Abstract The start of the twenty-first century is marked by new levels of globalization, environmental degradation, and social conflict that are endangering the cultural landscapes and agrarian heritage of rural areas. In the wake of... more
Abstract The start of the twenty-first century is marked by new levels of globalization, environmental degradation, and social conflict that are endangering the cultural landscapes and agrarian heritage of rural areas. In the wake of these threats, heritage professionals are imagining new, holistic models for shared cultural and natural heritage protection that support active community engagement around issues of cultural identity, material and ecological sustainability, and shared ethical values. Agricultural land conservation is fertile terrain in which to theorize how heritage protection can contribute to the mobilization of social cohesion to restore a balanced human ecology. Agrarian land tenure challenges heritage advocates to bridge the conventional binary of nature/culture that has divided heritage resource protection strategies and to support the protection of working, populated cultural landscapes. Over the past 35 years in the United States, a number of agricultural land protection programs have emerged that depend upon a complex web of cooperation among landowners, governments, and private land trusts to purchase development rights on farmland. I propose that such programs are both symptoms of and coping strategies for broader processes of socio-economic alienation. This paper focuses on a New England case study to explore the potential for agricultural land protection as a framework for shared heritage protection. Based on the results and research connected with this case study, I offer a theoretical and ethical framework of heritage protection as a culturally mediated discursive practice of community-building—one that references the past in order to intervene in present alienating processes and secure a recognizable future.
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"Le moment est venu de dresser le bilan des musées philippins - des anciencs comme des nouveaux - notament celui des musées universitaires." Ana P. Labrador décrit dans cette optique l'essor des musées universitaires, en exposant le... more
"Le moment est venu de dresser le bilan des musées philippins - des anciencs comme des nouveaux - notament celui des musées universitaires." Ana P. Labrador décrit dans cette optique l'essor des musées universitaires, en exposant le regain d'intérêt qu'ils suscitent et qui est l'une des caractéristiques propes aux Philippines aujourd'hui. L'auteur est professeur adjointe d'estudes artistiques à l'Université des Philippines de Diliman. C'est une spécialiste de la muséologie ainsi que des aspect théoriques et esthétiques des art non occidentaux. Elle a obtenu un doctorat de recherche (Ph.D.) en anthropologie sociale à l'Université de Cambridge (Angleterre), plus particulièrement axé sur la muséologie et sur les cultures matérielles. Elle a récemment publié des articles dans les revues Humanities Revsearch, ArtAsia Pacific Journat et Cambridge Anthropology.
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Contemporary concepts of the Babaylan have conflated meanings, especially to those who subscribe to special figures that embody supernatural powers found in Philippine communities. They may be ordinarily a neighbour performing everyday... more
Contemporary concepts of the Babaylan have conflated meanings, especially to those who subscribe to special figures that embody supernatural powers found in Philippine communities. They may be ordinarily a neighbour performing everyday tasks but transform on certain conditions or in settings that may call for such mysterious actions. In more urban settings, Babaylan are now construed as a female or a transgender being that has mystical powers to heal, prescribe amulets, divine, teach and perform rituals. Several communities, however, may also involve a male Babaylan that possesses the same abilities – in all, the Babaylan are known to believers as wise and benevolent beings, with extraordinary abilities.
It is said that to be a Babaylan, one must be willing to give up a mundane existence and go through a difficult process of apprenticeship. They are known to transcend this world and communicate with the other through trance, prayers and kinship reckoning. While valorised in their communities, they are also seen as dangerous since they are misunderstood, believed to harbor malevolent spirits or have the ability to perform sorcery akin to witches in the West. This may be the reason for their popularity despite historically being marginalised by colonial powers, that dismissed their powers as myth.
