Box populi : a socio-cultural study of the Filipino American balikbayan box

In this thesis, the balikbayan boxes that Filipino Americans bring with them when they visit the Philippines are viewed primarily through the lenses of material culture and customary studies. It provides the historical, political, and economic contexts which have led to the immigration of Filipinos to America and the emergence of balikbayans—the returning natives—and their boxes. It also contains descriptions of balikbayan boxes, their contents, and the practices involved. This study indicates that balikbayan boxes are indices of balikbayans themselves. These packages are metaphors for the dislocation of Filipinos resulting from their immigration to the United States. These boxes are also sites, in which balikbayans are positioned as neo-colonizers and perpetuate American cultural hegemony. This examination suggests that balikbayan boxes are connected to a host of complex issues, including kinship ties and obligations, politics and economics, colonialism and postcolonialism, ,immigration and diaspora, globalization and commodification, exchange and reciprocity, travel and tourism