UGAT 42nd Annual Conference Call for Abstracts

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

UGNAYANG PANG-AGHAMTAO, INC. (UGAT)
Anthropological Association of the Philippines
and
University of San Carlos, Cebu City, Cebu, Philippines

42nd Annual Conference
1521 and Beyond: Anthropology of Encounters
05-07 November 2020
University of San Carlos, Cebu City, Cebu, Philippines

Christianity may be considered the most significant cultural consequence of Spanish colonization in the country.  But this religion was utilized to subjugate the local population and coerce them to convert to a belief system imposed by the colonizers.  Despite the victory of the locals led by Lapulapu over Magellan and his men in 1521, this group of islands now named the Philippines came under the rule not only of the Spaniards for centuries but also the Americans thereafter.  Encounters with the colonizers were experienced by local peoples in different places across different time periods, sometimes violently. Such historical events illustrate how cultures encounter each other through various forms, resulting in a number of challenges, consequences, and changes, on both sides.

As we approach the 500th anniversary of Lapulapu’s victory, as well as Magellan’s success in circumnavigating the Earth, and the introduction of Christianity in this country, the Ugnayang Pang-Aghamtao (UGAT) would like to scrutinize various types of encounters before, during and beyond 1521 up until the present.

Encounter as a phenomenon has different typologies and layers of interactions with temporal and spatial dimensions corresponding to when and where two or more people meet and the circumstances that unfold before, during, and after every encounter. The traditional type of encounters is direct and face-to-face between individuals or groups involving actual physical movements together with certain products or objects, plants, and animals, ideas and technologies as commodities—like the experiences with Muslim traders and Spanish colonizers—which may have been used in the transaction in order to gain access to a particular place or to negotiate for other scarce commodities for mutual benefit or for the pursuit of some hidden agenda.

The other type of encounters, in contemporary times, does not only involve physical movements of people across places but include those engagements mediated by information technology, social media, transportation and communication systems, and other social networks that allow the parties involved to satisfy or achieve their respective purposes. But because encounters may involve individuals, groups, communities or organizations with varied and often conflicting interests due to social class, ethnicity, nationality, gender, age group, political position, and so on, as well as of commodities with differentiated values; the results of such encounters may be favorable or unfavorable.  Due to the power imbalance between the involved parties inherent in the hierarchy of encounters, no mutually beneficial results are assured, but can be worked out by both parties in the process.

Therefore, this conference invites anthropologists, practitioners, and supporters of anthropology to submit and present studies that examine the cultural contexts, meanings, dynamics and consequences of encounters beyond its common notion as physical meetings of different peoples.

Individual and panel abstract submissions may cover the following topics:

• Precolonial contacts
• Exploration and colonization
• Evangelization and religious contacts
• Travel and tourism
• Religious movements
• Social movements
• Indigenous Peoples in transition
• Community engagements
• Virtual communities
• Digital encounters
• Classroom encounters
• Supply chain and product branding
• Expatriates and overseas workers
• Encounters with globalization
• Zone of encounters
• Encounters between economic systems & practices
• Political encounters
• Violent encounters
• Cosmological or ideological encounters
• Art objects and appreciations
• Gender and sexuality encounters
• Self and others
• Law and enforcement
• Human and non-human encounters
• Inter-generational encounters
• Discourse on time, space and place 
• Researchers and the researched
• Science and local knowledge intersections 
• Decolonizing anthropology
• Intercultural marriages
• Intercultural communication 

Proposals that do not fall under any of the identified topics above may be given consideration.

Conference Convenors

Jose Eleazar R. Bersales – University of San Carlos
Enrique G. Oracion - Silliman University
Zona Hildegarde S. Amper - University of San Carlos

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SUBMISSION GUIDELINES 

• Submissions must use the prescribed Submission Form (http://bit.ly/SubmissionFormUGAT2020) which includes an abstract  (250 words) written in a style that is accessible to non-academic audiences. 
• The submission must be original and has not been presented in other conferences or published in journals or books.
• Proposals may be written in English or in any Philippine language. 
• Proposals for panels must include a panel abstract as well as paper abstracts.
• Kindly email the completely filled-out Submission Form (in pdf) to ugat.conference@gmail.com

