Based on accounts I've read so far, written records about the Philippine Islands only became prevalent after the arrival of the Spanish. Given this, does anyone truly know what the culture was like and how societies ran? It all seems mysterious to me.
Please enlighten me.
DISCLAIMER: I am no historian by any stretch of the imagination. However, having studied in the Philippines my whole life, I do have some knowledge based on what was taught to us in school. Any criticism directed to my knowledge (and source) is welcome.
Even before Magellan landed on the coast of Mactan, precolonial Filipinos were already living in communities called barangays (a corruption of the Malay word balangay meaning "boat"). Each barangay had a chief called the datu and consisted of 30 to 100 families. Families lived in nipa huts (which are locally called bahay kubo).
Precolonial Philippine society had three social classes: the nobles (maharlika), freemen (timawa, the middle class), and slaves (alipin). There were two kinds of slaves: the aliping namamahay (slaves that could own property and lived in their own houses) and the aliping saguiguilid (slaves that lived with their masters).
Precolonial Filipinos were animistic. They worshipped elements of nature, such as rivers, mountains, trees, animals, and the sun. Furthermore, they also worshipped gods, goddesses, and ancestral spirits called anitos, to which sacrifices called maganitos were offered from time to time.
Source:
Zaide, Sonia (1999). The Philippines: A Unique Nation (2nd ed). Quezon City, Philippines: All Nations Publishing.
Follow up: what was religion like before the arival of the spanish in the Philipines?