The following translation of a Kapampangan legend by Michael Panglinan will help us unravel the socio-political situation of the Nusantao that developed. I have added a few translations of notes.
"The history of the Kapampangan opened with the great war in heaven. They were siblings (I don't know if they are brothers or brothers and sisters...but they were siblings) Aldau (the Sun) and Bulan (the Moon) were fighting for control of the earth.
From the heavens they descended on the banks of the great river, from which they pulled out two bamboo poles each. In the ensuing battle, Aldau, the sun had struck the light out of one of Bulan's eyes and its brightness dimmed. Aldau was victorious and Bulan surrendered. Magnanimous, Aldau lifted his capatad up and divided his rule between himself and Bulan. He even let Bulan sit on the throne first. Thus Bulan ruled by bengi (night) and Aldau ruled by aldau (day).
They settled on the two sacred mountains of the great river bank plains. On earth, Aldau chose as his abode Alaya, the center, the navel of the world. Thus the words 'paralaya' meaning going towards Alaya, the home, the base, the navel, and 'padauba' which means to go away from the center, or to go down to the flatlands. Paralaya also came to mean east since it is the abode of the sun.
On earth, Aldau came to be called by man as Apung Sukû meaning antiquity or even summit or zenith. Bulan, on the one hand settled on the source of eight rivers, Pinatubu, from which man derived its food and livelihood as the rivers became not only a source of fish, but was also the watering hole of game and fowl.
Man favoured Bulan with the name Apung Mallari, to whom all things were possible. He was said to be more approachable than the distant Apung Sukû.
Apung Sukû, the Sun, had for his children: Munag Sumalâ (Dawn) who was betrothed to Manalastas (the rooster), Abac, Ugtu (known also as Lakandanup who devoured shadows at noon), and Gatpanapun (the prince who knows only pleasure).
Apung Mallari had two daughters. The most beautiful was Sisilim (sunset) who was devoted to her uncle Apung Sukû by welcoming him in the western skies with songs of the cicadas at sunset. The other daughter was Kapitangan.
All things went well with their reign over man on earth till the rains came. The rains did not stop. The eight Rivers of Pinatubu overflowed. Man's possesssion were washed away and the fowls, game and fish went to seek calmer waters or went deep into the mountains. Man hungered. Man despaired. Finally man called upon Apung Sukû for help.
Apung Sukû then sent his grandson Tala (the planet Venus), son of the red serpent Munag Sumalâ and the bird Manalastas, to be born as a man.
Deep in the forest of Mount Alaya, an old manalaksan (wood cutter) went to the pool of Sapang Tacûi to quench his thirst. There in the middle of the pool, a tucal flower blossomed. in the midst of it was a healthy baby crying. The old manalaksan took pity and took the child to his old wife mangkukuran (potter). There the child began to speak and walk. The couple bowed low to the ground and paid homage to the god child.
Soon the child grew up to become a strong bayani. Riding on his friend Damulag, the guardian against the storm, Tala descended the mountain chewing on a sugarcane. On the slopes of the mountain he fell in love with a woman called Mingan. Together they made love. As they did so, Tala took some of his seeds and placed them in Mingan's hand. "Plant them on the flooded ground," he said. Mingan was doubtful at first since nothing grew on the flooded soil save for lumut or algae.
Immediately after Mingan planted the sacred seeds, a curious green looking plant sprouted from the ground. These were the first palai, rice plants. Tala showed her how to cook nasi, from the unhusked seeds of the palai plant. Soon Mingan's tribe was able to conquer all the flooded plains and convert them to fertile rice fields. Tala went back to the sky.
Soon, man forgot about the goodness of Apung Mallari before the floods. They endlessly praised Apung Sukû for sending them his grandson Tala. In anger and jealousy, Apung Mallari threw a huge boulder to the perfect summit of Apung Sukû's abode, Bunduc Alaya. The earth trembled. But worse was Apung Sukû's anger at the insult. From that day on, Apung Mallari was cursed. He was to be called as Punsalang (the source of enmity, the enemy).
