Eighteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

This study re-examines the archaeological data and the excavated tradeware ceramics from the 11th to 14th century burial site of Santa Ana, Manila as a possible model for understanding pre-colonial “Filipino” aesthetics. The aesthetic or sensory encounter is one of the most primary means that humans use to gather information and interpret our environment. And while art history and archaeology share a common ancestry, current archaeological studies seldom examine what an aesthetic approach and theories of aesthetics can add to our interpretation of data. The Santa Ana funerary sites excavated by the Locsins in the 1960s is one of the earliest systematic excavations containing large quantities of tradeware ceramics in the Philippines. It provides archaeologically secure data and context which attest to the longevity of trade and quality and quantity of goods exchanged between the Philippines and China. It is a pre-hispanic and pre-Islamic site and can thus be assumed to have followed local aesthetics in its early funerary rituals. Arnold Berleant’s aesthetic field is the primary means of analysis used – factoring in historical accounts, ethnographic data on burial practices in lowland Philippine communities and technological developments in pottery production. Burial sites are places of ritual activity and exhibit the intentional deposition of objects according to a cultural practice and/or world view. As such, these sites can illustrate Berleant’s argument that the aesthetic encounter, even as seen in the archaeological data, goes beyond the object and is shaped and informed by social, economic, ideological, and technological factors.