S06 ETHNOARCHAEOLOGY IN SOUTHEAST ASIA: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS AND DIRECTIONS (SPECIAL SESSION IN MEMORY OF DR. WILLIAM LONGACRE)
19 June 2019, Galleria 1, 1530-1700 hours
Convener:Rhayan G. Melendres
rhayan30@yahoo.com
Ethnoarchaeology is the study of relationships between human behavior and its material consequences in the present. It establishes a link between the present to interpret archaeological evidence of human behavior in the past. Specifically, ethnoarchaeology is doing ethnographic fieldwork among extant societies for the purpose of addressing archaeological questions and interpretations. This session will focus on studies that employs ethnoarchaeology as a research strategy in Southeast Asia in the field of pottery and other specialist craft production, subsistence, settlement patterns, architecture, trade and exchange, and mortuary practices. The session is dedicated to the late Dr. William A. Longacre who passed away in November 2015 in honor of his several decades of work in Southeast Asia specially in the Philippines.
Celine Emmanuelle Kerfant
Rovira i Virgili University - IPHES
ckerfant@gmail.com
Ethel Allué, Rovira
i Virgili University - IPHES
eallue@iphes.cat
Victor Paz
Archaeology Studies Program
University of the Philippines, Diliman
victorpaz67@gmail.com
Plant materials are central to many human activities from those of daily life to the exceptional events. The Philippines, with more than 7000 islands, has numerous plant species, many of them endemic. Taiwan has both tropical and subtropical areas and its plant diversity includes a great variety of fibre-producing species. These islands are isolated by deep sea, which implies a high degree of endemism of plant taxa. Selection made upon textile plants by Ivatan (Batanes) and Yami-Tao (Lanyu) people, especially of those which cannot cross water, could be highly indicative of human-plant relationship through times.This ethnobotanical study aims to provide a better knowledge of basketry traditions and the plant-based raw materials that were used for this craft in the islands either side of the Bashi Channel between the northernmost islands of the Philippines, the Batanes Islands, and the southernmost of Taiwan, Lanyu Island.
This study is based upon plant natural aspects such as its properties or its natural dispersal and cultural facts, such as plant naming or manufacturing process. Both could lead to a deeper understanding of plant and human propagation. The results of this research show that some of the Ivatan and Yami-Tao people’s handicraft are made out of Banana or Palm tree fibres possessing qualities such as flexibility, strength, and durability, among others. Ivatan and Yami-Tao people create protective baskets made of Banana fibers, with a unique knowledge: the knotting-tying technique. All banana trees contain useful fibers but only Musa textilis (or Abaca) gets the longest and strongest fiber without lignification. It is the most resistant fiber for cordage purpose. Abaca is native to Mindanao, the southernmost island of the Philippines. The naturalized varieties of Abaca found in Batanes and Lanyu islands could be interpreted as evidences of seafaring activities in the past.
Grace Barretto-Tesoro
Archaeological Studies Program, University of the Philippines
mdbarretto@up.edu.ph
Tagalog conversion can be viewed as folk Catholicism. The lack of priests in the early colonial period to administer to the converts could mean that the converts were practicing a form of Christianity based on how they, the local population, understood it. Since no native clergy exists in the 1700s, confraternities were tasked to oversee the converts particularly at the time of death. Designs and inscriptions on gravestones may bear information on how the Tagalogs appropriated Christianity, reconciling their indigenous beliefs with the new religion. This presentation is on colonial period grave markers found inside Catholic churches in Southern Luzon, Philippines dating to the late 1800s to 1950. These grave markers are located mostly on interior walls and floors of churches. The purpose of the research is to investigate attitudes to death during the late Spanish and American colonial periods through the documentation of designs, motifs, and nature of inscriptions on grave markers in churches located in the Tagalog region. The presentation will end by discussing the implications of the study to archaeology.
Cécile de Francquen
cecile.defrancquen@gmail.com
Anthropology of techniques has shown how techniques used by people are part of the group’s identity. Thus, they are not easily changed and change is often linked to social change. In Africa, the study of techniques used in extant societies have been used to reconstruct the history of those populations and their past relationships with each other.
As an archaeologist specialized in ceramics, I decided to use this approach for my masters thesis research in anthropology and apply it to pottery in Vietnam. It was quite an innovative project as only two researchers (Cort and Lefferts) have already used this approach in South-East Asia (mainly focused on Northern Thailand).
Ceramic production in Vietnam is booming nowadays, and the techniques used are highly modified in order to adapt to mass production and new markets. Most of the traditional pottery villages are now closing and the technique they used are now endangered.
