Trade and interaction are linked to the development of social ranking among premodern societies, indications for which are seen in mortuary practices, particularly with the existence of exotic burial goods. Excavations in the Old Kiyyangan Village (OKV) in the northern Philippine highlands present new information on the relationship between the introduction of imported goods, the most prevalent of which are beads, and increasing social differentiation. I investigate the relationship between both the quality and quantity of the burial beads and the juvenile individuals they were buried with. The varied amounts per grave could indicate an expression of social ranking in Ifugao society as supported by morphological analysis, preliminary XRF analysis, and ethnographic studies of Ifugao heirlooms. Additionally, the presence of Chinese-style glass beads in a Philippine site suggests a network of trade between Ifugao and other Philippine or Asian polities.

This dissertation focuses on decolonizing the discipline of archaeology through archaeology as activism. It separates archaeology as activism into two specific strategies: vocational activism, or increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in archaeological training, and archaeology as activism, or making data useful to modern social activist movements. Borrowing from healthcare, I argue that integrating cultural humility—which emphasizes self-work—into training programs has the potential to help archaeologists challenge their norms, leading to less-biased interpretations of the past. Furthermore, I showcase the unique role and responsibility archaeologists from within a community play in decolonizing archaeology. As a Native Hawaiian archaeologist, I promote vocational activism in this dissertation by integrating Hawaiian studies into my research, calling for the reconceptualization of land in archaeological studies, particularly conceptualizing land as people, land as source, and land as ongoing connection and care, and rethinking how we interact with her (land). I then transition into my case study on water rights activism in Nā Wai ʻEhā, Maui. While the community has made significant headway in advancing Native Hawaiian water rights, I highlight how there is still a lack of hydrological data, something that is needed to change water allocation. In my methods, I set a foundation for further analysis by reconstructing the landscape and providing an estimate of taro quantity and water usage prior to the plantation period. I show potential ways that sugarcane plantations negatively impacted the environment by using maps, satellite imagery, and aerial photography to trace hydrological infrastructure changes and changes in the environment in light of the microclimate data from 1920 to 2007. From this analysis, it appears that sugarcane plantations drastically altered the environment by utilizing significantly more water than taro and decreasing the density of woodlands. My research, thus, provides a roadmap for increasing equity within the discipline and integrating Native Hawaiian ways of knowing into archaeology. Furthermore, it highlights the potential and limitations of doing research on Hawaiʻi while forced to be off-island as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Spanish colonialism significantly altered the landscape of the Philippines from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth century, most notably though missionization and converting locals to Catholicism. Dominant historical narratives assert that Filipinos, like many other colonized or Hispanized peoples, resisted colonialism through either fighting or retreating, which neglects to acknowledge the agency of colonized peoples, and the ways in which local traditions were maintained through time. While many lowland Philippine polities did convert and join the Spanish Catholic Church, in the Bikol region, Bikolanos rapidly converted to Catholicism and established some of the earliest Catholic churches in the country. In this dissertation, I explore how Bikolanos created places on the landscape in which they could maintain and perform their new hybridized identities as they adapted in their newly colonized world. Bikolano Catholic religiosity persisted over the years, most visibly through their devotion to Catholic icons like Our Lady of Pe�afrancia who is the focus of today’s largest Marian fiesta in Asia. This use of religious iconography suggests a unique response to the Spanish, in which Bikolanos utilized Marian devotion to maintain their changing Catholic/Bikol identity and their autonomy over the landscape. I identify and discuss places on the Bikol landscape that are essential components of the Pe�afrancia devotion, and I explore how and why these places became sites of meaning, memory, and importance for Bikolanos. I argue that although these places are intended for Catholic rituals, they are intentionally localized to maintain distinctly Bikol and Filipino Catholic attributes. This subversive strategy permitted Spanish-period Bikolanos to stay “Bikol” while also becoming Catholic, which is a strategy still utilized today as Bikolanos maintain their fervent traditional devotion in a rapidly modernizing world. My analysis and discussion show that places – specifically Catholic churches, but also other smaller spaces – are markers on the landscape that dictate how local Catholic devotion is practiced while also ensuring that memory and meaning persist across centuries. This research is an important step in recent trends to explore nuanced responses to Spanish colonialism in the Philippines and the ways Filipinos used to landscape to express and maintain identity through difficult times.