Concepcion, Grace Liza Y. 2023. “Indigenous Landowners in the 17th-century Philippines.” In 1521 Revisited: The Quincentennial Commemorations in the Philippines, volume III, 184-200. Manila: National Historical Commission of the Philippines.
Abstract
This paper seeks to examine notions of indigenous land ownership through notarial records of land sales and claims in the Philippines in the 16th and 17th centuries. These records include the procedure by which natives proved the ownership of lands they were selling and their reasons for the sale. Before land could be sold or alienated, a probe on ownership was done to ensure that the rightful owners were making the sale or the land being claimed was not owned by anybody. In the absence of land titles, witnesses, other natives from the same town or neighboring areas, were invited to provide their testimony about the owner of the land and how it was used. Ideas of land use and ownership that the natives practiced presumably before the advent of colonialism can be drawn from these records. The paper will give tentative conclusions about land ownership by native Tagalogs in the early colonial era in the process of transitioning into a colonial society.
Keywords: Land ownership, 17th century, land dispute, land sale, Philippines