Using data collected in 20 villages during my 5 months of fieldwork in Northern Vietnam and the “chaîne opératoire” concept, I made precise descriptions of the used techniques, documented the history of those villages and the vocabulary linked to the activity.
By comparing the techniques, I grouped the villages in 6 ""répertoires"", each being characteristic of a group. Their comparison and the study of their localization allowed me to reconstruct the history of those communities and understand how the History, at a larger scale, influenced the evolution of the local potter through time.
My work definitely broadens interest to do more research in order to record endangered practices, have a better understanding of the history of knowledge in these communities and give archaeologists information on how to recognize the different techniques and what it reveals in terms of past societies.
Elyada Wigati Pramaresti
Bachelor of Archaeology, Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia
elyadawigatip@gmail.com
The definition of megalithic by Wagner, which refers to every material culture associated with ancestors worship, creates an assumption that all megalithic monuments cannot be separated from religious aspect. In fact, megalithic monuments do not always related to the veneration towards certain spirits. Many megaliths found in Nias show that the erection of stone monuments as a component of local ceremony is not only linked to religious function, but also other aspects. Megalithic monuments of each area in Nias show difference in shape and function. It is also noted that nowadays the ritual practice of building megaliths is not consistently carried out by every local community in different parts of Nias Island. This research focuses on megalithic monuments located in two traditional Nias village, Bӧrӧnadu in Central Nias dan Orahili Fau in South Nias. Although there are many stone monuments distributed within the area of Bӧrӧnadu village, the activities which include megaliths construction and usage are no longer exist, whereas in Orahili Fau, stone monuments are still being constructed, even to this day.
This research seeks to answer these questions: the functions of megaliths in the two villages of Nias and the existence of activities related to megalithic buildings. The main purpose of this research is to better understand the similarities and distinctions of megalithic functions in Central and South Nias culture. In attempt to answer the questions, the author use ethnoarchaeological approach because some megaliths still linger in the same context with their builders. The discontinuity of megaliths production in a certain village is caused by the arrival of new religion and the local’s perspective about the rites of megaliths erection that must be done completely, leading to a massive cost in the process.
Keywords: Megalithic, ethnoarchaeology, usage, Nias culture
Definisi megalitik Wagner yang mengacu pada semua peninggalan terkait dengan pemujaan roh nenek moyang menimbulkan asumsi bahwa monumen megalitik tidak dapat dilepaskan dari hal-hal religius. Pada kenyataannya, monumen megalitik tidak selalu berhubungan dengan pemujaan terhadap roh-roh tertentu. Berbagai monumen megalitik yang ditemukan di Nias menunjukkan bahwa pembuatan monumen batu sebagai bagian dari upacara adat tidak terbatas pada fungsi religi, melainkan juga aspek-aspek lainnya. Monumen megalitik pada tiap wilayah di Nias memiliki perbedaan dalam segi bentuk maupun fungsi. Selain itu, tidak semua komunitas lokal di Nias melakukan kegiatan yang berhubungan dengan pendirian megalitik hingga dewasa ini. Penelitian ini mengulas tinggalan megalitik pada dua desa tradisional di Nias, yakni Desa Bӧrӧnadu di Nias Tengah dan Orahili Fau di Nias Selatan. Meskipun di Bӧrӧnadu terdapat banyak tinggalan megalitik, namun aktivitas yang terkait dengan pendirian atau penggunaan batu megalitik sudah tidak ada. Sebaliknya, di Orahili Fau pembuatan monumen megalitik masih terus berlangsung.
Permasalahan yang dijawab dalam penelitian ini adalah fungsi dari monumen megalitik pada kedua desa di Nias serta keberadaan kegiatan yang berhubungan dengan pembuatan monumen megalitik tersebut. Tujuannya untuk memahami persamaan dan perbedaan kedudukan monumen megalitik dalam budaya Nias Tengah dan Nias Selatan. Dalam menjawab permasalahan yang ada, penulis menggunakan pendekatan etnoarkeologi karena beberapa monumen megalitik di Nias masih berada dalam konteks sistem masyarakat pendukungnya. Berhentinya pendirian monumen megalitik pada suatu desa disebabkan oleh masuknya agama baru dan pandangan masyarakat lokal terhadap ritual pendirian megalitik yang harus dilakukan secara menyeluruh sehingga dalam pelaksanaannya justru menjadi beban berat.
