Philippine E-Journals

Insights on Kapampangan Society from Palaeoenvironmental and Archaeological Research in Pampanga’s Coastal Lowlands

Vito P.C Hernandez

Discipline: History

 

Abstract:

Palaeoenvironmental and archaeological research conducted in Pampanga’s coastal lowlands has produced new knowledge about Pampanga. This primarily comprised of landscape changes and human responses to these changes. The study of these changes and responses has led to insights on Kapampangan society. The developed insights cover issues regarding the “antiquity of the Kapampangan identity,” “the collective character of the Kapampangan people” and the “idea of a Kapampangan nation-state.” These insights offer a picture of an “indirect” cause for the development of the Kapampangan landscape. This landscape is developed through the people’s experience of their physical environment, which is tied to the collective character of Kapampangan society. It is hypothesised that this collective character can ensure the persistence of Kapampangan society through future environmental, and perhaps, even social stress.