Opening lecture as part of launch of the "Flavors of the Archipelago: A Photographic Exploration of Philippine Foodways" Exhibit
Wednesday, October 29, 2025
5:00 PM (Pacific Time)
Deutsch Room, Fowler Museum at UCLA and Livestream
308 Charles E Young Dr N
Los Angeles, CA 90024
Batanes is closely linked with strong typhoons. These islands are often struck by the center winds of storms, which flatten vegetation and cause major food shortages. This situation results in maychapteng (famine). Because of isolation, rugged terrain, and limited resources, the Ivatan people learn to make use of food sources usually ignored in times of abundance. Whatever survives the typhoon is gathered, processed, and eaten. Root crops (wakay, Ipomoea batata; dukay, Dioscorea esculenta; uvi, Dioscorea alata) are the most dependable foods because, even after typhoons destroy surface plants, the underground roots remain intact. This is one of the main reasons rice is not the staple food of the Ivatan.
Today, things are different. Fewer strong typhoons reach Batanes each year. Commercial ships regularly bring supplies from the mainland, especially rice, which now replaces root crops as the staple. Airplane flights are also common, carrying both supplies and tourists. These changes bring rapid acculturation. Food habits shift quickly.
This lecture traces and explains how some foods once linked to famine become prestige foods. It examines the social and cultural pressures that shape values and perceptions, and it explores how ethnoarchaeology helps us understand the pathways these foods follow to their present status.
Francisco Datar received a PhD in anthropology from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He went on to teach at the University of the Philippines, serving in various roles such as chair and field school director of the anthropology department. In between doing field research and teaching students, he lent his expertise to aid various forensic investigations. Among his most notable assignments was helping the Philippine Commission on Human Rights and a human rights NGO identify the skeletal remains of human rights victims. Datar officially retired from the University of the Philippines in 2019 after 42 years of service.
If you wish to join the livestream, you can view the lecture at this YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ifugaoarchaeology4851.
*****You can view "Flavors of the Archipelago: A Photographic Exploration of Philippine Foodways" Exhibit by Francisco A. Datar starting October 29, 2025 at 4pm with the exhibit launch at the UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology in the hallways of A Level of Fowler Museum Building.
Sponsor(s): Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Fowler Museum at UCLA, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, The Philippine Consulate General of Los Angeles, Office of Senator Loren Legarda (Senate of the Philippines), UCLA Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies, UCLA Southeast Asian Archaeology Lab