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Concept
Timawa
Summary
The timawa were the feudal warrior class of the ancient Visayan societies of the Philippines. They were regarded as higher than the uripon (commoners, serfs, and slaves) but below the tumao (royal nobility) in the Visayan social hierarchy. They were roughly similar to the Tagalog maharlika caste.
The term later lost its military and nobility connotations and was demoted to mean "freemen" during the Spanish conquest of the Philippines. During which, the word was also introduced to the Tagalogs, who incorrectly used the term to refer to freed uripon (more correctly the matitimawa or tinimawa in Visayan) and commoners in general (tuhay or mamahay in Visayan). Eventually, the meaning of timawa in modern Visayan languages was reduced to an adjective for "impoverished".
Barangay state and History of the Philippines (900-1565)
The timawa were the privileged intermediate class of ancient Visayan society, in between the uripon (commoners, serfs, and slaves) and the tumao (royal nobility). The timawa class included former slaves and illegitimate children of the maginoo class. Most were originally descendants or illegitimate children of the datu by commoner wives or uripon concubines, or the illegitimate children of the binokot princesses. These timawa were referred to with the title Ginoo upon the death of their fathers. A few known as Matitimawa or Tinimawa, originated from uripon who bought their freedom or were set free by their masters. These were usually distinguished from freeborn timawa.
Like the Tagalog maharlika class, the timawa were primarily a feudal warrior class, required to provide military service to the datu in hunts, raids, wars, and defense. timawa paid tribute or taxes to the datu known as buhis or handug and were required to provide agricultural labor as needed. They enjoyed certain freedoms, like the right to own their own land and uripon, the right to lend and borrow money, and the right to enter into business partnerships.
Unlike the maharlika, however, they can change allegiances freely and had no intrinsic right to the spoils of war beyond what is granted them by the datu.
Official source
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