This document is a foundational anthropological study published in 1912 by the Field Museum of Natural History as the first number of Volume XII in its Anthropological Series. It presents findings from The Robert F. Cummings Philippine Expedition, which sponsored extensive ethnological fieldwork in the islands beginning in 1906. The primary author, Fay-Cooper Cole, conducted research among various indigenous tribes in Northern Luzon, Palawan, and Mindanao between 1907 and 1911. The paper provides a context-rich historical and cultural analysis of the presence and significance of Chinese pottery within the Philippine Archipelago. It chronicles the extensive pre-Spanish and colonial trade networks that introduced a variety of ceramics—from common earthenware and crockery to prized porcelains and large jars—into the islands. The work highlights the profound cultural role this pottery played among native Filipino populations, detailing its use in burial customs and its elevated status as a measure of wealth. The objects often took on legendary status, as evidenced by tales of famous "talking jars" owned by the Tinguian and Dyaks. The study traces Spanish encounters with the Chinese trade, noting that the value of these ceramics led to an outflow of gold from the Spanish colony. The inclusion of a postscript by Berthold Laufer and the context of the Cummings Expedition places the work within the early 20th-century American anthropological efforts to document and collect ethnographic material from the Philippines.
Chinese pottery in the Philippines