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Wilhelm Solheim

Wilhelm Solheim II was an American anthropologist known to many as the most senior
archaeologist in Southeast Asia and a pioneer in the field of prehistoric
archaeology in the Philippines. He is also known for having created the theory of
the existence of the Nusantao Maritime Trading and Communication Network.

Achievements

Solheim is responsible for establishing the journal Asian Perspectives in 1957,

which was published by the University of Hawaii Press. The journal became one of
the most valuable and respected of its kind, providing researchers and academics
from around the world with a reputable source of information and discussion about
Southeast Asian studies.

In 1997, following his retirement, Solheim joined the Archaeological Studies

Program at the University of the Philippines. He decided to ship his entire
academic book collection to the department, providing students in the new
Archaeological Studies Program with a plethora of notable publications to sift
through.

He went on to found a research station at the site of Ille Rockshelter and Cave in
north Palawan, even building a permanent residence nearby to reduce his ‘commute’.
In 2003, the Solheim Foundation was established to keep this and other
archaeological projects going across the Philippines.

Contributions/Theories

One of Solheim's most important contributions to the field was his proposal for a
new chronological framework for the time periods in Southeast Asia. These included
the Lithic Stage, the Lignic Period, the Crystallic Period, the Estensionistic
Period, and the Period of Conflicting Empires.

Nusantao Maritime Trading and Communication Network

In a hypothesis developed by Wilhelm Solheim, the Nusantao Maritime Trading and
Communication Network (NMTCN) is a trade and communication network that first
appeared in the Asia-Pacific region during its Neolithic age, or beginning roughly
around 5000 BC. Nusantao is an artificial term coined by Solheim, derived from the
Austronesian root words nusa "south" and tao "man, people".Solheim's theory is an
alternative hypothesis to the spread of the Austronesian language family in
Southeast Asia. It contrasts the more widely accepted Out-of-Taiwan hypothesis
(OOT) by Peter Bellwood.
Solheim emphasizes the cultural aspects of the Southeast Asian people,
Solheim first suggested the concept in 1964. The NMTCN attempts to explain the
diffusion of cultural traits throughout the Asia-Pacific region, a pattern that
does not seem to match the projections of cultural spread by simple migration
theories. Today, it is one of the dominant theories for the early peopling of the
Southeast Asian region.

Solheim suggests that "elements of culture were spread by migrations, then the
spread would have been primarily in one direction." He suggests that since the
pattern of cultural diffusion in the Asia-Pacific region is spread in all
directions, it is likely that the spread of cultural traits happened via some kind
of trading network, rather than a series of migrations.

In Solheim's hypothesis, the people who constituted this trading network are
referred to as "the Nusantao".
In Solheim's hypothesis,
"I now define Nusantao as natives of Southeast Asia, and their descendants, with a
maritime-oriented culture from their beginnings, these beginnings probably in
southeastern Island Southeast Asia around 5000 BC or possibly earlier. Most of the
Nusantao probably spoke a related or pre-Austronesian language, but there were
likely some who spoke a non-Austronesian language as well... I did not consider
non-maritime Austronesian-speakers as Nusantao."
According to a review of Solheim's book Archaeology and Culture in Southeast Asia:
Unraveling the Nusantao, Solheim believed the categorization of 'Nusantao' is
outdated and does not accurately represent the entirety of the culture; later
calling them '"Austronesian" as their identified language.

Peter bellwood
Peter Stafford Bellwood (born Leicester, England, 1943) is Emeritus Professor of
Archaeology in the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Australian
National University (ANU) in Canberra.

Achievements

Archaeologist Peter Bellwood's research explored how farming spread around the
globe, the formation of Polynesian culture, and human adaptation to island
environments.

In winning the 2021 International Cosmos Prize he joins an illustrious group of

recipients which includes Sir David Attenborough and Dr. Jane Goodall.

Emeritus Professor Bellwood is also the first Australian to be awarded the prize in
its 28-year history.

Theory

The Austronesian Expansion Theory (also known as the Austronesian Migration Theory)
suggests that the growth of the population of the Philippines is a result of a
group of people from Asia known as the Austronesians.

The Austronesians are Austronesian-speaking people who have been found to populate
areas in Southeast Asia, Oceania and East Africa. These include Taiwanese
aborigines and the majority of people on smaller islands such as Micronesia and
Melanesia. There are various theories that explain their spread across the world,
including the Out of Taiwan model, but the Austronesian Expansion Theory builds on
this to specifically attempt to explain the populating of the Philippines.

