Notes on Precolonial Philippine Historiography and Terminology: Political Organization

Some would say that applying the words "king" or "kingdom" to precolonial Philippine polities is inaccurate since doing so is "Eurocentric" - so-called "kings" were absolute rulers in their domains, while precolonial Philippine lakans/datus/rajahs were more paramount rulers than monarchs. Even more so, any foreign terms would be regarded as colonial appropriations of Philippine history.

This is patently false when put into the wider context of European history. Kings and monarchies in pre-absolutist continental Europe acted as firsts among equals - completely equivalent with so-called "paramount rulers" among confederations and polities in precolonial Philippines. Kings and other monarchs ruled their own domains separate from other rulers in the kingdom, and only in times of war did the king ever assert his prime position. This is similar to how many precolonial Philippine polities worked - with the biggest exception being the caste systems widely adopted.

Except for certain tribes like the Kapampangans, strict caste systems held in place, with little social mobility. Warriors, rulers, and so on didn't work or labor. Laborers, workers, farmers, and so on only occasionally joined battles. In Pampanga, however, nobility and freemen alike worked for their own needs, traded in marketplaces, and formed warbands to fight abroad. Instead of rigid castes, what formed were broad estates of society similar to pre-absolutist (medieval) Europe - the only difference being the lack of a priestly estate. The two "estates" of noblemen and freemen - with serfs/"ipus" being accessory to them - differed only in that the former has rights, duties, and privileges of judgement, leadership, and legislation. Any nobleman who abused his power, however, was liable to a council formed by other nobles on request of the freemen.

Similarly, pre-absolutist European estates were broad divisions of society, similar to a sherry cake more than a sandwich. Those who worked fought as mercenaries and prayed as tertiaries and oblates. Those who fought would work their fields and enterprises and prayed for their land's safety. Those who prayed fought in Crusades and worked in hospitals, banks, and even their own fields (Susan Reynolds has written at length on this topic - read "Fiefs and Vassals" and "Kingdoms and Communities in Western Europe 900-1300").

Such is one reason why Pampanga and Spain cooperated more than most tribes in the country - Kapampangan precolonial institutions resembled those of pre-absolutist Europe more than Indianized castes in other precolonial areas. Pampanga truly was Aristotle's ideal practical regime - a mixed constitution of Oligarchy and Democracy forming a Politeia.