The Sacred, Buried and Forgotten Dead: Current Bioarchaeological Research in the Philippines by the National Museum

Human remains are encountered in different archaeological contexts. The presence of these remains reveals multiple sets of data into the life ways, as well as death ways of people in the past. As people are not only bearers of cultural beliefs and practices but also representatives of a population’s diet, health and nutrition, their remains persist to be a vital subject for study in archaeology.
This session aims to discuss current bioarchaeological research in the Philippines by researchers from the Archaeology and Ethnology Divisions of the National Museum of the Philippines.  Papers in this session will tackle analyses of human remains in different settings, of different time periods, for different research objectives. In one of the highest peaks in the Cordilleras where mummification of the dead was practiced, tourism and a shift in cultural beliefs begs the question of community response and the value of conservation. In a Visayan island facing the Philippine Sea, the devastation of a supertyphoon led to the destruction and eventual restoration of a magnificent church where a sizeable number of human skeletal remains were retrieved in the process. A joint research on previously collected human remains that are kept at the National Museum will also be presented.

From Marian Reyes (Researcher, National Museum of the Philippines): mariancreyes@gmail.com