Crossover, continuity and change: Women's production and marketing of crafts in the upland Philippines

The fieldwork for this dissertation was conducted between December 1994 and September 1995. This study analyzes the shifts in the relations of production and trade with the commercialization of the craft industry in Banaue, Ifugao, northern Philippines. With a focus on women and weaving, it examines the significance of crafts (weaving, woodcarving and basketry) as a source of income and accumulation for both artisans and traders and with the relations that evolved between these two groups with the commoditization of Banaue's rural economy. By concentrating on craft production and trade, this research follows the direction of recent peasant studies toward a focus on non-farm as well as farm work; it demonstrates that rural artisans and traders still combine their craft activities with cultivation and explores the nature of this link at the household level.;This study disputes the earlier paradigms that called for the marginalization of women and the dramatic restructuring of their household-based production with the expansion of capitalist market forces in rural, "developing" regions. I argue that with the commoditization of crafts, women in Banaue, as artisans and traders, engage in multiple economic strategies and continue to participate in customary practices and in capitalist economic transactions at the household level.;Profiles of twelve artisan households challenge the concept of a homogeneous rural community of subsistence cultivators. Some families meet their daily needs, some have accumulated savings enhancing their households' upward economic mobility; others are in debt to traders. Building on the Ifugao ideology of gender parity and on Banaue's fluid economy, some female artisans with access to small amounts of capital have moved from producer to producer-trader status; others have added woodcarving and basketry skills to their knowledge of weaving to enhance their positions. The fact that women engage in different crafts provides a provocative context within which to consider commoditization.;Indeed, with craft commercialization, women have become Banaue's most prominent traders. They mediate between the demands of local artisans and urban buyers by activating kinship and community support, engaging in customary gift-giving and combining these with capitalist practices to achieve their business goals; this demonstrates the coexistence of different economic systems. Thus, the most noticeable inequalities that emerge are not those between men and women, but those among women--between artisans and traders and among the members of each group.;This research also demonstrates that women's contemporary cloth production in Banaue has not caved in to consumer demands with the commoditization of crafts. Accompanying their production of ikat textiles targeted for sale to tourist markets, weavers continue to produce "traditional" textiles for domestic and ritual use. Problematizing the concepts of "traditional", "authentic" and "tourist art", I demonstrate that both spheres of production bridge the gaps between indigenous customs and external practices.;In summary, this dissertation argues that Banaue's craft industry emerges, not as a rural activity isolated from or dependent upon the larger national economy, but one whose operations combine both formal and customary economic transactions. In turn, this research demonstrates how artisans and traders through their individual agency play major roles in contributing to the plural texture of Banaue's craft production and to the complex trade networks within which the industry is incorporated.