Various terms have been used to refer to the religious beliefs of the 175 ethnolinguistic groups of the Philippines, where each had their own form of indigenous government prior to colonization from Islam and Spain. They are characterized as being animistic, and have been collectively referred to as Anitism or Bathalism or the more modern and less Tagalog-centric Dayawism. The profusion of different terms arises from the fact that these indigenous religions mostly flourished in the pre-colonial period before the Philippines had become a single nation. The various peoples of the Philippines spoke different languages and thus used different terms to describe their religious beliefs. While these beliefs can be treated as separate religions, scholars have noted that they follow a "common structural framework of ideas" which can be studied together. The various indigenous Philippine religious beliefs are related to the various religions of Oceania and the maritime Southeast Asia, which draw their roots from Austronesian beliefs as those in the Philippines. The folklore narratives associated with these religious beliefs constitute what is now called Philippine mythology, and is an important aspect of the study of Philippine culture and Filipino psychology.
Religious worldview
Historian T. Valentino Sitoy, in his review of documents concerning pre-Spanish religious beliefs, notes that three core characteristics which shaped the religious worldview of Filipinos throughout the archipelago before the arrival of Spanish colonizers. First, Filipinos believed in the existence of parallel spirit world, which was invisible but had an influence on the visible world. Second, Filipinos believed that there were spirits everywhere - ranging from the high creator gods to minor spirits that lived in the environment such as trees or rocks or creeks. Third, Filipinos believed that events in the human world were influenced by the actions and interventions of these spirit beings. Anito were the ancestor spirits, or nature spirits and deities in the indigenous animistic religions of precolonial Philippines. Paganito refers to a séance, often accompanied by other rituals or celebrations, in which a shaman acts as a medium to communicate directly with the spirits. When a nature spirit or deity is specifically involved, the ritual is called pagdiwata. Anito can also refer to the act of worship or a religious sacrifice to a spirit. When Spanish missionaries arrived in the Philippines, the word "anito" came to be associated with the physical representations of spirits that featured prominently in paganito rituals. During the American rule of the Philippines, the meaning of the Spanish word idolo has been further conflated with the English word "idol", and thus anito has come to refer almost exclusively to the carved figures or statues of ancestral and nature spirits. The belief inanito is sometimes referred to as anitism in scholarly literature.
Deities and spirits
Creator gods in Filipino religions
Many indigenous Filipino cultures assert the existence of a high god, creator god, or sky god. Among the Tagalogs, the supreme god was known as Bathala, who was additionally described as Maykapal or Lumikha. Among the Visayan peoples the creator God is referred to as Laon, meaning "the ancient one." Among the Manuvu, the highest god was called Manama. Among most of the Cordilleran peoples, the creator and supreme teacher is known as Kabuniyan. In most cases, however, these gods were considered such great beings that they were too distant for ordinary people to approach. People thus tended to pay more attention to "lesser gods" or "assistant deities" who could more easily approached, and whose wills could more easily be influenced.
"Lower gods" in Filipino religions
Lesser deities in Filipino religions generally fit into three broad categories: nature spirits residing in the environment, such as a mountain or a tree; guardian spirits in charge of specific aspects of daily life such as hunting or fishing; and deified ancestors or tribal heroes. These categories frequently overlap, with individual deities falling into two or more categories, and in some instances, deities evolve from one role to another, as when a tribal hero known for fishing becomes a guardian spirit associated with hunting.
Modern times
As of 2010, an estimated 2% of the Philippine population identified as practicing indigenous beliefs - the majority of whom live in isolated areas where Islam, Catholicism, or Protestantism have not become dominant. Since the entrance of the 21st century, streams of Christian and Muslim Filipinos are steadily reverting to their indigenous ethnic religions that were once branded as lowly by Spanish, American, and Arabians colonizers, but have been affirmed by the social sciences as comprehensive and highly in nature. On the other hand, many aspects of these traditions have been integrated into the local practice of Catholicism and Islam, resulting in syncretistic practices called "Folk Catholicism" and "Folk Islam".
