Paper short abstract:

My ethnoarchaeological research among Philippine foragers illustrates that recent adaptations by foragers can be used to reinterpret/reappropriate ways that foragers were resilient to the "modernity" of the past, These perspectives that may be the key to understanding a complex deep forager past.

Paper long abstract:

Hunter-gatherer studies, specifically my own amongst modern populations of the Ata of Negros Island of the Philippines, continues to provide fruitful and revitalizing information on hunter-gather studies, complexities associated with dealing with modernity, and most significantly, deeper insights into ways that scholarss can understand multi-varied levels of resiliency amongst hunter gatherers diachronically and spatially. Based on my current research, the combination of archaeology, ethnographic fieldwork, geographic information systems, and historical accounts provide a case for an almost uniformitarianistic perspective in studying forgers groups. I propose that adaptations to modernity undertaken by forager societies described by researches for the past half-century, not only apply today, but can also be used to elaborate on multi-varied ways that foragers have adapted to "modernity" in the past. Due to our auspicious ability to tap into these still existing marginalized societies, lessons are still to be learned about foragers and these perspectives may be the keys to understanding, reinterpreting and reappropriating our perceptions about foragers globally.