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A barangay (Brgy. or Bgy.; Filipino: ''baranggay'', (:baɾaŋˈɡaj); also pronounced the same in Spanish), formerly called barrio, is the smallest administrative division in the Philippines and is the native Filipino term for a village, district or ward. In colloquial usage, the term often refers to an inner city neighbourhood, a suburb or a suburban neighborhood. The word barangay originated from balangay, a kind of boat used by a group of Austronesian peoples when they migrated to the Philippines.〔 Municipalities and cities are composed of barangays, and they may be further subdivided into smaller areas called puroks (''English: zone''), barangay zones consisting of a cluster of houses, and sitios, which are territorial enclaves—usually rural—far from the barangay center. , there were now 42,029 barangays throughout the Philippines. ==History== When the first Spaniards arrived in the Philippines in the 16th century, they found well-organized independent villages called ''barangays''. The name ''barangay'' originated from ''balangay'', a Malay word meaning "sailboat".〔, citing ^ ISBN 971-550-347-0, ISBN 978-971-550-347-1.〕 The first barangays started as relatively small communities of around 50 to 100 families. By the time of contact with Spaniards, many barangays have developed into large communities. The ''encomienda'' of 1604 shows that many affluent and powerful coastal barangays in Sulu, Butuan, Panay,〔During the early part of the Spanish colonization of the Philippines the Spanish Augustinian Friar, Gaspar de San Agustín, O.S.A., describes Iloilo and Panay as one of the most populated islands in the archipelago and the most fertile of all the islands of the Philippines. He also talks about Iloilo, particularly the ancient settlement of Halaur, as site of a progressive trading post and a court of illustrious nobilities. The friar says: Es la isla de Panay muy parecida a la de Sicilia, así por su forma triangular come por su fertilidad y abundancia de bastimentos... Es la isla más poblada, después de Manila y Mindanao, y una de las mayores, por bojear más de cien leguas. En fertilidad y abundancia es en todas la primera... El otro corre al oeste con el nombre de Alaguer (), desembocando en el mar a dos leguas de distancia de Dumangas...Es el pueblo muy hermoso, ameno y muy lleno de palmares de cocos. Antiguamente era el emporio y corte de la más lucida nobleza de toda aquella isla...Mamuel Merino, O.S.A., ed., ''Conquistas de las Islas Filipinas (1565-1615)'', Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, 1975, pp. 374-376.〕 Leyte and Cebu, Pampanga, Pangasinan, Pasig, Laguna, and Cagayan River were flourishing trading centers. Some of these barangays had large populations. In Panay, some barangays had 20,000 inhabitants; in Leyte (Baybay), 15,000 inhabitants; in Cebu, 3,500 residents; in Vitis (Pampanga), 7,000 inhabitants; Pangasinan, 4,000 residents. There were smaller barangays with less number of people. But these were generally inland communities; or if they were coastal, they were not located in areas which were good for business pursuits.〔Cf. F. Landa Jocano, ''Filipino Prehistory: Rediscovering Precolonial Heritage'' (1998), pp. 157-158, 164〕 These smaller barangays had around thirty to one hundred houses only, and the population varies from one hundred to five hundred persons. According to Legazpi, he found communities with twenty to thirty people only. Traditionally,〔Cf. Maragtas (book)〕 the original “barangays” were coastal settlements of the migration of these Malayo-Polynesian people (who came to the archipelago) from other places in Southeast Asia (''see chiefdom''). Most of the ancient barangays were coastal or riverine in nature. This is because most of the people were relying on fishing for supply of protein and for their livelihood. They also travelled mostly by water up and down rivers, and along the coasts. Trails always followed river systems, which were also a major source of water for bathing, washing, and drinking. The coastal barangays were more accessible to trade with foreigners. These were ideal places for economic activity to develop. Business with traders from other Countries also meant contact with other cultures and civilizations, such as those of Japan, Han Chinese, Indian people, and Arab people. These coastal communities acquired more cosmopolitan cultures, with developed social structures (sovereign principalities), ruled by established royalties and nobilities. During the Spanish rule, through a resettlement policy called the Reducción, smaller scattered barangays were consolidated (and thus, "reduced") to form compact towns. Each barangay was headed by the cabeza de barangay (barangay chief), who formed part of the Principalía - the elite ruling class of the municipalities of the Spanish Philippines. This position was inherited from the first datus, and came to be known as such during the Spanish regime. The Spanish Monarch ruled each barangay through the Cabeza, who also collected taxes (called tribute) from the residents for the Spanish Crown. When the Americans arrived, "slight changes in the structure of local government was effected". Latter, Rural Councils with four councillors were created to assist now renamed Barrio Lieutenant; it was later renamed Barrio Council, and then Barangay Council.〔 The Spanish term ''barrio'' (abbv. "Bo.") was used for much of the 20th century until President Ferdinand Marcos ordered their renaming to barangays in the 1970s. The name survived the 1986 EDSA Revolution, though older people would still use the term ''barrio''. The Municipal Council was abolished upon transfer of powers to the barangay system. Marcos used to call the barangay part of Philippine participatory democracy, and most of his writings involving the New Society praised the role of ''baranganic democracy'' in nation-building. After the 1986 EDSA Revolution and the drafting of the 1987 Constitution, the Municipal Council was restored, making the barangay the smallest unit of Philippine government. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「barangay」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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