This scholarly work was written by Isabelo de los Reyes, a prominent Filipino intellectual, writer, and nationalist, and was published in Manila in 1909. The book offers a critical examination and documentation of the religious beliefs and practices of the Filipinos prior to Spanish colonization, a period when Islamic and Hindu influences were already present in some parts of the archipelago. De los Reyes focuses on the indigenous religion, which he identifies as Anitismo—the ancestral cult or worship of the Anitos (souls of ancestors). The author undertook this study to collect and preserve the ethno-cultural information that he felt was often misrepresented or neglected in the chronicles written by Spanish friars and colonial officials. The work posits that the purest form of the ancient religion was best preserved in the Northern provinces, such as Ilocos, due to their distance from the initial centers of Muslim and Malay immigration in the South. Through this study of native beliefs, the work stands as an important, early contribution by a Filipino scholar to the field of Philippine cultural history and ethnography, aiming to foster greater appreciation among his countrymen for their pre-colonial heritage.
La religión antigua de los Filipinos