Apung Sukû took all the huge boulders of the great river bank plains and threw them all at Bunduk Pinatubu. Apung Mallari, now Punsalang, saw his abode crumble. Seeing her father lose miserably, Sisilim decided to stop her uncle the sun but she too was struck and she fell dead. Seeing this, Punsalang shouted in anguish and surrendered to his brother Apung Sukû. From then on, Apung Sukû was Apung Sinukuan (to whom everyone surrendered)."
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
Saturday, December 11, 2004
Money as the root of all evil
I have noted that rising sea levels and natural disasters played a big role in the Nusantao and previous Sundaland migrations. Also covered briefly was the possibility of a spiritual component to exploration and colonization.
Of course, when dealing with trade networks we also have to follow the buck, so to speak.
How did Nusantao trade occur? Solheim thinks it was barter trade, however, there is also a possible that money was involved.
Otto Dempwolff reconstructed a word for money: *'uwan. Cecilio Lopez later updated this to *huwaN "money." These reconstructions though occur before the Formosan languages were brought into the Austronesian family and thus might only apply really to Proto-Malayo-Polynesian.
That however is significant as Solheim postulates that the Nusantao were mostly Malayo-Polynesian speakers, albeit always with a minority of people among them who spoke other languages. If we accept Solheim's dates that means the Nusantao could have been using money before 5000 BC.
The type of money used by Austronesians upon contact with Europeans was mostly shells particularly cowries and often in stringed form. Here are some examples:
Solomon Island stringed shell money
http://www.janeresture.com/solomon_postcards2/Fine%20Ancient%20Solomon%20Islands%20Shell%20Money%201.jpg
Sumerian stringed shell money
http://images.channeladvisor.com/
Giant stone money (rai) of Yap (resembles Chinese stringed copper coins)
http://www.reefseekers.com/PIXPAGES/Stone_money.jpg
The early trade in shell tools may have evetually led to the use of shells as money. Clan competition could easily heat up with the large scale use of money even on a regional scale. It is much easier to accumulate wealth with money than attempting to stockpile bulky trade goods.
The abstract quality of money indeed helps the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
Of course, when dealing with trade networks we also have to follow the buck, so to speak.
How did Nusantao trade occur? Solheim thinks it was barter trade, however, there is also a possible that money was involved.
Otto Dempwolff reconstructed a word for money: *'uwan. Cecilio Lopez later updated this to *huwaN "money." These reconstructions though occur before the Formosan languages were brought into the Austronesian family and thus might only apply really to Proto-Malayo-Polynesian.
That however is significant as Solheim postulates that the Nusantao were mostly Malayo-Polynesian speakers, albeit always with a minority of people among them who spoke other languages. If we accept Solheim's dates that means the Nusantao could have been using money before 5000 BC.
The type of money used by Austronesians upon contact with Europeans was mostly shells particularly cowries and often in stringed form. Here are some examples:
Solomon Island stringed shell money
http://www.janeresture.com/solomon_postcards2/Fine%20Ancient%20Solomon%20Islands%20Shell%20Money%201.jpg
Sumerian stringed shell money
http://images.channeladvisor.com/
Giant stone money (rai) of Yap (resembles Chinese stringed copper coins)
http://www.reefseekers.com/PIXPAGES/Stone_money.jpg
The early trade in shell tools may have evetually led to the use of shells as money. Clan competition could easily heat up with the large scale use of money even on a regional scale. It is much easier to accumulate wealth with money than attempting to stockpile bulky trade goods.
The abstract quality of money indeed helps the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
A Neolithic snapshot
During the migrations mentioned by Oppenheimer that took place between about 8000 and 6000 years ago, shell mound cultures appear in three major distant locations. The Ubaid sites have already been mentioned previously and we will investigate them in detail later.
Shell mounds also appear to the north in the Bering Sea and Arctic regions. Decades ago, Soviet prehistorians had suggested that Proto-Eskimo and Proto-Inuit people had been influenced by people from the southern Pacific and Southeast Asia, or that they had even originated from those regions.
