Roundtable Discussion: Indonesian Foods and the
EMP
Barbara Andaya (University of Hawaii-Manoa), Leonard Andaya (University of Hawaii-Manoa), and Peter Lape (University of Washington)
The Early Modern Period was characterized by
rapidly expanded and intensified global exchange networks. Many of the
materials and ideas that moved in these networks were related to food,
including plants, animals, intoxicants, medicines, as well as farming,
harvesting, cooking and eating cultural practices, many of which we have
inherited today In this roundtable discussion, three Indonesian
specialists will talk about how the EMP formed the cuisine of contemporary
Indonesia and beyond. They will also link the movement of foodstuffs in the
larger discussions on ecological change.
The Old Kiyyangan Story: Oral Histories and Archaeological Findings from the Old Kiyyangan Village, Ifugao, Philippines
Director and Filmmaker: Armando Burgos
Script writers: Stephen Acabado and Marlon Martin
This 15-minute video animation is a product of collaboration between archaeologists and Ifugao descendant communities. It blends oral history with archaeological research to highlight Philippine indigenous history (absent from Philippine historical narratives) and document how the Ifugao resisted and accommodated Spanish colonial aims. Old Kiyyangan Village (OKV) plays a prominent role in Ifugao-Tuwali mythology as the first village to be inhabited by Ifugaos, and was the site of archaeological research since 2012 by the Ifugao Archaeological Project. The OKV story also narrates how the shift to wet-rice cultivation in the 1600s allowed the Ifugao to consolidate economic and political resources that allowed them to resist the marauding Spanish soldiers less than 400 years ago. It cemented the social order, unified the Ifugao against invasion, and sealed a social organization that maintained the terraces and preserved these mountain settlements. By insisting on the 2000-year narrative, this important era of colonial resistance and sustained war for independence in Ifugao and the Cordilleras is relegated as minor events in the history of the country.
Funding from the National Geographic Society and the Whiting Foundation supported the production of this video.
A new animated film about a village in Ifugao, Philippines brings together many institutions and local organizations in an effort to invigorate highland archaeology and community engagement.
Read the entire story by Lydia Joe (UCLA, 2020) HERE
Over the last decade, the advent of airborne laser scanning (or lidar) technology has had a significant impact on the field of landscape archaeology worldwide. This is particularly true in the tropical world, where the unique ability of lidar to ‘see through’ vegetation cover and reveal traces of past human activity continues to inform new perspectives on early agriculture, urbanism, and the historical trajectories of ‘tropical forest societies’ such as the Maya and the Khmer.
Despite the increasingly common use of lidar in the field, however, the method has not been universally well-received, and the technique continues to attract controversy in some areas. Frequently, these debates reflect broader issues in contemporary digital archaeology that are brought into sharper focus by lidar: for example, how to address problems of openness and accessibility given concerns over looting and site preservation, and how to reconcile the potential for automation and working at scale with the conventions of a field-oriented, site-focused discipline.
Since 2012 archaeologists have completed multiple lidar acquisitions over Angkor-period sites in Cambodia and Thailand, and coverage is now scaling up dramatically across Southeast Asia, with several new initiatives underway. These different projects have navigated the usual array of social, political, technical, and disciplinary constraints with varying degrees of success. This talk will provide an overview of these various efforts and their research outcomes, look at their experiences in engaging with the issues involved, and offer perspectives on how to move forward with programs of wide-area lidar in light of recent technological advances, emerging applications of artificial intelligence, and the potential for cross-cultural, comparative studies spanning the past and present.
Damian Evans is a Research Fellow at the French Institute of Asian Studies (EFEO), in Paris, focusing on the application of geospatial and computational techniques to the study of early Southeast Asia. Prior to joining the EFEO in 2015, he was founding Director of the University of Sydney’s Research Centre in Siem Reap, Cambodia, where he spent a decade on the ground overseeing a range of projects spanning different disciplines and time periods, including the landmark lidar acquisitions at Angkor. He has published widely on these, and recently co-authored a revised edition of the classic volume Angkor and the Khmer Civilization with the late Michael D. Coe.
