HUNTER-GATHERER LANDSCAPES AND LOWLAND TRADE IN THE PRE-HISPANIC PHILIPPINES

Ethnographers have recently debated two distinct models of hunter-gath erer and agriculturalist interaction in the tropical forests of island Southeast Asia: (1) the 'Isolate' Model, proposing that hunter-gather ers had a social network and stable, tropical forest-based foraging ec onomy largely independent of contact with sedentary farmers until the historic era, and (2) the 'Interdependent' Model, suggesting a lengthy history of symbiotic exchange and economic overlap between the two po pulations. While these models have been examined and debated from the perspective of ethnohistoric and linguistic data, relevant archaeologi cal evidence has been lacking. This paper uses archaeological data on settlement patterns, lithic assemblage composition and the regional ci rculation of ceramics, metal, and other trade goods to demonstrate tha t the types of economic interactions suggested by the 'Interdependent' Model have existed between lowland agriculturalists and upland forage rs in the Tanjay Region of the Central Philippines for at least the la st 1500 years.