Kata kunci: Megalitik, etnoarkologi, penggunaan, budaya Nias
Jane P. Allison
Independent Scholar
janepallison@gmail.com
The memory of the life and career of Phung Proeung , one of the leading masters as well as a virtuoso caster working from the late 1940’s to 1974 has dimmed since 1975. In 1973 Tauch Chhuong wrote “there were no statue makers who could produce copper Buddha images” in Battambang. In general, as yet there is little information about Khmer casters and their production from the late 19th C. to 1975. Few bronzes of that period survive today due to their loss during the years of the Khmer Rouge and later. The few bronzes that do survive cannot be easily associated with an artist’s name. Fortunately it has been possible to recognize a number of Buddhist works of art in bronze -sculptures and pagoda bells. Information regarding his life and education was obtained from a few members of his immediate family, one both a relative and co-worker, as well as from members of the Battambang community in Cambodia who knew him and in the United States. This paper will briefly explore selected works by Proeung to show his mastery of bronze casting and will raise questions regarding his technical expertise.
Rhayan G. Melendres
University of the Philippines
rhayan30@yahoo.com
Bohol is the tenth largest island in the Philippines. There are still four existing pottery communities in this Central Visayan island and these are the villages of Bagacay in Talibon, Binogawan in Calape, Canduao Occidental in Valencia, and East Poblacion in Alburquerque. In all of these communities, pottery making is traditional where everything is hand-made wherein the potters are only using mats or banana leaves for rotational devices and pot holders, small bottles for burnishing, fishnets for polishing, and wooden paddles and stone anvils for shaping. They do not use potter’s wheel and the pots are all open fired. Using ethnoarchaeology as a research strategy, this paper looks at the physico-material changes (clay, temper, slip, fuel), technological changes (forming, firing, vessel forms), and socio-cultural changes (potters demographics, pottery demands and consumption) that affect the pottery traditions in these villages. Also, the typology and the organization of production of pottery in these areas are identified and analyzed using Costin’s (1986, 1991, 2005) framework. In addition, the cultural variables that affect the pottery production and distribution in these communities such as age and gender division of labor, learning frameworks, and cultural transmissions of the material culture are discussed.
Convener:Rhayan G. Melendres
rhayan30@yahoo.com
Ethnoarchaeology is the study of relationships between human behavior and its material consequences in the present. It establishes a link between the present to interpret archaeological evidence of human behavior in the past. Specifically, ethnoarchaeology is doing ethnographic fieldwork among extant societies for the purpose of addressing archaeological questions and interpretations. This session will focus on studies that employs ethnoarchaeology as a research strategy in Southeast Asia in the field of pottery and other specialist craft production, subsistence, settlement patterns, architecture, trade and exchange, and mortuary practices. The session is dedicated to the late Dr. William A. Longacre who passed away in November 2015 in honor of his several decades of work in Southeast Asia specially in the Philippines.
Ropes and baskets made of Banana fibers: Case studies from Taiwan and the Philippines
Celine Emmanuelle Kerfant
Rovira i Virgili University - IPHES
ckerfant@gmail.com
Ethel Allué, Rovira
i Virgili University - IPHES
eallue@iphes.cat
Victor Paz
Archaeology Studies Program
University of the Philippines, Diliman
victorpaz67@gmail.com
Plant materials are central to many human activities from those of daily life to the exceptional events. The Philippines, with more than 7000 islands, has numerous plant species, many of them endemic. Taiwan has both tropical and subtropical areas and its plant diversity includes a great variety of fibre-producing species. These islands are isolated by deep sea, which implies a high degree of endemism of plant taxa. Selection made upon textile plants by Ivatan (Batanes) and Yami-Tao (Lanyu) people, especially of those which cannot cross water, could be highly indicative of human-plant relationship through times.This ethnobotanical study aims to provide a better knowledge of basketry traditions and the plant-based raw materials that were used for this craft in the islands either side of the Bashi Channel between the northernmost islands of the Philippines, the Batanes Islands, and the southernmost of Taiwan, Lanyu Island.
This study is based upon plant natural aspects such as its properties or its natural dispersal and cultural facts, such as plant naming or manufacturing process. Both could lead to a deeper understanding of plant and human propagation. The results of this research show that some of the Ivatan and Yami-Tao people’s handicraft are made out of Banana or Palm tree fibres possessing qualities such as flexibility, strength, and durability, among others. Ivatan and Yami-Tao people create protective baskets made of Banana fibers, with a unique knowledge: the knotting-tying technique. All banana trees contain useful fibers but only Musa textilis (or Abaca) gets the longest and strongest fiber without lignification. It is the most resistant fiber for cordage purpose. Abaca is native to Mindanao, the southernmost island of the Philippines. The naturalized varieties of Abaca found in Batanes and Lanyu islands could be interpreted as evidences of seafaring activities in the past.