This paper focuses on the Babaylan in Philippine communities that have parallels with similarly imbued characters believed to have supernatural powers found across Southeast Asia. It will look at data that I collected on healers and village priests in Northern Luzon, some of whom might have been secretly recruited by religious missionaries during the Spanish colonial period in their vocation to convert “natives”, as well as used as examples of dissident figures in contrast to the goodness that the Christian God represents. This precarious and liminal position of the Babaylan – of being betwixt and between – makes these characters powerful central figures that loom large in our myths and from which we draw inspiration in times of crises.
It is said that to be a Babaylan, one must be willing to give up a mundane existence and go through a difficult process of apprenticeship. They are known to transcend this world and communicate with the other through trance, prayers and kinship reckoning. While valorised in their communities, they are also seen as dangerous since they are misunderstood, believed to harbor malevolent spirits or have the ability to perform sorcery akin to witches in the West. This may be the reason for their popularity despite historically being marginalised by colonial powers, that dismissed their powers as myth.
This paper focuses on the Babaylan in Philippine communities that have parallels with similarly imbued characters believed to have supernatural powers found across Southeast Asia. It will look at data that I collected on healers and village priests in Northern Luzon, some of whom might have been secretly recruited by religious missionaries during the Spanish colonial period in their vocation to convert “natives”, as well as used as examples of dissident figures in contrast to the goodness that the Christian God represents. This precarious and liminal position of the Babaylan – of being betwixt and between – makes these characters powerful central figures that loom large in our myths and from which we draw inspiration in times of crises.
Research Interests: Social Anthropology, Material Culture Studies, Ritual, Performativity, Ethnographic Fieldwork (Anthropology), and 15 morePhilippines, Gender and religion (Women s Studies), Museum Ethnography, Intangible Cultural Heritage (Culture), Folk Religion, Ritual Theory, Animism, Indigenous Religion, Sacred Spaces, Art and Religion, Ritual Practices, Indigenous arts, Religion and Artefacts, Cultural Anthropology, Liminal Space, and Liminality, and Philippine Babaylan Studies
This article was an excess chapter of my PhD dissertation as a result of being a bit unmindful of the 80,000-word limit, eager to tell the story of the Ifontok and Isamoki communities I engaged with while doing my 14-month field research... more
This article was an excess chapter of my PhD dissertation as a result of being a bit unmindful of the 80,000-word limit, eager to tell the story of the Ifontok and Isamoki communities I engaged with while doing my 14-month field research from 1996 in Mountain Province. I updated the "basket chapter" as an independent paper 19 years later for consideration to the NRCP Humanities Division editors. I studied the ubiquitous Bontok basket as part of the Bontoc repertoire of everyday objects, as well as for rituals; moreover, from their perspective, the baskets define who they are, as well as their relationships with one another and with those beyond the boundaries of Bontoc. (The final digital and print copy has a number of errors and I attached on this copy the missing footnotes and errata.)
Research Interests: Social Representations, Gender Equality, Traditional Crafts, Intangible Cultural Heritage (Culture), Ritual (Anthropology), and 12 morePhilippine Studies, Objects Conservation, Women and Culture, El Niño, Women and Gender Studies, Biography of Objects, Basketry, Ethnicity and National Identity, Museum Display, Bontoc, Mountain Province, and Basket Weaving
We now regard the COVID-19 pandemic as a disaster like no other caught as we were, by the lack of foresight into its impacts on our lives and our work. With the creative and tourism industries most affected, museums were forced to... more
We now regard the COVID-19 pandemic as a disaster like no other caught as we were, by the lack of foresight into its impacts on our lives and our work. With the creative and tourism industries most affected, museums were forced to reinvent their management strategies. In the context of Southeast Asia, the most immediate shock was the absence of visitors around mid-March 2020 when museums were forced to close and only a handful of staff were allowed to report for work to curb a silent and deadly disease from further spreading. From conversations I have had with colleagues in the region through email and messenger, I realised that it took us some time to adapt to this new emergency situation. Our Disaster Risk Preparedness programmes focused on anticipating shorter, more dramatic events such as fire, flood, and civil strife. The shift from physical programmes to digital ones was difficult for many of us who did not consider the online format as effective as those public programmes we ...
