the three groups
of people who settled here in the Philippines which are the Negritos,
Indonesians and Malays.
We
learned from our History subject about the simplicity of life of early people
in the Philippines. How they manage to survive in their time, how they
gradually became civilized and how they contribute in the formation of what we
now own for ourselves: the Filipino culture.
Filipinos
life ago was difficult yet they were able to survive mainly from their
surroundings. Early Filipinos used sharp stones for smashing the food they
gathered and for splitting wooden branches. They lived in caves, forests, nipa
huts or tree houses. And they even had their own structure of government and
laws embedded in it. Since the people during that time were relatively small in
numbers, there was not really a problem in terms of food supply and space to
dwell which is undeniably opposite of our status quo wherein most of the people
are homeless or residing in squatter’s area and suffering from hunger due to
poverty.
Over
the years, Filipino and environment continued to interact and produced new
discoveries and breakthroughs. And now that our country embraces different
innovations and technological advancements, we cannot deny the fact that the
way of life of each Filipino has been changed. In this fast pacing world, we
can see how the life of individuals were altered, the life that are indeed far
from what our ancestors had before.
Before, it took a long time for our ancestors to
create fire. It seems that their body fats will be the first to be burned (due
to extreme rubbing of bamboo woods) rather than the food that they must suppose
to burn. But now, it just one snap, the fire is all yours!
Today,
we have the easiest and fastest way to communicate with others. It can be
through text, calls, Internet, different social networking sites and many more.
But during the old times, messages are commonly spoken to other personally, but
it’s a hard time for them to locate the person they want to speak with. That’s
why some of them use birds to send messages for them. Well, it’s a bad story
then when their “messenger bird” was got shot by someone because their message
will remain untold. Oops! We also had our own version of “messenger bird”
today! The “Twitter!” The good thing about it is it cannot be shot dead by
anyone. But if you do not have Internet connection, well, that’s another sad
story.
And
when it comes to the dissemination of information, people before had their
umalohokan to announce it to the public personally. But today, there’s no sore
throat anymore for the umalohokan, because of the presence of different media like
television, radio and newspaper to distribute information, news and orders to
the mass.
Before
they use boat and animals to travel from one place to another but most of the
time, they walk barefooted. But now, we have different means of transportation,
even if it’s in land, water, underwater, aerial or even going to space! And as
a result, pollution and heavy traffic jam! No wonder, in the near future, there
will be traffic in the sky too.
In
accordance to their laws and orders, some act of wrongdoing can be penalized by
death. Sounded harsh? But as of today, death penalty is not allowed in the
Philippines.
Early
Filipinos are contented in farming, fishing, hunting and making boats. There
are no such things as blue collar jobs nor does white collar job. There’s also
no thing like Minimum Wage.
Their
clothing was made from leaves, barks of trees, animal skin. And their
accessories are made of elephant tusks, animals’ teeth, pearls from sea and
stones. And as time went by, baro’t saya ang barong tagalong was introduced. Sorry
for the boys of early times, because miniskirts, shorts and sleeveless were not
yet introduced during those time.
During
the early times, courting a girl requires great courage for the man to face all
the hardships. He cannot even touch her fingertip or her hair tip. But today,
in just a blink of an eye, many relationships were build as well as new baby.
Feelings are communicated and expressed through text or Facebook statuses which
were never done before.
These
are just some of the way of life of our ancestors or the early Filipinos. Our
life today and their life before have both pros and cons. It is just, life
before is certainly simpler than what we have now. But still, they can generate
happiness from this simplicity of life. I think, one implication of this
continuously innovating world is that we are setting higher standards for
living and happiness. And despite all the beneficial effects of modernization,
we must admit that the simplicity of life is now altered of being complicated
packed with branching problems.
We
cannot choose where and when to live. It’s only God decides whether what era we
should rise. But wherever and whenever it is, we should utilize our time here
on Earth in the best and noble as we can because time runs so fast and we will also
become the ancestors of the new Filipinos to be born in the near future. Let us
make future generations remember us as proud ancestors just as, today, we
remember our forefathers.
