Peopling Theories of the Philippines

Humans are well-known for their vast imagination and curiosity. It is where most of inventions, concepts, laws, theories, etc. that men have today came from. These inventions, concepts, etc. are not purely on science and math but also deals with the period before written accounts called Prehistory.

The Prehistory of the Philippines is one of the most debated topics of historians now a day. Many theories are being studied. However, there is still no fully proven theory regarding the topic. Some of the theories are: the Austronesian Diffusion Theory, Island Origin Hypothesis, Local Origin Theory and Tabon Man.

The Austronesian Diffusion Theory, or also known as the Mainland Origin Hypothesis, is an archipelago theory contributed by Peter Bellwood. This theory states that Austronesian migrants of the Philippines 23,000 years ago originally came from Taiwan. That is why it is also called Out-Of-Taiwan theory. Before Taiwan, they were living in mainland China but, due to some occurrences, which researchers said would most probably be agricultural developments, they started migrating to Taiwan. There, they either formed or merely developed their culture and language and began to group themselves based on their formed cultures. Then, by around 2500 to 1500 B.C. due to population growth, one of the groups journeyed southwards and landed in northern region of Luzon in the Philippines. After several years, they further migrated towards the rest of the country and its southern neighbors like Indonesia and Borneo. Again, after several years, some of them migrated to the west and east reaching as far as Madagascar on the west and Hawaii, Easter Island and New Zealand on the east. This theory is still being studied because it is mostly based on linguistic and only partially to archaeological affirmations.

Another theory is the Island Origin Hypothesis, or most commonly referred as the Nusantao Maritime Trading and Communication Network (NMTCN) is made by Wilhelm Solheim....