Prehistoric Philippines: Looking Back 6

Looking Back #6

by Ambeth R. Ocampo

This compilation of essays strays from my 19th century comfort zone. In this book we go back to a time before written records, to a time before history. It is a reminder of Manuel’s challenging remark: “where History ends, Anthropology begins.” ---From the Introduction

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Essays

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Lamberto R. Ocampo better known as Ambeth R. Ocampo (b. 1961) is Filipino historian, academic, journalist, cultural administrator and author best known for his writings about Philippines' national hero José Rizal, and for his bi-weekly editorial page column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, "Looking Back." He became the Chairman of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines in 2002 until 2010, and was appointed as Chairman of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts in 2005 until 2007.

Reviews

[K.D. Absolutely · Rating 3 out of 5]

If there is one thing that this book has proven, it is the fact that Spain should not claim to be the one that civilized the Philippines. Or that America was the one who cuddled and nourished us Filipinos through their benevolent assimilation. Like any foreign conquerors, all they were looking for was anything to their advantage particularly on how to plunder the country's natural resources.

Philippines has been civilized since the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. to 220 A.D.). The finding of jars and plates buried inside the Philippine soil was proof enough that there was commerce in the Philippines during this dynasty's Silk Road. The skull of an early man with golden teeth, for me, is proof enough that we Filipinos were not like monkeys when the Spaniards and Americans came that they taught us how to handle chopsticks or spoon and fork to eat.

I liked this last (so far) book in the Looking Back series. It is thin and bitin (wanting) but it has more new information than the earlier five. It also made me sad because the excavated treasures and fossils are mostly missing because of people's greed and insensitivity. Anyone who steals historical items or manuscripts should be hanged in public. Why? Because these thieves are stealing people's history. Our history defines who we are as a nation and it is part of our soul. We learn from them. History is our compass in the future and what is a nation without a future?

Thank you, Ambeth Ocampo for writing all these six wonderful small books. May your tribe increase, sir.

[Cristobal Peña · Rating 1 out of 5]

What purpose does the looking back book series serve? I thought it was supposed to be an entry into Filipino history by one of the most renowned Filipino historians out there.
Then you can imagine my shock when on page 5 there was an error that maybe some student would make.

Looking back volume 6 serves as an example of everything wrong with the series. The title is "Prehistoric Philippines" so you would guess that it would be about well "Prehistoric Philippines", well to my surprise only 11 out of the 20 chapters talk about the prehistoric Philippines to any extent (some of them are just tangentially related to the topic).
How could this be? Didn't anyone check? Couldn't they just delay the release of a new volume until there were more chapters related to the "topic" of the book? This would be easy to forgive if the author had provided some great, well-researched, original articles that could serve as a pathway so that people could then proceed to research the things they are interested in or get more people reading, the thing is that don't bridge any gap between common audiences and the literature relevant to the topic. How can that be you may ask? Well, Ambeth does not provide any citations for any of his claims (coming from Mister what is your source himself in social media!!), Ambeth does not provide any sort of bibliography or further reading for people that may be interested, what Ambeth give is some random name dropping here and there which is rendered meaningless unless you know the authors and what he is referring to, How just HOW can this be considered good introductory material to any topic for a layman? How is exactly Ambeth Ocampo so entertaining when he is constantly repeating the same anecdotes about his life in a less than 100-page book ( you can see for yourself how many times he mentions antique dealers for instance)? Did no one oversee the writing of this book? Did no one care enough to edit it? Does Ambeth not care enough to provide some original research? He certainly did not, will he ever? I highly doubt it.

Ambeth fails at every criterion he supposedly "excels at". So far the 3 books that I have read of him have all been mind-numbingly simple, extremely repetitive, unoriginal, and boring (which should matter as his writing for edutainment).
What purpose does the looking back book series serve? Absolutely none.

[Michael Gerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book makes me recall my visits to the National Museum of the Filipino People. It's in relatively good condition, but it still needs more support from the President, Congress, and the public, instead of wasting money on dole-outs that only encourage laziness, mendicancy, patronage, and corruption.

