Social network analysis of the Northeast Branch of the Grand Abra River Network Luzon, Philippines, in the nineteenth century

Abstract

Recent works point out the apparent contested subservience (Mawson in Incomplete conquests in the Philippine Archipelago, 1565–1700, 2019. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.35839) and relative autonomy (Smith in Haven geographies and the indigenous prestige economies of Spanish colonial Philippines, 2014) of indigenous Philippine settlements from the Spanish administrators in both the colony and the metropole in contrast to more homogenizing notions that the colonial subjects have become fully assimilated. This case study provides historical geography data that enters this conversation, placing a spotlight on a niche coinciding with the North-eastern branch of the grand Abra River, part of a major gold trading network of Luzon Island in the Philippine archipelago in the nineteenth century, Spanish Contact period. The article explores Social Network Analysis (SNA) on some social and environmental variables of the data. The process included the georeferencing of a nineteenth century archival map of the area in order to digitize relevant settlements in this quadrant of the drainage basin. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) predictive modelling was then undertaken as a preparatory step to SNA analysis. The results indicate that an SNA undertaken using the least cost path predictive models between and among the villages is a good fit to both the environmental as well as the historically documented social relationships of the villages. In terms of the environmental factor, the similarities model seems to reflect intra village connections and relationship that come into play to facilitate trade and exchange. In terms of the social variable the nineteenth century map is quite in tune to the dissimilarities model in terms of showing the degree of integration/assimilation to the Spanish colonial government.