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 ery
likely, man’s earliest shelter was not built by him.
He simply found it – or found himself in it. It was
nature herself who fashioned hollows on cliffs and
mountain sides that offered protection from heat, rain
and wind. In Angono, Rizal evidence of ancient cave
dwellers exists in carved figures on cave walls, the
earliest known Philippine mural. The Tabon Cave in
Palawan is considered to have sheltered the earliest men
of the Philippines.
Meanwhile, the food gatherer, the fisherman, or
the hunter, who moved from one place to another in his
search for food and game, needed a shelter that was
portable. Thus, he fashioned the lean-to from a frame
made of tree branches and twigs, using leaves and fronds
for sidings. A screen resting on the ground and help up
at an angle by one or several poles, the lean-to is both
roof and wall, protecting dwellers from rain the heat of
the sun.
The floor can be the ground itself, or a bed of
leaves, or a platform slightly above the ground. The
lean-to is light enough to be carried to another site.
However, the dweller can simply abandon it and build
another. A pair of lean-tos can be joined together to
form a tent-like shelter, or a double-slope roof, which,
in effect, is the beginning of a house.
Swidden-farming or kaingin led to a
relatively settled life. After making a clearing in the
forest, the swidden farmer could cultivate it for two
years, let it lie fallow, the return to it a few years
later. Although dwellings became larger and were better
built, they were neither permanent nor durable because
sometimes, the kaingin farmer had to move on.
With the development of wet-rice culture, farmers
became rooted to the land. Though hints of the kaingin
lifestyle persisted in the makeshift character of
various dwellings, houses were built to last. The
Mangyan of Mindoro, who are swidden-farmers, have two
types of houses – the single-family dwelling and the
communal house. Although the communal house is occupied
by several families, its interior is not divided by
partitions. The area for each family is defined by a mat
on the floor.
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