They found many common items in the cultural inventory of these people that had southern correspondences including toggling harpoon heads with sockets and barbs at their base and slate points unique to the region.
S. I Rudenko noted that the distribution of these toggling harpoons matched the distribution of shell mounds both in the north and the south.
Rudenko states: "Eskimo sea-mammal hunters appeared in the Bering Sea region comparatively late and were really the wedge dividing related peoples, alien to them, of northeastern Asia and northern America, they apparently came to the Bering Sea region not from the north but the south, not from Asiatic Asia but from Asia's insular southeast."
The sea vessels of these Arctic peoples also shared morphologies with the south. Indeed, experts on maritime history like James Hornell have suggested that the bifid double construction ship found in the circum-Arctic regions was of southern Pacific origin.
M.G. Levin, another researcher specializing in Northeast Asian ethnology writes: "It was not difficult for these coastal peoples of the Pacific to adjust to the conditions of the Far North, since they had long practised fishing and sea-mammal hunting, they knew how to build the warm semisubterranean houses necessary in arctic surroundings, and finally they were excellent seafarers for whom it was easy to move along the coast and settle the Far North. (Okladnikov, 1941c, pp. 30-31)"
In addition to the Persian Gulf and Eskimo/Inuit region, shell mounds also appear on the Atlantic coast of Europe. Here also, in mesolithic Denmark, we find the bifid boats that Hornell and others had given a South Seas origin. In addition at a latter date we find the uniquely SE Asian/Pacific technique of lashed-lug construction in Scandinavia.
We will examine each of these region in more detail later in this blog.
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
References
Levin, M. G. _Ethnic origins of the peoples of northeastern Asia._ Edited by Henry N. Michael. [Toronto] Published for the Arctic Institute of North America by University of Toronto Press [1963]
Hornell, James, _Water transport: origins and early evolution_. Newton Abbot, David & Charles, 1970.
Shell mounds also appear to the north in the Bering Sea and Arctic regions. Decades ago, Soviet prehistorians had suggested that Proto-Eskimo and Proto-Inuit people had been influenced by people from the southern Pacific and Southeast Asia, or that they had even originated from those regions.
They found many common items in the cultural inventory of these people that had southern correspondences including toggling harpoon heads with sockets and barbs at their base and slate points unique to the region.
S. I Rudenko noted that the distribution of these toggling harpoons matched the distribution of shell mounds both in the north and the south.
Rudenko states: "Eskimo sea-mammal hunters appeared in the Bering Sea region comparatively late and were really the wedge dividing related peoples, alien to them, of northeastern Asia and northern America, they apparently came to the Bering Sea region not from the north but the south, not from Asiatic Asia but from Asia's insular southeast."
The sea vessels of these Arctic peoples also shared morphologies with the south. Indeed, experts on maritime history like James Hornell have suggested that the bifid double construction ship found in the circum-Arctic regions was of southern Pacific origin.
M.G. Levin, another researcher specializing in Northeast Asian ethnology writes: "It was not difficult for these coastal peoples of the Pacific to adjust to the conditions of the Far North, since they had long practised fishing and sea-mammal hunting, they knew how to build the warm semisubterranean houses necessary in arctic surroundings, and finally they were excellent seafarers for whom it was easy to move along the coast and settle the Far North. (Okladnikov, 1941c, pp. 30-31)"
In addition to the Persian Gulf and Eskimo/Inuit region, shell mounds also appear on the Atlantic coast of Europe. Here also, in mesolithic Denmark, we find the bifid boats that Hornell and others had given a South Seas origin. In addition at a latter date we find the uniquely SE Asian/Pacific technique of lashed-lug construction in Scandinavia.
We will examine each of these region in more detail later in this blog.
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
References
Levin, M. G. _Ethnic origins of the peoples of northeastern Asia._ Edited by Henry N. Michael. [Toronto] Published for the Arctic Institute of North America by University of Toronto Press [1963]
Hornell, James, _Water transport: origins and early evolution_. Newton Abbot, David & Charles, 1970.