And more people should make at least one or two visits to the National Museum, and not just because it's part of field trips during primary school. Heck, there should be less temples of crass materialism called shopping malls and more support for educational and cultural institutions like libraries, museums and the like. Culture may not fill an empty stomach or clothe people's bodies, but it stimulates the mind and the soul.

[Axelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read in 3 sittings. This is a collection of his newspaper columns relating to prehistoric Philippines, not a nonfiction book with chapters - but fine I guess bc it was easy to read although eventually redundant. Great pop literature reading to introduce people to prehistoric times, and some important messages on national identity n preservation of heritage. Heavy on musings on archaeological finds (obviously)

[Monzenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the closest to a "book" among the Looking Back series so far. While the articles themselves are enjoyable, this book actually centers all of its chosen articles around one theme. (Probably by accident as all of these were around a certain trip of the author, but it's a great coincidence.) This is probably my recommendation from the series.

[jellybean]

my first ambeth ocampo book! really interesting and definitely learned a lot about prehistoric philippines, which tbh is an often ignored part of our history

[JulienneReads ✧.* ◡̈ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really makes you wonder how rich our culture was even before the spaniards colonized us.

[Joey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book can prove that Nick Joaquin's argument in his book History and Culture that the Philippines still didn't have civilization before the Spanish colonization is false. I'm more convinced after reading Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel that the early peoples had come to the Philippines several times. Interesting! :)

[Ric · Rating 4 out of 5]

To use the word of a colleague, "Ambeth Ocampo is ze bomb."

The author is a historical revisionist who cares for the truth instead of the traditions and emotions attached to them as evident in the "Been there, done that" chapter about the wooden posts of the supposed first mosque in the Philippines. Tradition dictates that they were from 1380 AD but this was actually not yet confirmed by carbon dating.

He also recognizes that not all pre-Spanish traditions should be kept compared to what some ultra-nationalists decrees. For example, the culture of "slave raiding" has survived to present day kidnapping and Ocampo postulates that studying its history can help us provide a basis for the solution. ("Isang Bansa, Isang Diwa?" chapter)

Ocampo often chooses to present many hypothesis as questions instead of putting forth the most probable assumption as a statement which can be misinterpreted as the accepted truth. Thus, after reading this book, I would say that he is a freethinker among historians; not accepting traditions or the "nakagisnan" as the truth.

oOoOoOo

Some negative feedback about the editing of the book:
* It could use a better proofreader who has a better grasp of context and punctuation. Example: The word "attached" was used instead of "attacked" twice. It is easy to mistake the two without context but with context, they are so different.
* The contents could have been organized better. This book seems like a collection of Ocampo's essays and not much thought has been given on how to arrange them in a more cohesive manner.

[Yan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Philippine Prehistory should be given as much importance as Colonial history too. I'm glad I got to know the likes of a lakatuna and why the Manunggul jar should have been kept as a part of the new currency design.

[Katrina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Guy could use a (better) proofreader.

Also, a lot of the essays were 70% pre-ramble, 30% the stuff the essay was supposed to be about. Bitin.

[Cesarcucio_saveearth · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was great.

Rate: 3. Why? It was toooooooo thin, and the price for it was about 20-50 pesos high.

[kb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another Looking Back by Ambeth Ocampo because Philippine history, even in tiny bites, is cool 😎 This book is thinner in both form and content compared to the earlier ones, but but is a decent jump-off to drive this point home: We were civilized long before colonization! We were skilled, we were fierce, we had systems in place. It's just a little sad that we know little about our roots, and hope that we explore and preserve more of our artifacts.





Everything I read in 2020 here :)

[Ralph Marion Victa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. Includes some but not the latest of archaeological discoveries. The books refers to secondary sources. For popular audience.

[Phil Dela Cruz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Appetizing but not fully satisfying. Would love to read more detailed accounts of the pre-historic material culture.

