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1. Landscapes and Archaelogy
of the Ifugao Agricultural
Terraces: Establishing
Antiquity and Social
Organisation
Presenteb By:
Genevieve C. Serilo & Milorenze N. Joting
M.Ed. Social Studies

2. Outline:
I. Short Biography of Stephen Acabado
II. Brief Ifugao Cultural History
III. Methods
a. GIS
b. Field Survey
c. Ethnographic Interviews
d. Data Analysis
IV. Results and Analyses
V. Summary

4. STEPHEN B. ACABADO
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
University of California, Los
Angeles
http://www.ifugao-archaeological-
project.org
acabado@anthro.ucla.edu

5. EDUCATION
• Ph.D. Anthropology, 2010, Department of
Anthropology, University of Hawai‘i, Honolulu,
Hawai‘i.
• Research interests: Historical ecology, landscape
archaeology, agricultural systems, settlement
patterns, emergent complexity, indigenous
peoples, Southeast Asia, Philippines, Guam,
Micronesia

6. • M.A. Anthropology, 2003, University of Hawai‘i,
Honolulu, Hawai‘i.
• Thesis: Land Use and Agricultural Intensification:
A GIS-Based Analysis of the Landscape of Ifugao,
Northern Philippines.
• B.A. Anthropology, 1999, University of the
Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines.
EDUCATION

9. Brief Ifugao Cultural
History

10. y:
• Ifugao, a land-locked area
located at the foot of the
Cordillera Mountain Range, is
bounded on the west by the
province of Benguet, Nueva
Viscaya on the south, Isabela
on the east, and on the north
by Mountain Province, with a
total land area of 251,778
hectares. It is 322 kilometers
north of Manila.

11. Author Date Major Points
Barton (1919) and Beyer (1955) 2000-3000 BP Estimated how long it would
have taken to construct the
elaborate terrace systems which
fill valley after valley of Ifugao
country
Keesing (1962) and Dozier
(1966)
<300BP Movements to upper elevation
of Cordillera peoples were
associated with the Spanish
pressure
Lambrecht (1967) <300BP Used lexical and linguistic
evidence by analysing Ifugao
romantic tales (hudhud);
Observed short duration of
terrace building and concluded
recent origin of a terraces.
Maher (1973: 52-55) 205± 100 BP
735± 105 BP
Radiocarbon dates from two
house platforms.
Table 1. Dates proposed for the inception of the Ifugao rice terraces. (Table
appeared in Acabado 2009:803)

14. • Geographic Information Systems – to
understand human-environment interaction,
managerial requirements of maintaining the
Ifugao rice terraces, and provide radiometric
age determinations for a Banaue terrace
system.
GIS

15. •Requires digitisation of topographic and
land use maps as well as satellite and
aerial photographs to develop a digital
elevation model of the Ifugao region.
GISGIS

16. Figure 3. The location
of Old Kiyyangan
Village.

17. 1. Gohang
2. Bannawol
3. Pula
4. Pula
5. Kinnakin
6. Amgode
7. Hengyon
8. Linge
Eight land use maps of North Central
Ifugao (Conklin, 1972)

18. 1. Amganad
2. Bannawol
3. Bayniwan
4. Kinnakin
5. Lugu
6. Nabyan
7. Ogway
8. Pugo
9. Pulitan
10.Tam’an
11.Kababuyan
From the 8 plates, complete
agricultural districts were chosen:

20. • Involves GPS mapping and subsurface
excavations, to acquire samples for
radiocarbon dating guided by a
Bayesian Model.
• Used by the researcher in selecting well-
preserved sites for excavation.
Field Survey

22. • Five community elders were interviewed
• Questions focused on cooperative work (and the
concept of reciprocity), rituals associated with
agricultural events, and activities that relate to
construction and maintenance or repair of terrace
walls
• Establishing the antiquity and determining the
social organization
Ethnographic Interviews

23. • To obtain charcoal samples in the Bocos Terrace
system – based on GIS modeling and oral history
• Four excavation units within the Bocos Terrace
System – based on their proximity to the river, with
the assumption that units nearest to the river would
provide the earliest dates (Keesing 1962;Maher
1973)
Excavations

24. • Layer I – cultivated soil (luyo)
• Layer II – hard earth fill and wall foundation
(hagental and gopnad)
• Layer III – original valley floor (doplah)
• Samples were remains of Pinus kesiya Royle ex
Gordon, commonly known as Cordillera pine which
has a lifespan of 100-150 years.
Statigraphic Profiles

25. Figure 6. South wall profile of Trench 3, with radiocarbon
determination and soil analyses results.

27. •Distribution of fields
•Antiquity
•Establishing the house
concept
Three Main Themes

29. •Terraced rice fields and swidden fields in
North Central Cordillera are interrelated
•Production requirements, consumption
needs and social factors provide evidence
of the complementarity of the two.
Distribution of Fields

30. • Datasets suggest that swiddening and wet-
rice cultivation in Ifugao are characterized by:
Diversified system that usually uses both paddy
and swidden
They started with paddy and then added
swidden
Some people who do not have enough paddy
use swidden
Distribution of Fields

31. Swidden Fields

33. •Using the information from 14C dating,
statigraphy, Ifugao tradition and events
recorded historically…
Antiquity

34. Excavation Unit
Elevation (metres
above sea level)
Post-Spanish
(Post-AD1585)
Probability
Mamag 1040 74.6%
Rasa 1060 98.5%
Linagbu 1340 99.9%
Table 2. Probability analyses of pre-Spanish or post-Spanish construction of
Bocos rice terrace walls (Table appeared in Acabado 2009:811).

35. • Web relationship
• “himpuntunagan” – organizing unit in ifugao
• The social organisational aspect of water
management and agricultural system among
the Ifugao appears to be guided by self-
organisation
House concept

37. •There was a historical relationship
between upland and lowland
populations.
•It challenges the link between social
organisation and production system.
•Bayesian model established the antiquity
of Ifugao Agricultural Terraces

38. •Population movement was attributed to the
arrival of the conquistadores.
•Subsistence strategies practiced by the
original settlers were no longer sufficient to
feed a growing population – wet-taro fields

39. •Landscape and ethnographic information
provides us with evidence to this
complementary production system.
•The existence of complex irrigation and
agricultural systems does not necessarily
correlate with political centralisation.

40. Pioneer Settlers
Taro and other dry-crop cultivation
Arrival of lowland groups evading the Spanish
Population increase
Adoption of rice cultivation Swidden cultivation
Rice is embedded in rituals and prestige
Access to rice and ice-lands is limited
Social Stratification
Expansion Intensification
Figure 10. Culture-
historical model for the
development of Ifugao
agricultural terraces.