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.
--
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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This will send me an email with your questions you don’t have to leave a name. I will post the answer to the blog!
This is mainly for communication so go ahead, add me. Message me every once in a while so that I remember who you are. Otherwise, I'll delete you at the end of the year when I clear through my facebook lol.
I follow anyone who follows me! This is mainly pictures of where I go!
Wattpad
If I don’t write a post here there’s probably a chance that I have written something on my Wattpad because there I post poems! They are shorter reads with more meaning. I am currently working on two poetry books but the more important one that ties into this travel blog is called ‘A Barrier Meant To Be Broken’.
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