History of Science and Technology In The Philippines Part I

Hello all!

  I wanted to share some of the documents that I’ve had to read because of my four history classes. This is Part I of many. Below is a document that I had to read for my Science, Technology, and Society class. It’s a good read. I read 8 of the pages. Before I retype all of it (because I don’t know where she got it lol). I want to share to you what the assignment was!

  My teacher told the class that we were to read all fifteen pages and then write a summary of 500 words at the max. Now, my classmates (having not actually read the content) reworded sentences here and there to make up 500 words). Here in the Philippines they are taught to memorize but not analyze and that was something that my teacher preached after she told us to summarize the 15 pages into 3 sentences. Everyone tried to add all the information into three sentences where as I chose to go with the key points.

  Anywhere, here’s the document y’all. I hope you find it interesting!

A HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHONOLOGY IN THE PHILIPPINES

By: Olivia C. Caoili

Introduction:

                The need to develop a country’s science and technology has generally been recognized as one of the imperative of socioeconomic progress in the contemporary world. This has become a widespread concern of governments especially since the post-word war II years.

                Among Third World countries, an important dimension of this concern is the problem of dependence in science and technology as this closely tied up with the integrity of their political sovereignty and economic self-reliance. There exist a continuing imbalance between scientific and technological development among contemporary states with 98 percent of all research and development facilities located in developed countered and almost wholly concern with the latter’s problems. Dependence or autonomy in science and technology has been salient issue in conferences sponsored by the United Nations.

                It is within the above context that this paper attempts to examine the history of science and technology in the Philippines. Rather than focusing simply on a straight chronology of events, it seeks to interpret and analyze the interdependent effects of geography, colonial trade, economic and educational policies and socio-cultural factors in shaping the evolution of present Philippines sciene and technology.

                As used in this paper, science is concerned with the systematic understanding and explanation of the laws of nature. Scientific activity centers on research, the end result of which is the discovery of production of new knowledge. This new knowledge may or may not have any direct or immediate application.

                In comparison, technology has often been understood as the ‘systematic knowledge of industrial arts”. As this knowledge was implemented by means of techniques, technology has become commonly taken to mean both the knowledge and the means of its utilization, this is, “a body of knowledge about techniques.” Modern technology also involves systematic research but its outcome is more concrete than science, i.e. the production of “a thing, a chemical, a process, something to be bought and sold.”

                In the past, science and technology developed separately, with the latter being largely a product of trial and error in response to a particular human need. In modern times, however, the progresses of science and technology have become intimately linked together. Many scientific discoveries have been facilitated by the development of new technology. New scientific knowledge in turn has often led to further refinement o existing technology or the invention of entirely new ones.

Precolonial Science and Technology:

                There is a very little reliable written information about Philippines society, culture and technology before the arrival of the Spaniards in 1521. As such, one has to reconstruct a picture of this past using contemporary archaeological findings, accounts by early traders and foreign travelers, and the narrative about conditions in the archipelago which were written by the first Spanish missionaries and colonial officials. According to these sources, there were numerous, scattered, thriving, relatively self-sufficient and autonomous communities long before the Spaniards arrived. The early Filipinos had attained a generally simple level of technological development, compared with those of Chinese and Japanese but this was sufficient for their needs at the period of time.

                Archaeological findings indicate that modern men (homo sapiens) from the Asian mainland first came over-land and across narrow channels to live in Palawan and Batangas around 50,000 years ago. For about 40,000 years, they made simple tools or weapons of stone flakes but eventually developed techniques for sawing, drilling and polishing hard stones. These Stone Age inhabitants subsequently formed settlements in the major Philippines islands such as Sulu, Mindanao (Zamboanga and Davao), Negros, Samar, Luzon (Batangas, Laguna, Rizal, Bulacan and the Cagayan Region). By the 3,000 B.C they ere producing adzes ornaments of seashells and pottery of various designs. The manufacture of pottery subsequently became well developed and flourished for about 2,000 years until it came into competition with imported Chinese porcelain. Thus over time pottery making declined. What has survived of the ancient technology is the lowest level, i.e., the present manufacture of the ordinary cooking pot among several local communities.

                Gradually, the early Filipinos learned to make metal tools and implements—coper fold, bronze and late, iron. The Iron Age is considered to have lasted from the second or third century B.X. to the tenth century A.D. Excavations of Philippines graves and work sites have yielded iron islands. These suggest that Filipinos during this period engaged in the actual extraction of iron from iron ore, smelting, and refining. But it appears that the iron industry, like the manufacture of pottery, did not survive the competition with imported cast iron from Sarawak and much later, from China.

                By the first century A.D., Filipinos were weaving cotton, smelting iron, making pottery and glass ornaments and were also engaged in agriculture. Lowland rice was cultivated in diked fields and in the interior mountain regions as in the Cordillera, in terraced fields which utilized spring water.

                Filipinos had also learned to build boards for the coastal trade. By the tenth century A.D., this had become a highly developed technology. In fact, the early Spanish chroniclers took note of the refined plank-build warship called caracoa. These boars were well suited for inter-island trade raids. The Spaniards later utilized Filipino expertise in boat-building and seamanship to fight the raiding Dutch, Portuguese, Muslims and Chinese pirate Limahong as well as to build and man the galleons that sailed to Mexico. 

                By the tenth century A.D., the inhabitants of Butuan were trading with Champa (Vietnam); those Ma-I (Mindoro) with China. Chinese records which have now been translated contain a lot of references to the Philippines. These indicate that regular trade relations between the two countries had been, well established during the tenth to the fifteenth centuries. Archaeological findings (in various part of the archipelago) of Chinese porcelains made during this period support this contention. From the Sung (960-1278) and Yuan (1260-1368) dynasties, there are descriptions of trade with the Philippines, and from Sung and Ming (1360-1644) dynasties there are notices of Filipino missions to Peking.

                The most frequently cited Chinese account in Philippines history textbooks is that of Chao Ju-Kua in 1225. He described the communities and trading activities in the islands of Ma-I (Mindoro) and San-hsu (literally three islands which present-day historians think refer to the group of Palawan and Calamian Islands). The people of Ma-I and San-hsu traded beeswax, cotton, true pearls, tortoise shell, medical betelnuts, yu0ta cloth (probably juta or ramine?) and coconut heart mats for Chinses porcelain, iron pots, lead fishnet sinkers, colored glass beads, iron needles, and tin. These people were practically the same commodities of trade between the islands and China which the first Spanish colonial officials recorded when they came to the Philippines more than two centuries later.

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  Alright! There’s the first thousand words for you guys. I’ll be sure to type up the rest next week or later. I’ve literally been at this café for four hours straight. People have come and gone and there’s only one student who was here when I originally got here but now she has a friend.

  This research paper is a good source to see how people writing in the Philippines. They’re very technical. I had to stop myself when I typed a sentence I would’ve said different but it’s not my work so I wanted to copy it exactly as it.

  Anyway, I’m thinking I’ll queue these in March. I know that sounds silly but I’m very OCD about how I do my post and I don’t like starting anything new in the middle of the month. So you’ll probably see this the first week of March. I’ll be sure to have the rest typed up for the month and for months to come!

Hope you enjoyed this read!

I'll be placing these where my weekly updates go until I schedule more content.

DJ/Nar/Cho

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