Janine Therese Ochoa

JANINE T. OCHOA, then a graduate student at University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom, was awarded funding in October 2016 to aid research on ‘Indigeneity, Endemicity and Zooarchaeology: Archaeozoological Reconstruction and Ecological Knowledge Systems in Philippine Island Environments,’ supervised by Dr. Preston Miracle. Funding supported archaeological field research in the Philippines covering the period of January to May 2017. The aim of the research is to investigate human impacts and adaptive responses based on the fossil record. From these, the grantee re-frames the zooarchaeological data to examine ancient indigenous ecological knowledge (IEK) systems in island environments. The findings consist of two major datasets. First is the analysis of three faunal assemblages from Luzon and Palawan Islands. The sites are Pilanduk, Musang and Minori Caves, and they cover a possible temporal range of the last 20,000 years. The second major output is the post-excavation analysis of Pilanduk Cave site, which includes the archaeological site analysis, faunal analysis, curation of all archaeological finds, and radiocarbon dating. Together, the faunal data and archaeological subsistence record generates two forms of ‘ecological knowledge.’ First is knowledge about environments that humans lived in. The fossil evidence provides ecological and biogeographic data necessary to reconstruct these tropical environments and habitats. Secondly, there is IEK of ancient human populations, which is inferred from their adaptive responses, subsistence strategies and environmental impacts on native faunas.