The Yi Peoples
Shun-Sheng Ling wrote: "During ancient times the majority of the inhabitants of the Pacific coast of China belonged to the East Yi. The East Yi people in accordance with the results of our research consisted chiefly of peoples from Polynesia and Micronesia".
Pointing more toward Taiwan and the Philippines, the late Harvard historian Kwang-chih Chang agreed that Austronesian presence in early coastal China was likely.
The "East Yi" (Dong Yi) are the Yi peoples who lived in Shandong and Henan as described in Chinese literature. The Yi to the south were known as Nan Yi and those to the north as Bei Yi.
Chinese literature describes the Yi as "maritime" people who built large ships. Eventually the name Yi became synonomous with the sea itself.
The Yi peoples are normally associated with Dawenkou, Lungshan, Liangzhu and Hongshan cultures. These people practiced tooth removal and head deformation, and built their homes on piles (stilts), all common features of Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
The Dawenkou showed the first signs of significant social stratification in China. Elite burials became increasingly common and elaborate toward the latter Dawenkou period. By the time that Dawenkou transitioned to its daughter Lungshan culture in Shandong, signs of extreme hierarchy were present to include, at times, funerary human sacrifice.
In the Lungshan period we see the rise of forts with rammed earth walls. This has been interpreted as possibly signaling an increase in clan warfare and the consequent need for protection.
Chinese texts make it clear that the Yi people were considered foreign in comparison to the Hua folk of the Upper Yellow River region. In latter times, the term "Dong Yi" came to exclusively mean foreigners and no longer applied to Shandong province.
However, during the earliest times, the Yi people were very important in the formation of Chinese culture and civilization.
The Dawenkou Pottery Inscriptions may have faciliated communication and trade between people who spoke different languages. These characters were pictographic in nature and thus would have facilitated cross-cultural communication.
As noted earlier there is extensive evidence of long-distance trade particularly that involving jade and nephrite originating in the Yangtze region (Liangzhu culture).
During the Lungshan period, we see the increasing use of clan emblems. By studying these symbols we can see that some clans were able to extend their range considerably. Sometime around 5500 years ago things started heating up in this region. If the war had not started yet, it was about to begin.
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
Pointing more toward Taiwan and the Philippines, the late Harvard historian Kwang-chih Chang agreed that Austronesian presence in early coastal China was likely.
The "East Yi" (Dong Yi) are the Yi peoples who lived in Shandong and Henan as described in Chinese literature. The Yi to the south were known as Nan Yi and those to the north as Bei Yi.
Chinese literature describes the Yi as "maritime" people who built large ships. Eventually the name Yi became synonomous with the sea itself.
The Yi peoples are normally associated with Dawenkou, Lungshan, Liangzhu and Hongshan cultures. These people practiced tooth removal and head deformation, and built their homes on piles (stilts), all common features of Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
The Dawenkou showed the first signs of significant social stratification in China. Elite burials became increasingly common and elaborate toward the latter Dawenkou period. By the time that Dawenkou transitioned to its daughter Lungshan culture in Shandong, signs of extreme hierarchy were present to include, at times, funerary human sacrifice.
In the Lungshan period we see the rise of forts with rammed earth walls. This has been interpreted as possibly signaling an increase in clan warfare and the consequent need for protection.
Chinese texts make it clear that the Yi people were considered foreign in comparison to the Hua folk of the Upper Yellow River region. In latter times, the term "Dong Yi" came to exclusively mean foreigners and no longer applied to Shandong province.
However, during the earliest times, the Yi people were very important in the formation of Chinese culture and civilization.
The Dawenkou Pottery Inscriptions may have faciliated communication and trade between people who spoke different languages. These characters were pictographic in nature and thus would have facilitated cross-cultural communication.
As noted earlier there is extensive evidence of long-distance trade particularly that involving jade and nephrite originating in the Yangtze region (Liangzhu culture).
During the Lungshan period, we see the increasing use of clan emblems. By studying these symbols we can see that some clans were able to extend their range considerably. Sometime around 5500 years ago things started heating up in this region. If the war had not started yet, it was about to begin.
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
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