A Bayesian approach to dating agricultural terraces: a case from the Philippines

Abstract

Field terraces are notoriously difficult to date – but historically of high significance. Here the author uses a Bayesian model applied to radiocarbon dates to date the tiered rice fields of the northern Philippines. They turn out to have been built in the sixteenth century probably by peoples retreating inland and upland from the Spanish.

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

“…They only established a small garrison in Kiangan, which lies on the more accessible south-eastern fringes of the mountains, as late as 1793 ( Figure 1). The valley of Banaue, which nowadays serves as an accessible and increasingly urbanised centre for tourists visiting the various terrace clusters of Ifugao, was not visited by Europeans until 1868 (Acabado 2009;Phelan 1959;Acabado 2016;Scott 1982). Even as late as the Second World War (WWII), Japanese general Tomoyuki Yamashita chose the isolated valleys of Hungduan for his tenacious last stand; the area proved to be such an effective refuge in 1945 that it took weeks of fighting to flush him out.…”

“…This would have been driven by a sharp population increase, requiring more food and supplying more labour with which to grow it. The obvious explanation for this demographic change is an influx of migrants fleeing from Spanish encroachment in the lowlands (Acabado 2009(Acabado , 2012b.…”

“…Indeed, the encounter with the Spanish seems to have produced significant changes in the structure and culture of Ifugao society, including a greater degree of social stratification. Moreover there is evidence of significant, ongoing contact with the lowlands, including exchange of trade goods and supply of slaves (Acabado 2009;Acabado, Martin, and Lauer 2014;Håkansson 2014). …”

“…The notion that intensive wet-rice cultivation on terraced pond-fields was an evolutionary development in technology, which replaced swiddening, can confidently be rejected. Instead, the two systems have long been practised sided by side, and they remain complementary and dynamic aspects of a 'broad-spectrum lifeway' that includes cultivation of irrigated and rainfed crops, aquaculture, hunting and foraging (Acabado 2009(Acabado , 2012a.…”

The Sacred and the Secular: Practical Applications of Water Rituals in the Ifugao Agricultural System

“…The recent findings of the Ifugao Archaeological Project (IAP) indicate that wet-rice varieties were introduced into the region after AD 1600 (Acabado 2009(Acabado , 2015(Acabado , 2016. Subsequent landscape modification (terraced wet-rice cultivation) also intensified between c. AD 1600 and AD 1800, suggesting increased demand for food, and a settlement pattern shift toward more densely populated villages.…”