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Center for Philippine Studies
School of Pacific and Asian Studies, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa
Present . . .
Dating Construction
and Use of Ifugao
Rice Terraces
By
Stephen B. Acabado
Ph.D. Candidate, Anthropology Department
University of Hawaii at Manoa
ABOUT THE LECTURE:
The origins and age of the Ifugao rice terraces in the Philippine Cordillera continue to provoke interest and imagination
in academic and popular debates. For Southeast Asian scholars, dating these terraces is critical for understanding
Philippine prehistory and Southeast Asian patterns more generally. Beyond the scholarly community, the terraced Ifugao
landscape has captured the world’s imagination as an important cultural landscape (UNESCO 1995). To date, however,
insufficient work has been undertaken to determine either when the terraces were first constructed, or the period of time
involved in the creation and development of this tiered landscape.
Resolving the antiquity of the entire Cordillera terraced field tradition requires archaeological work to determine
whether the conventional ‘long history’ or the revisionist ‘short history’ more accurately represents the occupational
history of this region. Such work requires decades of research in different provinces across the mountainous region,
beginning with areas within Ifugao province. This study presents chronometric dates from well-controlled proveniences in
the Banaue district of Ifugao Province.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Stephen Acabado received his BA in Anthropology from the University of the Philippines, Diliman and his MA in
Anthropology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He is currently a PhD Candidate in the Anthropology
Department, UH Manoa, completing a dissertation on the archaeology of the Ifugao rice terraces. His research on the
Ifugao has been funded by an NSF Dissertation Improvement Grant and Henry Luce Foundation Initiative on Asian
Archaeology and Early History. He has also received degree fellowships from the East-West Center and the Asian
Cultural Council. His research interests include Southeast Asian archaeology, landscape archaeology, and heritage
management.
February 2, 2009, Monday
12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. – Moore Hall 319 (Tokioka Room)
Free and open to the public
For more information regarding the Center for Philippine Studies, this lecture series, or disability access,
call 956-6086 (Clem Montero) or email cps@hawaii.edu
SPRING 2009 PHILIPPINE STUDIES
COLLOQUIUM SERIES