Insights on Colonial Church Grave Markers in the Philippines
Grace Barretto-Tesoro
Archaeological Studies Program, University of the Philippines
mdbarretto@up.edu.ph
Tagalog conversion can be viewed as folk Catholicism. The lack of priests in the early colonial period to administer to the converts could mean that the converts were practicing a form of Christianity based on how they, the local population, understood it. Since no native clergy exists in the 1700s, confraternities were tasked to oversee the converts particularly at the time of death. Designs and inscriptions on gravestones may bear information on how the Tagalogs appropriated Christianity, reconciling their indigenous beliefs with the new religion. This presentation is on colonial period grave markers found inside Catholic churches in Southern Luzon, Philippines dating to the late 1800s to 1950. These grave markers are located mostly on interior walls and floors of churches. The purpose of the research is to investigate attitudes to death during the late Spanish and American colonial periods through the documentation of designs, motifs, and nature of inscriptions on grave markers in churches located in the Tagalog region. The presentation will end by discussing the implications of the study to archaeology.
Study of pottery technique variations in Northern Vietnam
Cécile de Francquen
cecile.defrancquen@gmail.com
Anthropology of techniques has shown how techniques used by people are part of the group’s identity. Thus, they are not easily changed and change is often linked to social change. In Africa, the study of techniques used in extant societies have been used to reconstruct the history of those populations and their past relationships with each other.
As an archaeologist specialized in ceramics, I decided to use this approach for my masters thesis research in anthropology and apply it to pottery in Vietnam. It was quite an innovative project as only two researchers (Cort and Lefferts) have already used this approach in South-East Asia (mainly focused on Northern Thailand).
Ceramic production in Vietnam is booming nowadays, and the techniques used are highly modified in order to adapt to mass production and new markets. Most of the traditional pottery villages are now closing and the technique they used are now endangered.
Using data collected in 20 villages during my 5 months of fieldwork in Northern Vietnam and the “chaîne opératoire” concept, I made precise descriptions of the used techniques, documented the history of those villages and the vocabulary linked to the activity.
By comparing the techniques, I grouped the villages in 6 ""répertoires"", each being characteristic of a group. Their comparison and the study of their localization allowed me to reconstruct the history of those communities and understand how the History, at a larger scale, influenced the evolution of the local potter through time.
My work definitely broadens interest to do more research in order to record endangered practices, have a better understanding of the history of knowledge in these communities and give archaeologists information on how to recognize the different techniques and what it reveals in terms of past societies.
Ethnoarchaeological Study of Megalithic Monuments in Nias: Comparative Study of Megaliths in Bӧrӧnadu and Orahili Fau | Kajian Etnoarkeologi pada Monumen Megalitik di Nias: Studi Perbandingan Megalitik di Bӧrӧnadu dan Orahili Fau
Elyada Wigati Pramaresti
Bachelor of Archaeology, Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia
elyadawigatip@gmail.com
The definition of megalithic by Wagner, which refers to every material culture associated with ancestors worship, creates an assumption that all megalithic monuments cannot be separated from religious aspect. In fact, megalithic monuments do not always related to the veneration towards certain spirits. Many megaliths found in Nias show that the erection of stone monuments as a component of local ceremony is not only linked to religious function, but also other aspects. Megalithic monuments of each area in Nias show difference in shape and function. It is also noted that nowadays the ritual practice of building megaliths is not consistently carried out by every local community in different parts of Nias Island. This research focuses on megalithic monuments located in two traditional Nias village, Bӧrӧnadu in Central Nias dan Orahili Fau in South Nias. Although there are many stone monuments distributed within the area of Bӧrӧnadu village, the activities which include megaliths construction and usage are no longer exist, whereas in Orahili Fau, stone monuments are still being constructed, even to this day.
This research seeks to answer these questions: the functions of megaliths in the two villages of Nias and the existence of activities related to megalithic buildings. The main purpose of this research is to better understand the similarities and distinctions of megalithic functions in Central and South Nias culture. In attempt to answer the questions, the author use ethnoarchaeological approach because some megaliths still linger in the same context with their builders. The discontinuity of megaliths production in a certain village is caused by the arrival of new religion and the local’s perspective about the rites of megaliths erection that must be done completely, leading to a massive cost in the process.
