Home is Where the Filipino is

What, another cousin? "An American exclaims in mock exasperation as he is introduced to a cousin of a cousin of his Filipino fiancee. "Everybody in the Philippines is related," a Filipino friend tries to come to the rescue. "Oh yes?" the American says, not quite believing or understanding the Filipino family tree.

Poor American. He will never see the tree for the forest. For the tangled growth of relationships that bind Filipino familial society together is a dense forest indeed.

Let's see if we can find our way through this primeval landscape.

Archaeological evidence recovered from all over the Philippines attest, to there being viable settlements here as early as 5,000 BC. At the time of Spanish conquest in the 16th century, Philippine society was made up of fully functioning communities called barangay. They got their name from the vessel of the sea-faring Malays, who migrated to the Philippines in several waves and in kin-groups, together with slaves and household help, and implanted their colonies on the deltas and banks of river networks.

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