Ifugao Archaelogical Field School launched

By Vency D. Bulayungan

Sunday 17th of June 2012

KIANGAN, Ifugao, June 17 (PIA) --The Ifugao Archaeological Project was recently launched here with a native priest (mumbaki) performing a ritual calling on the unseen spirits not to inflict harm to a group of about 20 students from the different universities abroad and in the country to conduct the 2012 Ifugao Archaeological Field School.

Adorned in his native attire, mumbaki Rodolfo Dulnuan, prayed to the gods and the spirits at the venue of the said project which is considered as the Old Kiyangan Village and believed to be the first village in Ifugao, to assist the said students in attaining their objective. A pig was butchered as an offering to the gods and spirits.

Marlon Martin, Chief Executive Officer of the Save the Rice Terraces Movement, said that investigations will focus on the Old Kiyangan Village, the first Ifugao Village according to Ifugao mythology which is located about four kilometers from the Poblacion here.

In coordination with the Ifugao State University, University of the Philippines, National Museum of the Philippines and the Kiangan Local Government Unit,the project hopes to contribute to Ifugao scholarship and to the development of sustainable conservation plans for the rice terraces.

The said project examines anthropological issues that include relationship between agricultural and irrigation systems with emergent complexity; pathways to intensification and organizational entailments of irrigation systems. Such work informs on theoretical foundations of studies of agricultural systems, providing empirical data to similar studies in island Southeast Asia and elsewhere, and provides a historical ecological approach in the study of emergent complexity. This study will add a new perspective in the recursive relationship between humans and their landscape.

Anthropologist Robert Maher did some excavations in the site during the early 1980’s but his dates were inconclusive, said Lally Dulnuan of the Kiangan municipal government , adding that with advances in technology and the practice of chronometric hygiene, we are hoping to establish baseline information to the development of Cordillera terrace-building tradition.

Dr. Stephen Acabado, Assistant Professor of Anthropology of the University of Guam, who leads the team , said that the five program seeks to help determine how old the rice terraces, help develop sustainable program using the bottom approach so that the project will benefit the farmers; help explain the true meaning of archaeology to the people and not treasure hunting and to see the landscape of the area among others.

This year’s field school features participants from the University of Guam, University of Toronto, University of British Columbia University of the Philippines, University of Hawaii, SUNY-Oneonta, UCLA and UC-Riverside. Mikhail Echavarri from California and Joffrey Martinez of the University of Guam who are members of the team said they are excited to perform the said project and are happy to participate in such a historic event.

Both the SITMO and the MLGU opine that the complexity of Ifugao agricultural irrigation systems is still poorly understood and this project they hope will provide radio carbon dates that will provide new perspective in the relationship between humans and their landscape and enhance the culture and history of the Ifugaos. (JDP/VDB -PIA CAR, Ifugao)