Keywords: Megalithic, ethnoarchaeology, usage, Nias culture
Definisi megalitik Wagner yang mengacu pada semua peninggalan terkait dengan pemujaan roh nenek moyang menimbulkan asumsi bahwa monumen megalitik tidak dapat dilepaskan dari hal-hal religius. Pada kenyataannya, monumen megalitik tidak selalu berhubungan dengan pemujaan terhadap roh-roh tertentu. Berbagai monumen megalitik yang ditemukan di Nias menunjukkan bahwa pembuatan monumen batu sebagai bagian dari upacara adat tidak terbatas pada fungsi religi, melainkan juga aspek-aspek lainnya. Monumen megalitik pada tiap wilayah di Nias memiliki perbedaan dalam segi bentuk maupun fungsi. Selain itu, tidak semua komunitas lokal di Nias melakukan kegiatan yang berhubungan dengan pendirian megalitik hingga dewasa ini. Penelitian ini mengulas tinggalan megalitik pada dua desa tradisional di Nias, yakni Desa Bӧrӧnadu di Nias Tengah dan Orahili Fau di Nias Selatan. Meskipun di Bӧrӧnadu terdapat banyak tinggalan megalitik, namun aktivitas yang terkait dengan pendirian atau penggunaan batu megalitik sudah tidak ada. Sebaliknya, di Orahili Fau pembuatan monumen megalitik masih terus berlangsung.
Permasalahan yang dijawab dalam penelitian ini adalah fungsi dari monumen megalitik pada kedua desa di Nias serta keberadaan kegiatan yang berhubungan dengan pembuatan monumen megalitik tersebut. Tujuannya untuk memahami persamaan dan perbedaan kedudukan monumen megalitik dalam budaya Nias Tengah dan Nias Selatan. Dalam menjawab permasalahan yang ada, penulis menggunakan pendekatan etnoarkeologi karena beberapa monumen megalitik di Nias masih berada dalam konteks sistem masyarakat pendukungnya. Berhentinya pendirian monumen megalitik pada suatu desa disebabkan oleh masuknya agama baru dan pandangan masyarakat lokal terhadap ritual pendirian megalitik yang harus dilakukan secara menyeluruh sehingga dalam pelaksanaannya justru menjadi beban berat.
Kata kunci: Megalitik, etnoarkologi, penggunaan, budaya Nias
The Forgotten Khmer Artist And Bronze Caster, Phung Proeung, Of Battambang: Preliminary Investigation
Jane P. Allison
Independent Scholar
janepallison@gmail.com
The memory of the life and career of Phung Proeung , one of the leading masters as well as a virtuoso caster working from the late 1940’s to 1974 has dimmed since 1975. In 1973 Tauch Chhuong wrote “there were no statue makers who could produce copper Buddha images” in Battambang. In general, as yet there is little information about Khmer casters and their production from the late 19th C. to 1975. Few bronzes of that period survive today due to their loss during the years of the Khmer Rouge and later. The few bronzes that do survive cannot be easily associated with an artist’s name. Fortunately it has been possible to recognize a number of Buddhist works of art in bronze -sculptures and pagoda bells. Information regarding his life and education was obtained from a few members of his immediate family, one both a relative and co-worker, as well as from members of the Battambang community in Cambodia who knew him and in the United States. This paper will briefly explore selected works by Proeung to show his mastery of bronze casting and will raise questions regarding his technical expertise.
Ceramic Production and Distribution in Bohol, Central Visayas, Philippines: Some Ethnoarchaeological Observations
Rhayan G. Melendres
University of the Philippines
rhayan30@yahoo.com
Bohol is the tenth largest island in the Philippines. There are still four existing pottery communities in this Central Visayan island and these are the villages of Bagacay in Talibon, Binogawan in Calape, Canduao Occidental in Valencia, and East Poblacion in Alburquerque. In all of these communities, pottery making is traditional where everything is hand-made wherein the potters are only using mats or banana leaves for rotational devices and pot holders, small bottles for burnishing, fishnets for polishing, and wooden paddles and stone anvils for shaping. They do not use potter’s wheel and the pots are all open fired. Using ethnoarchaeology as a research strategy, this paper looks at the physico-material changes (clay, temper, slip, fuel), technological changes (forming, firing, vessel forms), and socio-cultural changes (potters demographics, pottery demands and consumption) that affect the pottery traditions in these villages. Also, the typology and the organization of production of pottery in these areas are identified and analyzed using Costin’s (1986, 1991, 2005) framework. In addition, the cultural variables that affect the pottery production and distribution in these communities such as age and gender division of labor, learning frameworks, and cultural transmissions of the material culture are discussed.
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