Research Interests: Museum, Heritage Management, Disaster Response and Recovery, Experimental Arts Practices and Museum Display, Mental Health Issues, and 15 moreMuseum Management In Crisis Periods, Museums and Community, Angkor Wat, The Role of Social Media In Crisis Preparedness Response and Recovery, Tourism and Museums, Pandemic Preparedness and Response, Southeast asian museums, COVID-19 PANDEMIC, museum public, museum staff, public healing spaces, National Museum of the Philippines, Museum Siam, National Museum Bohol, and ASEAN Museum Congress
This paper focuses on the materials and techniques of two oil painting practices introduced to the Philippines—the first case study examines 1850s Filipino missionary art from the island of Bohol, and the second investigates early... more
This paper focuses on the materials and techniques of two oil painting practices introduced to the Philippines—the first case study examines 1850s Filipino missionary art from the island of Bohol, and the second investigates early twentieth- century paintings in the JB Vargas Collection of the University of the Philippines.
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I discussed the role of storytelling in the museum and shares how the integration of narrative approaches in museum tours and education can not only impact audiences but also lead to deeper understandings of intangible cultural heritage... more
I discussed the role of storytelling in the museum and shares how the integration of narrative approaches in museum tours and education can not only impact audiences but also lead to deeper understandings of intangible cultural heritage (ICH). In this way, the protection and transmission of ICH can be carried out with increased support and positive outcomes. I also offered an overview of the structure and activities of the National Museum in the Philippines and its new, accessible approach to museum education.
Research Interests: Art, Museum Education, Intangible Cultural Heritage (Culture), Museology, Visual Arts, and 15 moreInteractive Storytelling, Exhibition, Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning, Basketry Weaving, Duality, UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, Lumad, SEAMEO SPAFA, Southeast Asian Traditional Textiles, National Museum of the Philippines, Museum Siam, Bontok, National Discovery Museum Institute, National Museum of Natural History Philippines, and tripartition
Research Interests: Humanities, Art, Contemporary Art, Nationalism, Southeast Asia, and 10 morePhilippines, Flags (Vexillology), Women Artists, Suez Canal, Ethnicity and National Identity, Anu, Filipino National Artists, Pacita Abad Foundation, Philippine Sartorial Culture during the Spanish colonial period, and Philippine sartorial heritage
Curating a permanent exhibition on the Muslim groups from Mindanao, Southern Philippines entitled Faith, Tradition and Place: Bangsamoro Art from the National Ethnographic Collection (opened October 2014), presented interesting and... more
Curating a permanent exhibition on the Muslim groups from Mindanao, Southern Philippines entitled Faith, Tradition and Place: Bangsamoro Art from the National Ethnographic Collection (opened October 2014), presented interesting and complex challenges involving issues of identification and representation, especially relating to use of the collective label ‘Bangsamoro’. The socio-political situation in 2014 greatly impacted the selection, organisation and display of the objects, held by the National Ethnographic Collection, managed by the National Museum of the Philippines in Manila. This chapter outlines the cultural complexity of the Bangsamoro and discusses the curatorial processes and negotiations behind the exhibition, concluding with a critical self-assessment.
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This article relates to the link between display and production of cloth in Bontoc, Mountain Province. It is part of a larger question of which I am pursuing, particularly how museums represent a group’s uniqueness in an exhibition and... more
This article relates to the link between display and production of cloth in Bontoc, Mountain Province. It is part of a larger question of which I am pursuing, particularly how museums represent a group’s uniqueness in an exhibition and how this group use emblems, such as clothes, to symbolize their distinctiveness. In general, I have found in my continuing research, there is a disjuncture between museum depiction and local portrayal of identity. Some of these reasons will be described here. Rather than write a general article on the Cordillera, I found it more worthwhile to highlight Bontoc as the archetype of traditional practices in the region.
