Filipino Houses, 1919
The Filipino house is much the same among civilized and uncivilized tribes, and has changed but little since the islands were first visited by Europeans. It is a structure of…
From: Unknown To: 1916 C.E.
“Houses,” from Peoples of the Philippines by Alfred Louis Kroeber, 1919.
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
The Filipino house is much the same among civilized and uncivilized tribes, and has changed but little since the islands were first visited by Europeans. It is a structure of wood or bamboo, with thatched roof, and floor raised above the ground….
There is nothing very distinctive about the Filipino house. Its general type occurs through the forested tropical parts of the earth, at any rate wherever the population does not live clustered in cities. The main requisite is a steep roof to provide a dense shade from the sun and shed the torrential rains. The higher the peak, the better will the roof accomplish the latter purpose, besides drawing up under itself the hottest air in the interior. In a country of palms and luxuriant grasses, thatch is by far the most easily put on material and perhaps the most durable. The only drawback is the danger from fire; but with the building so easily replaced, the risk is felt to be rather toward inmates and property.
The second requisite is a floor that shall be raised above the dampness of the ground and the snakes and vermin that infest its surface. The Filipino floor is always a few feet above the soil, often eight or ten, and sometimes, when houses are set in the forked branches of trees, twenty, forty, or even sixty feet. The latter elevation of course serves no purpose other than protection from human enemies, and is only practicable among rude communities that live in isolated families or scattered local groups.
The tree house is an old institution in the Philippines. It is still considerably used by the Gaddang and Kalinga in Luzon, by the Manobo and Mandaya of Mindanao, and even by some members of one Mohammedan group, the Moros of Lake Lanao, from whom comes the specimen exhibited in the Hall. In spite of its picturesque appeal to the imagination, the tree house cannot be looked upon as being in principle more than a superficial modification of the one generic house type prevalent throughout the Philippines. The Bontok, Kankanai, and Nabaloi are the only non-Negrito people in the Philippines to build directly on the ground.
The floor is most frequently made of bamboos, either split or in the round. For a hearth, a box of earth serves adequately, or a pottery vessel constructed for the purpose. Fire being required only for cooking, a small hearth is sufficient and a chimney unnecessary. Such smoke as there is rises under the thatched eaves. The space under the floor is often more or less enclosed, and during the day serves as a convenient place for the women to pound rice in the wooden mortar, while at night pigs or fowls are often kept there for protection.
Some of the Luzon mountaineers perform sacrifices and hold the long death watch over the corpse beneath their house. If the ground space is not utilized for any of these purposes, it is generally because the posts on which the house rests are set in water or in soil which is periodically covered by the tides.
The least important parts of the house were its walls. Some of the ruder edifices, especially among the Negritos, occasionally lack these, the long gabled roof taking their place. Generally, rather low walls of thatch, bamboo slats, or wooden slabs are added. Windows are more frequent at present than in early times. The entrance is by a ladder of bamboo; in Cagayan, the shin bones of fallen foes were sometimes used as rungs.
A porch or gallery at the level of the elevated floor often runs around the house. This is not customary among the mountain tribes even today, but early Spanish descriptions show it to be a native device. The interior is usually one large room. If compartments are present, they can generally be traced to Spanish influence. People of high rank, especially women, formerly sometimes let down a curtain of mats when they retired for the night.
The entire structure was put together without nails. The Filipino did not know this article; probably if he had known it, iron would have been too valuable to him to employ for a need that could be satisfied by lashings of rattan, or at most a little mortising. Where storms threatened, houses were often anchored to trees or the ground by lines of rattan.
In detail, there are of course innumerable variations of size, proportions, and materials from the general type described. Probably every nationality in the islands built a kind of house distinctive enough to be recognizable by the expert. But these differences are on the whole so superficial as to possess interest only for the specialist.
The large model of a house displayed in the Hall represents an average dwelling of the modern Christian native in the country districts. The uninhabited ground space is so heavily stockaded with bamboo as to give an impression of forming an integral part of the house, whereas in reality the single story is situated above it. The materials, thatching, ladder, verandah, windows, and shutters are representative.
The houses of the wealthy and even of chiefs did not differ from those of common men except for being larger and better built. The increase in size was usually in one direction only. Thus the chief's house, which served for public gatherings and ceremonies as well as for the domicile of the head man's family and retinue, was of nearly the usual breadth, but much longer. Such long houses are described in early sources for the Tagalog and are still used by the Bagobo.
Rice granaries were built in many districts, but in others the harvest was stored in the living house.
Groups of dwellings were often surrounded by stockades, as among the Tinggian. The Moro chiefs sometimes went so far as to build forts of wood or heavy bamboos, but this practice hardly prevailed outside of the Mohammedan regions.
Kroeber, Alfred Louis. Peoples of the Philippines, American Museum Press, 1919.
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