According to the theory proposed by Peter Bellwood, Professor of Archaeology and

Anthropology at the Australian National University, the Austronesians traveled into
the Pacific 6,000 years ago from the Chinese mainland. First, they reached areas in
and around China, which they managed to populate by 3,500 BC. After this, they
began to travel further, and it was just 500 years later that they managed to reach
the Philippines.

Of course, they didn’t stop there. After the Philippines had been reached, many
Austronesians continued their travels, reaching Sumatra and Java by 2,000 BC,
Northern New Guinea by 1,600 BC, Samoa by 1,200 BC, and Easter Island, Hawaii and
Madagascar by 500 AD. However, the initial settlers left to establish themselves in
the Philippines were, according to Bellwood, the first permanent residents of the
archipelago and the foundation of the population that thrives there today.
According to Bellwood, this theory not only explains how people came to settle in
the Philippines but also why there are so many similarities in terms of culture,
physical features, and language between so many distant countries.

Cultural similarities between the groups, for example, include the art styles and
rituals they seemed to demonstrate, as well as some of the traditions they adopted,
such as tattooing.

Language was a little more complex, with the two main branches of Austronesian
languages (Malayo-Polynesian and Formosan) being split up into more than 500
further sub-branches. However, the fact that cultures as far removed in terms of
distance as the Philippines and Madagascar shared elements of these languages does
work in favour of Bellwood’s theory.

Today, there are 87 Austronesian languages still spoken in the Philippines,

providing support for both Bellwood’s theory and the more general Out of Taiwan
theory.

Out of Taiwan theory

The “Out of Taiwan” model is a migration theory put forward by archaeologist Peter
Bellwood that suggests the Philippines was populated as a result of the migration
of people of Austronesian ancestry.

Austronesian people (or Austronesian-speaking people) are a group of people across

Southeast Asia, East Africa and the Pacific who speak Austronesian languages.
According to the “Out of Taiwan” model, ancestors of these people originated on the
island of Taiwan following the migration of pre-Austronesian-speaking people from
continental Asia between 10,000 - 6,000 BC.

The migration to Taiwan purportedly took place during the Neolithic period, began
in around 6,500 BCE and continued until around 3,500 BC. According to the “Out of
Taiwan” model, it was after this point that the large-scale growth of the
Austronesian-speaking people
The model suggests that in around 3,000 BCE, Austronesian-speaking people began to
experience significant population growth, which continued for more than 1,000
years. This is thought to have led to increase migration, with some of the first
settlers believed to have landed in and around Luzon in the Philippines.

Austronesian people began to mingle and intertwine with Australo-Melanesian people,

who are thought to have inhabited the islands around 23,000 years earlier. Over the
next 1,000 years, they slowly spread to the rest of the Philippines and continued
to migrate further, to areas including Borneo, Polynesia, Madagascar, New Zealand
and Easter Island.

The theory is heavily based on findings that suggest people of Austronesian origin
have been found in all of these locations, as has evidence of Austronesian
languages and culture.

Felipe landa Jocano

Felipe Landa Jocano was a Filipino anthropologist, educator, and author known for
his significant body of work within the field of Philippine Anthropology, and in
particular for documenting and translating the Hinilawod, a Western Visayan folk
epic.

Achievements

Dr. Jocano obtained his PhD in Social Anthropology at the University of Chicago in
1963. As one of the Philippines' foremost anthropologists, he played a significant
role in developing and deepening the understanding of Philippine society, culture,
and prehistory.
Apart from articles that appeared in academic journals, including the Asian
Center's Asian Studies, Dr. Jocano authored numerous books, including:

Filipino Prehistory: Rediscovering Precolonial Heritage

Filipino Social Organization: Traditional Kinship and Family Organization
Filipino Indigenous Ethnic Communities: Patterns, Variations, and Typologies
Filipino Worldview: Ethnography of Local Knowledge
Growing up in a Philippine Barrio
Sulod Society: A Study in the Kinship System and Social Organization of a Mountain
People of Central Panay
Slum as a Way of Life

Dr. Jocano was Dean and Professor of Anthropology of the Institute of Philippine
Studies at the Philippine Center for Advanced Studies (PCAS, now the Asian Center)
at the University of the Philippines. He also served as senior anthropologist at
the National Museum and headed the Asian Center museum, which acquired a large part
of its collection under his guidance and leadership. Dr. Jocano was also chairman
of the Department of Anthropology at the College of Arts and Sciences at the
University of the Philippines.

