Recovering Filipino Production of a Maritime Anthropology

• Main Authors: Rodriguez-Roldan, Suzanna, Mangahas, Maria F
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2019
• Subjects: Southeast Asian Anthropology; Filipino Maritime Anthropology; Anthropology; Social and Cultural Anthropology; South and Southeast Asian Languages and Societies
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/sa-faculty-pubs/100; https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/25192
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

This paper inquires into the relative paucity of published ethnographic work on fishing communities in the Philippines written for and by Filipinos. For an archipelagic nation; the local ethnographic literature on coastal and fishing communities should perhaps be expected to be more expansive. This project began from an awareness that there are quite a number of good ethnographies languishing on library shelves in the form of unpublished theses and dissertations. Many can also be found among research reports produced in the course of long-term 'Coastal Resource Management' (CRM) projects conducted in various parts of the Philippines. Spanning more than a century; unpublished 'gray literature' on the generally marginalized sector of fisherfolk communities has survived in obscurity; and still waits to carve a mark in the published anthropological literature. In the process of surfacing existing material relating to the field of ‘maritime anthropology’ from various parts of the country; we reflect on the practices and production of anthropological scholarship through time.