Islamic Trade and Entrepots in the Second Millennium Philippines Archipelago

Summary

The spread of Islamic influence throughout Island Southeast Asia and into the Philippines Archipelago was rapid and extremely effective in the second millennium AD. This model of colonization utilized down-the-line and proxy trading through Taosug and Iranun raiders as well as by the establishment of entrepôts established through intermarriage and local exchange. Power flowing through horizontal networks cemented regional networks and exported an extensive power structure into an otherwise acephalous, dispersed, and disconnected lineage and socio-political structure. The Islamic imprint on the region linguistically, with terms for power such as rajah and data, into the region was enduring and highly successful in competition with hierarchical European models of colonization. Islamic nodal trade networks spread a distinctive material culture and cultural practices such as wet-rice agriculture that were rapidly adopted within two hundred years of the advent of Spanish settlements in the region and remain highly resilient and adaptive.

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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