| Abstract: |
In the archaeological record of Malayo-Polynesian Philippines, monumental remembrance is not materialized in structures that either defy the earth, like the tower form, or that identify with the cosmic, like the mound. The fickle and frequently powerful and destructive natural environment defines the cosmological, which can only be highlighted or pointed out, not mastered or made a home of. Instead, boat-shaped burial markers laid out low to the ground in stones or coral slabs appear to flow and disappear into the farther landscape. The Annales concept of the longue duree helps clarify these architectural peculiarities of the various Malayo-Polynesian peoples of the Philippines archipelago, who shared in the region-wide Austronesian ethnic and linguistic heritage, but who more peculiarly shared in their own archipelagos distinctive combination of weather and seismic activity. The boat markers concretely manifest the coming together of the purpose and concern of monumental architecture with the archipelagos collective world view.
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