Professor Jocano received several awards for his achievements, including a National
Science Award and Republic Cultural Heritage Award. He was inducted into the
Philippine Legion of Honor in 2007 and given a rank of Grand Officer.
His laudable achievements did not go unnoticed. He received numerous awards from
various sectors of society and these include among others the Ten Outstanding Young
Men (TOYM) award in 1965, the 1971 Cultural Heritage Award, given by the Philippine
Government and the National Science Special Award of Merit in 1974, given by the
National Science Development Board (NSDB).

In 1988 he received the most distinguished 12 Top Scientists of the Philippines

Award from the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP). He was given
the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006 by the National Museum and the University
of the Philippines (UP) Archaeological Studies Program and conferred by the
Philippine government in 2007 the Membership into The Philippine Legion of Honor
with the rank of Maringal na Pinuno (Grand Officer)

Contributions/Theories

Jocano was one of the first scholars to suggest alternatives to H. Otley Beyer's
Wave Migration Theory of migration to the Philippines. His Core Population Theory
proposed that there weren't clear discrete waves of migration, but a long process
of cultural evolution and movement of people.

Core Population Theory

World renowned Filipino anthropologist Felipe Landa Jocano was one of the first
scholars dispute Beyer’s Wave Migration Theory, suggesting instead an alternative
based on evolution known as the Core Population Theory.

Also known as the Evolution Theory, Jocano's theory proposed that there weren’t
actually particularly clear or distinct ‘waves’ of migration taking place in the
Philippines. Instead, he suggested that there was a long and continuous process of
evolution and movement of early humans. This would mean that the earliest humans in
Southeast Asia were once very similar in terms of culture and ethnicity but slowly
began to split - differentiating themselves until they developed into independent
groups.

According to Jocano, it’s likely that two of the main groups that acted as the
foundation for this development were the Negritos and the Malays, who are thought
to have migrated to the archipelago many thousands of years ago. Of course, this
suggestion poses questions of its own as permanent presence of both the Negritos
and Malays as one of the first inhabitants of the Philippines is disputed.

However, it is possible that their ancestors could have been the first permanent
inhabitants of the Philippines. Evidence of this was discovered in the Tabon Caves
in Palawan in 1962, then archaeologists Robert Fox and Manuel Santiago found the
skullcap of the Tabon Man.
Dated to between 21,000 and 22,000 years ago, Tabon Man proves - according to
Jocano - that man came earlier to the Philippines than to the Malay Peninsula, so
the first inhabitants of the Philippines could not have been from the region.
However, he did have many similarities to Java Man and Peking Man, which were
discovered in Indonesia and China, respectively, and were found to be between
200,000 and 1,000,000 years old.

According to Jocano, this suggests that the Evolution Theory is an accurate theory
of how to explain how humans came to inhabit the Philippines. The similarities
shared between the different fossils - in spite of many years that lay between them
- provide support for this, demonstrating that humans probably did come from a
small number of foundation groups and then developed through migration and
evolution. Meanwhile, the maintained similar types of culture and even similar
practices in terms of tools.

Jocano suggests these people then went on the separate more permanently, settling
in areas such as Java, New Guinea, Borneo and the Philippines, but still ultimately
descending from the same migrating populations

Robert Fox
Robert Bradford Fox was an anthropologist and leading historian on pre-Hispanic
Philippines. In 1958, Fox led a National Museum team in conducting extensive
excavations on two sites at Calatagan, Batangas, in what may be considered the
first systematic excavation involving the National Museum in the country.

Achievements
With colleagues at the National Museum of the Philippines, Fox excavated the Tabon
caves in Palawan, which led to the discovery of the late Pleistocene human fossil
remains and associated stone implements

Contributions
Fox was for many years the Chief Anthropologist of the Philippine National Museum.
Besides his service with the National Museum, Dr. Fox taught at the University of
the Philippines and served as Presidential Assistant for National Minorities and
Presidential Adviser on Anthropology under then President Ferdinand E. Marcos.

