The Ifugao Rice Terraces are UNESCO World Heritage monuments that attest to the ingenuity and communitarian management of Cordilleran people of Luzon in the Philippines. Once thought to be over 2,000 years old, our recent work has demonstrated that the upland rice field systems in the region were responses to the social and political pressure from intrusive Spanish colonization into the region starting at c. AD 1600. Shortly after the arrival of the Spanish in the northern Philippines, we see the emergence and rapid expansion of wet-rice cultivation in the highlands. The shallow time-depth of the origins of the highland agricultural terraces provides interesting questions for anthropologists, particularly on the impacts of colonialism to populations who did not have direct and/or intense interaction with the colonizing power. Our work contributes to anthropology and archaeology by investigating the economic and political options available to indigenous peoples impacted by powerful colonial forces. The project emphasizes the observation that indigenous minorities were not passive spectators during the colonization process.
The project contributes to conserving humanity’s heritage through the active involvement of the community in the IAP. The Ifugao are fast losing both their tangible and intangible heritage to changes brought about by economic and political transformations. The rice terraces are examples of landesque capital and the assimilation of Ifugao social organization to that of the state together with the low status given to farmers and the rapid disappearance of traditional knowledge, could further spell degradation of the terraces and other Ifugao cultural heritage. One of the overarching goals of this study is to contribute to heritage conservation programs in Ifugao, in both tangible and intangible heritage.
Click HERE for more information on IAP's work.
The project contributes to conserving humanity’s heritage through the active involvement of the community in the IAP. The Ifugao are fast losing both their tangible and intangible heritage to changes brought about by economic and political transformations. The rice terraces are examples of landesque capital and the assimilation of Ifugao social organization to that of the state together with the low status given to farmers and the rapid disappearance of traditional knowledge, could further spell degradation of the terraces and other Ifugao cultural heritage. One of the overarching goals of this study is to contribute to heritage conservation programs in Ifugao, in both tangible and intangible heritage.
Click HERE for more information on IAP's work.