[Galatea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reject modernity return to monke

[Paransis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Where history ends, anthropology begins.
- E. Arsenio Manuel

This book made me more hungry to learn more about the Philippines's further past.

[Amelie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"In pre-spanish times we were a people who lived on and by water, our lives were not hampered by the lack of wheel , the lack of roads and bridges. Many people who describe Philippines as an archipelago separated by water should look further back to a time when we were a people connected by, rather than separated by water."

Back then thousands of years ago before the Spanish came, we were artisans, master craftsmen, and we were skilled, ferocious warriors. Our society had a structure: We had our own system of government, laws, religion and beliefs; We had our own system of writing; We'd traded with our neighbors.

In other words, we were "indio-geniuses."

I didn't know there are so much we don't know about our history before the Spanish came. I used to envy other countries for their rich history and culture. But I was merely an ignorant student of my own nation's history. It is not that we lack history, we simply haven't figured out many things yet.

The next time I visit our National Museum, I could look at our treasures with keener interest.

[Eric Elegado · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love history. I love Philippine history further. While I may not very fond of pre-Spanish Philippines, this book just presented to me a whole new perspective to appreciate the country's origin without its Western influence. I was surprised to learn about the surrounding evidences of how much culture and civilization we had even before Ferdinand Magellan sat foot in the 16th century. Also, it made me sad that we know very little of such period. That was our golden age right there, and got small tangibles to take us back to that period. Thank you Sir Ambet Ocampo for the hours of labor for this research. And may this be a challenge to historians, especially from the Philippines, to take this quest in understanding more about the Islands. There's more to dig out there, just waiting to be found.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Prof. Ocampo's way of telling history like he's just conversing with the reader in the most casual way possible. I also like how this book presents more questions--as what he said about continuing to ask and learn even if we think we know the subject already. Prof. Ocampo makes history relatable to people from all walks of life, and his articles spark interest in Philippine prehistory. I certainly enjoyed this book, though I wish it wasn't so short and bitin!

[Ryan Santos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Where History ends Archeology begins

It is quite sad that some or maybe most artifacts of our pre-colonial past were devoid of context, which fails to give a much clearer view of how vibrant and diverse our culture was even before the Spaniards arrived. Still, the quest of uncovering our past remains and I hope that in the near future we can learn more about the Prehistoric Philippines.

[Robbie G · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too short for something so huge. Looks like it came out just for the sake having something to publish.
Admittedly not ARO's bread and butter, still, I was expecting more Pre-colonial material from him. The amount of what he gave out here was like something from a hobbyist, not a renowned historian like he is.

[Alyssa Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the reason I love history is because the fact that we could able to grasp and experience the life in the past, even just a fragment of it, because who exactly knows how it feels and how to lived back then? Ambeth Ocampo never failed to make me experience that. Thumbs up!

[Earl · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is always something about pre-historic societies that makes us curious. Thankfully, Ambeth Ocampo already provides us with a starting point.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

good

[Majuchan · Rating 3 out of 5]

“History is more complicated than we think because every historian has his take on the past. Every generation writes its own history.”

“Many people who describe the Philippines today as an archipelago separated by bodies of water should looks further back to a time when we were a people connected by rather then separated by water.”

How are our ancestors living ang their appearance? Fascination about what is going on Philippines way back before colonial era, all those fossils’ untold stories are my motivation why I searched for this certain book.

So little stuff we know what might be an old wonder filled Philippines. We might have much colorful prehistoric stories to tell, maybe even better than the best ever recorded history, alas, we don’t have well kept record…

“Where history ends, anthropology begins.”

Mr. Ocampo gives us peek on our pre-colonial, prehistoric background on our roots. From a very awe-inspiring map to the curiosity inducing boxer codex, and impressive gold works before Spaniards came. Mr Ocampo offers different perspective from what most of us learn from our textbooks. However, this compilations of his articles gave more questions than answers. He poked deeper into my curiousity… What really the Pearl of the Orient was before?

#HistoryEndsAnthropologyBegins
#PeeKBack