Research Interests: Anthropology, Visual Anthropology, Ethnography, Textiles, National Museums, and 14 morePhilippine Cordillera, Museums, Clothing Culture, Representation, Funerary Practices, Exhibitions, Display, Ethnicity and National Identity, Bontoc, The Field Museum of Natural History, St. Louis World's Fair, US Colonial History and Economics, Handloom Weavers, and life cycle rituals
This is one among ten articles from community-based museums in the Asia Pacific region outlines different approaches made to enhance the role of museums in the service of community development. Their successes and the challenges that are... more
This is one among ten articles from community-based museums in the Asia Pacific region outlines different approaches made to enhance the role of museums in the service of community development. Their successes and the challenges that are ever present are described in these examples, in addition to the activities of the community-based museums that provide further insight into their development and various management styles that have been applied since their inception.
In the Philippines case, the challenges of getting an academic program off the ground, using the framework of community museum development were difficult but not insurmountable. Labrador cites several museums in communities that helped in creating a new concept for museum practice. Any museum studies program would only be relevant using a consultative process from the ground up.
In the Philippines case, the challenges of getting an academic program off the ground, using the framework of community museum development were difficult but not insurmountable. Labrador cites several museums in communities that helped in creating a new concept for museum practice. Any museum studies program would only be relevant using a consultative process from the ground up.
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In many communities with continuing traditions of producing things from organic materials, there is a strong tendency to engage in the process of making rather than just the form of the objects themselves. Community members' access to... more
In many communities with continuing traditions of producing things from organic materials, there is a strong tendency to engage in the process of making rather than just the form of the objects themselves. Community members' access to these things privilege them to consider objects as products o f a combination offactors. These arecollective action, social relationships, artistryand materials. It is an attitude that is different [rom the form-oriented creativity of individualized production. Here authorship of the object takes precedence over use or relevance to others. In general, this distinction is often regarded in the academe and urban discourse as indigenous craftsmanship in contrast to Western art making. I intend to resist subscribing to this classification i f only to steer away from conventional binary labels. My concern here is to draw attention to the problem o f conservation practices involving the ethnographic collections in Philippine museums.
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Local baskets play an important role in the Bontok's identity, particularly for women who are married. They must possess sets of baskets that are valued by their community to establish themselves as married women. These have resonance in... more
Local baskets play an important role in the Bontok's identity, particularly for women who are married. They must possess sets of baskets that are valued by their community to establish themselves as married women. These have resonance in their life as primary rice farmers and their relationship with their environment. In instances of drought brought on by the El Niño, the disappearance of the basketweaving materials signals the lack of food harvests that are contained within those baskets.Such symbolic occurrences have implications on how they will manage food security for their community.
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The wood panel paintings and twentiethcentury works were studied between 1998-2003 and 2003-05 respectively. 5 The results are surmised in table 1 for the panel paintings and table 2 for the twentieth-century paintings. 6 Case Study One:... more
The wood panel paintings and twentiethcentury works were studied between 1998-2003 and 2003-05 respectively. 5 The results are surmised in table 1 for the panel paintings and table 2 for the twentieth-century paintings. 6 Case Study One: 1850s Panel Paintings from the Island of Bohol Art historians such as Flores, Pilar and Jose highlight the multitude of artistic discourses that infl uenced the evolution of Filipino painting
Research Interests: Art History, Material Culture Studies, Art Practice as Research, Art Conservation, Materiality of Art, and 15 moreReligious art, Practice-led art research, Sacred Art, Modern and Contemporary Art History and Theory, Contemporary Asian Art, Art and Globalization, Post-Colonialism, Iconography and Iconology, Materials and Techniques of Artists, Materials and Techniques and Related Protocols, for Indigenous Artifacts, Oil painting, History of Art Institutions, Panel Paintings, History of Philippine Art, Art Academies and Art Schools, Modern Art In the Philippines, Examination of Works of Art, and Oil painting mediums
A 2001 tribute to sculptor Julie Lluch during the Ellen F. Fajardo Annual Lectures/Exhibition in Honor of Filipino Women in the Visual Arts. Read on 22 January 2001, Ateneo Art Gallery, Quezon City, The Philippines.
