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2000 Year Old Hypothesis

During the first half of the 20th century two prominent figures in Philippine anthropology began an intensive investigation of the ethnology of the Ifuga, Barton and Beyer (Acabado et al., 2010, 140). Through them, the rice terraces became known to the outside world. Barton and Beyer were the first to develop ideas about the origins of the peoples who settled the islands; they estimated how long it would have taken to construct the terrace systems, which fill valley in the Ifugao country. Beyer, who is considered to be the “father of Filipino anthropology” was one of the first anthropologists to conducted field-based investigations of the area (Acabado et al., 2010, 140).

Barton and Beyer arrived to their conclusion through estimates of the amount of time it would have taken to construct the elaborate agricultural terrace systems that fill the valleys of Central Cordillera, for Beyer his proposed dates fit the larger issue of the peopling of the Philippines also known as the Wave of Migration Theory,(a now widely rejected theory) (Acabado et al., 2014, 15). Similarly, Barton’s contribution to the earlier model pushes the antiquity of the Ifugao people and terraces to as early as 3,000 years ago. Stating there was no way the Ifugao terreces could be built in just a few hundred years based on the current configuration and distribution (Acabado et al., 2010, 140). They both proposed that 2-3 thousand years were needed to cover the Cordilleras with rice terraces.

Wave Of Migration Theory

Beyer popularized the “wave of migration” theory, which claims that that a succession of different groups arrived in waves, with varying biological and cultural sophistication; "There was a very specific racial typology, with each wave getting lighter and lighter as the level of culture got higher and higher" (Acabado et al., 2014, 15). He stated that,

1st: to inhabit the islands were the Negritos, the dark-skinned pygmies, as Beyer stated. "They currently inhabit interior mountain ranges across the Philippine archipelago because, as Beyer postulated, of their “inferior culture."(Acabado et al., 2014, 14) 2nd: The Negritos were pushed to the mountains when the second group arrived, identified by Beyer as the Indonesian A and B. Indonesian type A were said to arrive about 3,000 to 4,000 BC and Indonesian type B arriving about 1500 to 500 BC. The descendants of the Indonesians are said to be the terrace-building tribes of northern Luzon (Ifugao)(Acabado et al., 2014, 14). 3rd: The last group said to arrive were the Malays, who arrived in 3 successive waves, with the last group appearing just before contact with Europeans. The last wave was eventually Islamized and Christianized. They settled the lowlands, thereby pushing the Indonesians and the 1st two waves of Malays to the mountains (Acabado, et al., 2014, 15).

Refuting a False Narrative Beyer was not explicit on how he came up with the estimate which. This idea promoted that Filipinos moved peacefully out when new groups came, and implies that nothing new was ever invented or developed in the Philippines."Filipinos were just passive observers, waiting for someone from the outside to bring in new material and cultural innovations" (Acabado, et al., 2014, 15) For almost half a century after Barton and Beyer stated their view, no one challenged their models. (Acabado, et al., 2014, 15)."Local wisdom and nationalist sentiments would have us uphold this longstanding belief in the age of the Ifugao Rice Terraces, espoused by pioneer anthropologists of the Philippines Roy F. Barton (1919) and Henry Otley Beyer (1955)" (Acabado, et al., 2014, 15). Recent findings by the IAP (Acabado, et al., 2012), however, have provided new information driving us to rethink the 2000 year old hypothesis, primarily because of the dearth of archaeological data to support the “long history” model(Acabado, et al., 2014, 15). Archaeologists have proposed several alternatives to the Waves of Migration theory, and evidence is now pointing to a more recent history of the rice terracing traditions, a "short history" model grounded on ethnographic, ethnohistoric, archaeological, and paleoenvironmental datasets (Acabado, et al., 2014, 15).