Cultural Impact
The Spaniards had observed the natives' lifestyle and disagreed with it wholeheartedly. They saw the influence of the Devil and felt the need to "liberate the natives from their evil ways". Over time, geographical limitations have shifted the natives into what are called barangays, which are small kinship units consisting of about 30 to 100 families.
Each barangay had a mutable class system, with any sub-classes varying from one barangay to the next. The patriarchal chieftains were called datus, while the mahárlika were the nobility and the timawa were freedmen. The alipin or servile class were dependent, an arrangement misconstrued as slavery by the Spaniards. Intermarriage between the timawa and the alipin was permitted, which created a more complex, but flexible system of land privileges and labor services. The Spaniards attempted to suppress this class system with their reason being that the dependent class were an oppressed group. Although they failed at completely abolishing the system, they instead worked to use it to their own advantage.
Religion and marriage were also issues that the missionaries of Spain wanted to transform. Polygamy was not uncommon, but only wealthy chieftains had this privilege. Divorce and remarriage were also common as long as reasons were justified. Illness, infertility, or a finding better potential to take as a spouse was justified reasons for divorce. Along with those practices, missionaries also disagreed with the practices of paying dowries, and payment of "bride price" and "bride-service," in which the groom paid his future father-in-law gold or offered labor services before the marriage. Missionaries had disapproved of these because they felt bride-price was an act of selling one's daughter and labor services in the household of the father allowed for premarital relations between bride and groom, which contradicted Christian beliefs.
Pre-conquest religion of the natives consisted of monotheistic and polytheistic cults. Bathala (Tagalog – central Luzon) or Laon (Bisayan – central islands) was the ultimate creator above other inferior gods and goddesses. Natives also worshiped nature and prayed to the spirits of their ancestors to whom they also made sacrifices. Mostly men practiced ritualistic drinking and many rituals performed aimed at cure for a certain illness. Magic and superstition also existed among the natives. The Spaniards claimed to liberate the natives from their wicked practices and show them the right path to God.
In 1599, negotiation began between a number of chieftains and their freemen and the Spaniards. The natives agreed to submit to the rule of a Castilian king and in return, the natives were indoctrinated into Christianity and were protected from their enemies, mostly Japanese, Chinese, and Muslim pirates. However, the missionaries continued to face many difficulties in Christianizing the region.
Read more about this topic: Roman Catholicism In The Philippines, History, Spanish Era (1521-1898)
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