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<<En Filipinas ha llegado la hora de la verdad para los museos antiguos y modemos en general y los museos universitarios en particular>> Siguiendo esta idea, Ana P.Labrador describe el crecimiento de los museos universitarios y el... more
<<En Filipinas ha llegado la hora de la verdad para los museos antiguos y modemos en general y los museos universitarios en particular>> Siguiendo esta idea, Ana P.Labrador describe el crecimiento de los museos universitarios y el renovado interés que despiertan actualmente en su país. La autora es profesora adjunta de Estudios de Arte en la Universidad de Filpinas, en Diliman. Es especialista en estudios museológicos y en teoría y estética del arte no occidental. Doctora ea antropología social por la Universidad de Cambridge, Inglaterra, con especialización en museología y cultura material, recientemente ha publicado artículos en Humanities Research, ArtAsia Pacific Journal y Cambridge Anthropology.
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A review of "Lupa" exhibition of Ferdie Montemayor, which was shown at the West Gallery Glorietta, August 15-27, 2001.
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‘This is a period of reckoning for old and new museums in the Philippines in general and the university museums in particular.’ With this in mind, Ana P. Labrador describes the growth and the renewed importance of university museums that... more
‘This is a period of reckoning for old and new museums in the Philippines in general and the university museums in particular.’ With this in mind, Ana P. Labrador describes the growth and the renewed importance of university museums that characterize the Philippines today. The author is assistant professor of Art Studies at the University of the Philippines in Diliman. She is a specialist in museum studies and the theory and aesthetics of non‐Western art. She has a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge in England, focusing on museology and material culture, and has recently published articles in Humanities Research, ArtAsia Pacific Journal and Cambridge Anthropology.
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Introducing and foregrounding the National Cultural Treasure 14-panel paintings collectively titled the Basi Revolt. It is an art and history conservation monograph focusing on them and the role of basi, an alcoholic beverage from... more
Introducing and foregrounding the National Cultural Treasure 14-panel paintings collectively titled the Basi Revolt. It is an art and history conservation monograph focusing on them and the role of basi, an alcoholic beverage from sugarcane juice, in shaping and expressing the cultural heritage and identity of the Ilocano in northern Luzon through ethnographic materials associated with basi and the Ilocano culture. Attributed to Esteban Pichay Villanueva (1797-1878), an Ilocano mestizo from Vigan, they were examined, conserved, restored, and studied further in Manila from 2011 to 2014 and eventually returned and exhibited at the Old Carcel in the NMP Ilocos Regional Museum in Vigan City in 2015.
The other chapters in this publication are the following: A historical appraisal of The Basi Revolt and Ilocano heritage, an updated version of the exhibition texts at the NMP Ilocos Regional Museum in Vigan by Jenny Ruth M. Cano, Maria Lourdes I. Ingel, Erika C. Robis, and Marites P. Tauro; the results of both historical and physical examinations of the paintings by Nicole A. Tse, Research Associate of the NMP and Conservation Researcher at the Grimwade Center for Cultural Materials Conservation, University of Melbourne with Roberto A. Balarbar and Raymundo Esguerra, NMP Researchers; and the results of the image analysis and digital scanning of the paintings by Phoebe Gallansa and Maricor Soriano, Ph.D., from the National Institute of Physics of the University of the Philippines in Diliman. A gallery of the fourteen paintings, as well as the index of the 72 Ilocano material culture included in the exhibition entitled Containing the Cultural World of Basi, are also part of the monograph.