Deadline: 01 June 2020

Notice of acceptance of proposals will be issued by email by July 2020

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For further information, please contact the head of the conference secretariat, Ms Marjury Dino (+63 956 538 2816) or at ugat.conference@gmail.com

To learn more about our conference venue, you can check the web page of University of San Carlos at http://www.usc.edu.ph/

Please like our UGAT page on FB for updates: http://www.facebook.com/ugat1978/

Reclaiming our root crops

SECOND OPINION: Reclaiming our root crops
Philippine Daily Inquirer
05 March 2020

Gideon Lasco
Columnist

Most Filipinos today consider rice as by far our most important, if not our one and only, staple food, a sine qua non of our daily meals. Whether one’s viand is bistek Tagalog, lechon Cebu, fried chicken, or sautéed fish, it is cooked with rice in mind.

In some parts of the country, the primacy of rice has been around for centuries;

Pigafetta noted as much. But the same cannot be said of other areas where it was root crops that people ate regularly. Even where rice was a staple, root crops shared its place among the commonly consumed foods, as in sinigang which was meant to be a complete meal, with gabi serving as carbohydrate source. Our ancestors would have been none the poorer. Unlike rice, which is relatively labor- and land-intensive, root crops grow even in unfavorable conditions. They also have nutritional profiles superior to white rice. Gabi (taro), for instance, is rich in fiber, vitamins, and minerals, and the leaves are edible, too (laing!). Beyond gabi, ube (purple yam), and the New World-sourced kamote (sweet potato), and kamoteng kahoy (cassava) -- each of which has different varieties -- we have dozens of root crop species with their unique flavors and profiles.

What can explain the shift to rice?

People might respond by saying “well, rice tastes much better.” But even taste, a subjective quality, is shaped by culture; our fondness for rice draws from our having been eating it since childhood and our meals having been designed to complement rice. There must be a stronger explanation for the relative decline of root crops in our consciousness.

One answer involves changing attitudes toward both rice and root crops. As the physical anthropologist Francisco Datar said in the Ugnayang Pang-Aghamtao (UGAT) conference last November in Visayas State University, Baybay, Leyte, rice was — and still is — perceived as a “prestige food” in various parts of the archipelago, leading to its desirability and eventual ubiquity. Conversely, root crops were seen as an inferior food, leading to their being shunned by people. We still see this low regard for root crops today in expressions like “kinakamote” and the very telling “Go home and plant kamote!”

Agricultural technologies that have made rice widely available are another contributory (and corollary) factor, with rice varieties today far more productive in yield than those in the past. Even with rice shortages, the ease of importing all but guarantees rice’s ubiquity, even as the economics of it raises questions of equity for our rice farmers.

Conversely, despite the efforts of scientists (there are Root Crops Research and Training Centers in Baybay, Leyte, and La Trinidad, Benguet, not to mention the work of DOST and UPLB), there has been relatively little investment in root crops, whether in terms of agricultural research, food technology, or marketing.

This marginality of root crops is unfortunate for a number of reasons. As mentioned earlier, root crops are actually very nutritious, and hold the potential to enrich our culinary heritage. Although ube is beloved by Filipinos as a dessert and is increasingly being recognized abroad, we miss out by ignoring other varieties and species. In the UGAT conference, for instance, UST’s Hermel Pama gave a colorful account of namu in Bicol, and when I shared this topic with my medical colleague Johanna Banzon, she spoke of kayos in Iloilo.

Moreover, root crops can reduce our (over)dependence on rice, increasing our food sovereignty and diversity, benefiting overall nutrition, and helping indigenous and marginalized communities who are most vulnerable to inflation and fluctuations in rice prices.

Finally, a revival of root crops can contribute to building resilient communities, particularly in our age of climate crises. As Development Academy of the Philippines’ Julieta Roa pointed out, also in UGAT, root crops have always served as “survival foods” -- but knowledge about them, including how to remove toxicity, is fast fading away.

Of course, I am not saying we should abandon rice completely. My modest appeal, echoing what others have said, is that we include root crops as part of our diet and give them the attention, research, and investment they deserve. Reclaiming our root crops will make us more rooted in our rich biocultural heritage, healthy in our diets, empowered in our food choices, and resilient as a nation.

Follow @gideonlasco on Twitter. Send feedback to glasco@inquirer.com.ph.


Reference: https://opinion.inquirer.net/127805/reclaiming-our-root-crops