Inclusive Archaeology: A new look at Ifugao history

TWO NEW BOOKS by the same two authors have come out recently and are major contributions to the understanding of Ifugao culture on the Grand Cordillera mountains of Northern Luzon and a new approach to historical research and archaeology.

- By Jonathan Best

Neither book is a conventional historical narrative but they both contain important historical information regarding the extended Ifugao community and a great deal of information and commentary regarding Ifugao the Rice Terraces, Ifugao material culture, folkways, spiritual life, and their relationship to the outside world.

The first book, published by the University of Arizona Press in 2022, titled Indigenous Archaeology in the Philippines: Decolonizing Ifugao History by Stephen B. Acabado and Marlon M. Martin, reports on the archeological findings of the Ifugao Archaeological Project in collaboration with the Save the Ifugao Terraces Movement. The two authors started working together with their respective colleagues over 10 years ago to research Ifugao history from a primary excavation they initiated at the old site of Kiyyangan Village in Ifugao Province. While doing so they tried to develop a more “ethical role” for archaeology, embracing community inclusive research methods with serious attention paid to local folk knowledge and traditions and concern for the education and cultural needs of the current “descendent community.”

The second book,