The other chapters in this publication are the following: A historical appraisal of The Basi Revolt and Ilocano heritage, an updated version of the exhibition texts at the NMP Ilocos Regional Museum in Vigan by Jenny Ruth M. Cano, Maria Lourdes I. Ingel, Erika C. Robis, and Marites P. Tauro; the results of both historical and physical examinations of the paintings by Nicole A. Tse, Research Associate of the NMP and Conservation Researcher at the Grimwade Center for Cultural Materials Conservation, University of Melbourne with Roberto A. Balarbar and Raymundo Esguerra, NMP Researchers; and the results of the image analysis and digital scanning of the paintings by Phoebe Gallansa and Maricor Soriano, Ph.D., from the National Institute of Physics of the University of the Philippines in Diliman. A gallery of the fourteen paintings, as well as the index of the 72 Ilocano material culture included in the exhibition entitled Containing the Cultural World of Basi, are also part of the monograph.
Research Interests: Image Processing, Heritage Conservation, History of Art, Philippine Cordillera, Sugar cane, and 15 moreIlokano Studies, 19th-Century Art, High Resolution Images, Southeast Asian Art History, Alcoholic Beverages, Oil Paintings, Paintings, Conservation Management Plans, Itneg, Ilocano Ethnography, Peasants Revolt, Vinegar, Philippines during the Spanish Colonial Period, Materials Resesarch for Conservation, Digital Scanning, and commodity exchange
Education must not be confined to the work of a group within a museum. It should be part of the work of its researchers, curators, and conservators to enable a direct articulation of stories behind objects, collections, and exhibitions.... more
Education must not be confined to the work of a group within a museum. It should be part of the work of its researchers, curators, and conservators to enable a direct articulation of stories behind objects, collections, and exhibitions. At the National Museum of the Philippines, we made a bold move to take out the department dedicated to education during its reorganization. Instead, we embedded educators within the research departments. In my Keynote Speech, I will be talking about the processes we went through and the framework we developed to ensure that instead of predigested information delivered to our museum audiences, we could tell stories so we can fill the gap that we normally have when translating education in exhibitions. Overview Dr. Labrador discusses the role of storytelling in the museum and shares how the integration of narrative approaches in museum tours and education can not only impact audiences but also lead to deeper understandings of intangible cultural heritage (ICH). In this way, the protection and transmission of ICH can be carried out with increased support and positive outcomes. She also offers an overview of the structure and activities of the National Museum in the Philippines and its new, accessible approach to museum education.
Research Interests: Art History, Museum Education, Intangible Cultural Heritage (Culture), Museology, Visual Arts, and 14 moreInteractive Storytelling, Exhibitions, Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning, UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of ICH, Basketry Weaving, Duality, Lumad, SEAMEO SPAFA, Southeast Asian Traditional Textiles, National Museum of the Philippines, Museum Siam, Bontok, National Discovery Museum Institute, and National Museum of Natural History Philippines
In this paper we will begin by examining case studies on natural and manmade disasters that have endangered heritage collections in the Philippines and Southeast Asia. These will be analyzed within the context of culture in the region... more
In this paper we will begin by examining case studies on natural and manmade disasters that have endangered heritage collections in the Philippines and Southeast Asia. These will be analyzed within the context of culture in the region where disasters are seen as fateful events and acts of god. Linking them to current concerns with climate change is particularly timely, as the Philippines' National Framework Strategy for Climate Change 2010-2022 does not mention cultural heritage in its agenda. Moreover, this may also be understood in the framework of a social situation where saving lives take precedence while museums are disregarded when catastrophes strike. In recent years, more attention elsewhere has been given to emergency preparedness for heritage collections as threats grow from wars, greenhouse gas effects and poverty. We will be presenting not only scenarios that emanated from museums and heritage professionals' experiences but also the theories that are developing within the structure of ICOM's Museum Emergency Program in partnership with Getty Conservation Institute and ICCROM. Having received training and actively participating in giving training, we will share lessons we have learned that contributed to our research skills to effectively manage our museums, libraries and archives.