PRIMITIVE WEAPONS AND ARMOR OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 7 



in part representing the more generalized types of design and orna- 

 mentation representative of entire areas and culture types within the 

 Philippine Archipelago, and in part inclusive of Bornean, Celebes, 

 and Javanese types. 



Ohjectives. — The primarj^ objective of this handbook to the armor 

 and weapons from the Philippine Islands now in the United States 

 National Museum is to describe various weapon types that have 

 preserved in metal, wood, horn, and bone traces of the material cul- 

 ture of the several waves of civilization that have readied the Philip- 

 pines in the past. Tribal groups and nationalities manifest in their 

 weapon production and types of body armor and shields a nearness 

 to or a remoteness from foreign culture influences. 



No one grouj) of the Filipino people has retained exclusively any 

 one type of civilization or material culture, but has incorporated 

 elements that survived from a primitive Indonesian culture stratum 

 or which Avere introduced by the Malays from western Malaysia. 

 Other tribes in the Philippines have noticeably borrowed from the 

 Negrito, tlie primitive aboriginal ethnic stock. Thus, the Bagobo, 

 a non-Mohammedan Malay tribe of central Mindanao, employ the 

 bow and arrow, which is a characteristic Negrito weapon, while 

 the Batak of Palawan, a Malay-Negrito tribal group, have devel- 

 oped the use of the blowgun, a typical Malay weapon, and the Ne- 

 gritos of the Zambales Mountains and of the Luzon east coast use 

 the Malay shield. Wherever a Filipino group employs the fine iron 

 and steel blades that have come to be recognized as characteristic of 

 the craftsmanship of the Mohammedanized Moros, the decorative de- 

 sign on blade and the blade form are invariably of Hindu or Arabic 

 design. Firearms such as the brass cannon " lantacas " which were 

 in use by the Moros at the time of the earliest Spanish explorations 

 in the Philippines had their origin in the far-off western world; 

 knowledge of their production having been spread by civilization 

 emanating from India and Arabia. The Tagalog and other Chris- 

 tianized Filipino nationalities of Luzon and the Visayan islands 

 employ hand weapons for cutting and slashing which show Spanish 

 influence in design especially of scabbard, grip, and guard. The so- 

 called wild tribes of the northern interior of Luzon, although be- 

 longing to the earlier primitive Indonesian ethnic stock physically, 

 have accepted the iron culture of the later Malay immigrant though 

 retaining their primitive warlike customs of ceremonial head-hunt- 

 ing and guerrilla warfare. 



The second objective of this catalogue of Philippine weapons of 

 offense and defense is to describe the typical originality of form, 

 the skill displayed in weapon manufacture, and the beauty of orna- 

 mental weapon patterns produced in the islands but characteristic 



