Raiding, Trading and Feasting

This text presents a comprehensive analysis of how participation in the trade network through the South China Sea, the Melaka Straits and into the Indian Ocean related to broader changes in the political economy of the Philippine island societies. By combining archaeological evidence with historical sources, the author offers an examination of the nature and evolution of Philippine maritime trading chiefdoms. Most importantly, she demonstrates that it is the dynamic interplay between investment in the maritime luxury goods trade and other evolving aspects of local political economies, rather than foreign contacts, that lead to the cyclical coalescence of larger and more complex chiefdoms at various times in Philippine history.