Negotiating Power at the Spanish-Philippine Frontier: What Evidence of Indigenous Prestige Economies Reveals about Indigenous-Colonial Interaction

Summary

Historical documents provide most of what is currently known regarding Spain’s subjugation of the Philippine archipelago. However, in this paper I discuss how archaeological evidence of indigenous prestige economies enriches our understanding of the interaction between the encroaching Spanish colonizers with indigenous polities. My study of imported ceramics found in the Malangwa watershed, Negros Oriental indicate that, contrary to Spanish records, indigenous access to foreign prestige goods did not diminish in this region during the early phases of colonization. Instead, the spatial distribution of imported ceramics reveals an intensification of the indigenous prestige economy through the 18th century. This means that in response to the Spanish installed encomenderos, who demanded tribute from the polities of Negros, local leaders increased their use of imported wares to solidify regional alliances and loyalties. Thus, while European writings claim that exotic trade was significantly restricted to Europeans after the mid-16th century and that the encomienda came to "define" the economy of Negros, the archaeological evidence demonstrates: 1. Indigenous access to foreign goods increased after the mid-16th century and 2. The added demands of encomienda tribute did not come to define the economy Negros, but rather, encouraged the intensification of the traditional prestige economy.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Cross-cultural encounters/entanglements in Island Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific

Keywords

Spatial Coverage