3D Visualization and Soundscape Applications that Speak to Community Organizational Change on Luzon, Philippines during Spanish Contact

Summary

This paper explores the organizational impact of Spanish contact on the island of Luzon, Philippines from the 15th-19th centuries through an analysis of sound landscapes (soundscapes) that are produced by the habitual ringing of Catholic Church bells. Church bells in Luzon were intended to notify local residents of prayer congregation or of impending ‘Moro’ attacks; however the bells were also Spanish territorial markers that flaunted power and demanded the attention of residents living within auditory range regardless of their spiritual affiliation. I adopt a landscape approach that searches for correlations between changes in social organization and urban planning evidenced in the archaeological and historical records that are within the auditory range of Catholic churches bells on Luzon and compare those patterns to community organization outside the church bell auditory zone. These patterns are markedly different on coastal communities if compared to the highlands of Ifugao, where in the later Spanish incursions did make significant inroads until the 19th and 20th centuries. Excavation and survey data taken from the field is processed with 3D visualization software applications in order to analyze how sight and sound can inform one another in archaeological analysis and suggest potential social mixing correlations.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Multi-Directional Colonialism: Approaches to Studying Global Interactions

Keywords

Spatial Coverage