Heirloom rice in Ifugao: an ‘anti-commodity’ in the process of commodification

We analyse the marketing of ‘heirloom rices’ produced in the Cordillera mountains of northern Luzon, the Philippines, as the commodification of a historical ‘anti-commodity’. We contend that, historically, rice was produced for social, cultural and spiritual purposes but not primarily for sale or trade. The Ifugaos were able to sustain terraced wet-rice cultivation within a system of ‘escape agriculture’ because they were protected from Spanish interference by the friction of terrain and distance. ‘Heirloom rice’ is a boundary concept that enables social entrepreneurs to commodify traditional landraces. We analyse the implications for local rice production and conservation efforts.Templeton Foundatio

Land use change in a pericolonial society: intensification and diversification in Ifugao, Philippines between 1570 and 1800 CE

Land use modelling is increasingly used by archaeologists and palaeoecologists seeking to quantify and compare the changing influence of humans on the environment. In Southeast Asia, the intensification of rice agriculture and the arrival of European colonizers have both been seen as major catalysts for deforestation, soil erosion, and biodiversity change. Here we consider the Tuwali-Ifugao people of the Cordillera Central (Luzon, Philippines), who resisted Spanish colonial subjugation from the 16th to the mid-nineteenth century, in part through the development of a world-renowned system of intensive wet-rice terrace agriculture. To quantify changes in how the Tuwali-Ifugao used their environment, we model land use in Old Kiyyangan Village, a long-inhabited settlement, at two timepoints: circa 1570 CE, prior to the Spanish arrival in Luzon, and circa 1800 CE, before the village was sacked by Spanish military expeditions. Our model demonstrates that between 1570 and 1800 the adoption of rice as a staple and the corresponding expansion in terrace agriculture, along with a general diversification of diet and land use, enabled the village’s population to double without increasing total land use area. Further, this major intensification led to the solidification of social hierarchies and occurred without a proportional increase in deforestation.Introduction Methodology - Models in Ifugao: The History and Socio-Ecology of the Region - The Historical Land Use Model - Model Calculations for OKV - Population and Boble (Settled Area) at OKV - Payo (Terraces) - Uma (Swidden Fields) - Muyong (Private Forests) - Domesticated Animals - Hunting, Foraging, and Fishing - Fuel and Resource Extraction - Commerce - Agricultural Productivity and Nutritional Value - Dietary Proportions Results - 1800 - 1570 - Exploring Social Difference: Kadangyan and Nawotwot Land Use in 1800 Discussio

Baseline Assessment of Seagrass Communities of Lubang and Looc Islands, Occidental Mindoro, Philippines

The Lubang and Looc Islands in Occidental Mindoro are located west and form part of the Verde Island Passage (VIP), an ecologically important corridor linking the South China Sea and the Philippine internal waters. The VIP has also been labelled as a regional hotspot for tropical marine biodiversity, highlighting the need for management and conservation efforts that are science-based. Thus, this assessment was done to provide baseline data on the seagrass beds of the Lubang and Looc Islands. Thirteen sites were surveyed around the Lubang and Looc Islands, Occidental Mindoro on April 13 - 17, 2009. The seagrass beds are generally multispecific meadows that are characterized by both continuous and patchy meadows, with cover ranging from 0.62% to 59.49%. Eight seagrass species were observed, with Thalassia hemprichii and Cymodocea rotundata the most ubiquitous. Shoot densities observed in the area are generally high (mean = 961 shoots･m-2), and composite leaf biomass (mean = 212.70 gDW･m-2) is comparable to other seagrass beds surveyed in other sites in the country. The observed "kaingin" practices in the uplands pose the greatest threat to the seagrass ecosystems of the area because of the long-term domino effect of erosion and sedimentation on the seagrass beds. However, fisheries practices also need to be quantified to determine hierarchy of anthropogenic disturbance that causes habitat fragmentation of the seagrass beds of Lubang and Looc Islands

A quiet harvest: linkage between ritual, seed selection and the historical use of the finger-bladed knife as a traditional plant breeding tool in Ifugao, Philippines

The transverse harvest knife, also commonly called the finger or finger-bladed knife, has been utilized by rice farmers in southeast Asia for many centuries. The finger knife persisted in many traditional cultures long after the introduction of the sickle, a tool which provided farmers with the means to execute a much faster harvest. Several theories in interpretative archaeology have attempted to account for this rejection of more modern technological innovations. These theories, which include community-based social organization ideas and practical reasons for the continued use of the finger knife, are presented in this paper. Here I suggest an alternate theory based on a re-interpretation of existing research and fusion of existing theories: the primary reason for the historical and continued use of the finger knife is for seed selection through a centuries old tradition of plant breeding. Though I accept the accuracy of the practical and community-based, socio-cultural reasons for the use of the finger knife put forth by other authors, I suggest that seed selection and genetic improvement was the driving factor in the use of the finger knife. Indeed, intricate planting and harvesting rituals, which both ensured and encouraged varietal conservation and improvement co-evolved with the use of the finger knife as the primary harvest tool due to its unique ability to aid the farmer in the art and science of seed selection. When combined with previous ideas, this interpretative theory, based on the connection between ethnoagronomy and material culture, may provide a more complete picture of the story around the persistence of the finger knife in traditional rice-growing cultures in southeast Asia. I focus my theory on the terrace-building Ifugao people in the mountainous Cordillera region of northcentral Philippines; however, to put the use of the finger into a wider regional context, I draw from examples of the use of the finger knife in other traditional cultures throughout the region of southeast Asia