Ancient people in Palawan may have collected tiger bones because they believed the animal possessed special powers, according to a new archaeological study.
Researchers from the University of the Philippines Diliman, the National Museum of the Philippines and the Indigenous Pala’wan community found rare tiger remains in Pilandok Cave in Quezon, Palawan.
The tiger remains date back to about 22,000 to 20,000 years ago, during the Last Glacial Maximum, a period when Palawan’s environment and forests were significantly different from today.
The discovery confirms that tigers once naturally lived on Palawan Island, making it the only known location in the Philippines where Pleistocene-age tiger fossils have been found.
The National Museum of the Philippines said the discovery also provides evidence that ancient people may have viewed tiger body parts as objects with special power.
“The procurement of tiger parts suggests a distinct perception of the tiger, or harimau, as possessing qualities valuable to humans,” the researchers said.
The tiger remains found in Pilandok Cave were unusual because they consisted only of foot bones. Some of the bones also had cut marks that may have been caused by skinning or removing the tiger’s paws.
Unlike deer and freshwater mollusks found at the site, which provided evidence of ancient food gathering, the selective collection of tiger foot parts suggested a different purpose.
The researchers said the tiger parts may have been used as powerful objects—something that can be likened to the idea of an “anting-anting” in Filipino culture.
The study said these beliefs may have been connected to animistic ideas about power and personhood, with the tiger possibly regarded as a being capable of influencing the social world of ancient humans.
“The research suggests that the use of tiger body parts may have been related to specific forms of power,” the National Museum said.
The study linked these possible beliefs to concepts involving power and efficacy, skill, knowledge, expertise and the ability to make or cause something to happen.
The practice of collecting tiger foot parts at Pilandok Cave 20,000 years ago is considered the oldest known record of its kind in Southeast Asia.
The archaeological site and surrounding areas are within the ancestral domain of the Indigenous Pala’wan of Maasin.
The study, “Halimaw na/nang nakalipas: Power, Personhood, and the Tigers of Palawan Island, Philippines,” was led by Dr. Janine Ochoa of the UP School of Archaeology. It was co-authored by National Museum archaeologists Dr. Alexandra De Leon and Dr. Ame Garong, as well as Gaddi Narte of the Indigenous Pala’wan leadership council.
The research was published in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal.