For some four years and eight months, Fox conducted field research among numerous
folk and mountain peoples in the Philippines. He spent more than six years of cave
and open-site archaeology in Albay, Batangas, Palawan, Pampanga, Sorsogon, and
numerous brief periods of explorations in other areas. With colleagues at the
National Museum of the Philippines, Fox excavated the Tabon caves in Palawan, which
led to the discovery of the late Pleistocene human fossil remains and associated
stone implements. The fossil finds which represented more than just one individual
and better known as the “Tabon Man,” include a skull cap, jaw bones, teeth and
several other fragmented bones. Their age has been determined using Radiometric
dating, giving dates between 16500 ± 2000 B.P. for the skull cap and 48000 ± 11-
10000 B.P. for the tibia fragment.

Fox’s major publications include, “The Pinatubo Negritos : Their Useful Plants and
Material Culture,” The Philippine Journal of Science (1951); “Religion and Society
Among the Tagbanuwa of Palawan Island, Philippines,” (1954); and “The Tabon Caves :
Archaeological Excavations on Palawan Island, Philippines (1962-65),” Philippine
Journal of Science

Theory

The Tabon Caves of Palawan

The earliest evidence of man, himself, in the Philippines: which is also the
earliest appearance of modern man – Homo sapiens sapiens – in these islands, is
that of the Tabon Man of Palawan. The discovery of the human fossil was made by a
National Museum team headed by the late Dr. Robert B. Fox. The fossil is composed
of the skull cap, or the frontal skull bone, two fragments of jaw bones and some
teeth. The set of fossils suggest that are at least three individuals. The skull
cap is that of a young individual, probably female.

The fossils were found in a cave in Lipuun Point in the municipality of Quezon,
Palawan. The cave faces the South China Sea and is located on the western face of
the limestone cliff, one among the more than thirty caves found in that rock
outcropping. The cave was named Tabon after the large-footed bird that lays eggs in
huge holes it digs into cave floors, many of which have been found in the cave. The
mouth is about 33 meters above the sea level. A curious fact is that there is no
signs of any sea shells in the cave floor deposits. This is because during that
time of occupation by Tabon Man the sea coast was about thirty kilometers away
since the sea did not reach its present level until about eleven to seven thousand
years ago. The layer where the fossils of the Tabon Man was found has been dated to
22 to 23 thousand years old, which also gives the age of the fossils.

The Tabon Cave, in fact, was populated by peoples earlier than Tabon Man, since
stone tools were there again to prove this. The deepest soil deposit of the cave
was dated to aprroximately 50,000 years old, and the youngest to about 10,000
years. This shows that the cave was used continuously for about 40,000 years by
peoples that used the same kind of tools. The earliest carbon 14 date obtained for
the Tabon Cave was about 30,000 years B.C. from charcoal sample, which among others
suggest the earliest date for the use of the fire in the Philippines. The way the
tools were made was exactly the same as those found in the Cagayan Valley about
700,000 years earlier: the smaller flake tools and the larger pebble-cobble tools.
There was however, one difference. In Cagayan Valley, there were more of the large
kinds of stone tools. In the Tabon Cave, there was less than one percent of the
pebble-cobble tools compared to the flake tools. This has been taken to mean that
the larger number of large stone tools in Cagayan was due to the different needs in
that place as compared to Palawan. In the Tabon Caves, the archeological remains
tend to show the early peoples here were catching more of small animals, bats and
birds that live in the cave itself, hence there was less need for larger kinds of
tools.

The type of tools found in the Tabon Cave actually continued to be in use in other
sites in the Lipuun Point even after Tabon Cave was abandoned. In fact, this type
of tools continued to be in use even to recent times among certain peoples. There
are a number of archeological sites in the Philippines that have this kind of tools
together with tools of later kind. In Lipuun Point, one of the more important of
these sites is the Guri Cave. This cave was a place where people lived. This cave
contained a layer of soil that contained the garbage left by the people which was
composed mostly of marine shells. This layer was dated between 5000 and 2000 years
B.C., and was found to contain flake tools, bones of animals like the wild pig,
deer and others. This cave was used by people at the time when the sea reached its
present level which brought the coastline right at Lipuun Point.

Another difference with Tabon Cave was that the stone tools from Guri were made
from rock cores that have been previously prepared before flaking off an intended
tool, which produced stone tools with shapes that are repeated – a method that
cannot be done with cores that were not prepared.