Prof. Arlen A. Ancheta, Ph.D. (rightmost) and Elmira Thrina Pelayo (fourth from left) who presented their study on Malolos women, are shown here together with other workshop presenters at the National University of Singapore.

University of Santo Tomas (UST) researchers presented the results of their ethnographic study on the vanishing cultural heritage of Malolos women in a workshop participated in by researchers from different parts of the globe at the National University of Singapore recently.

UST Faculty of Arts and Letters and Graduate School faculty member Prof. Arlen A. Ancheta, Ph.D. and UST Development Studies Graduate School student Elmira Thrina C. Pelayo shared their findings from their study on women fisherfolks entitled “Framing Vernacular Memories of the Woman Fisherfolks: A Vanishing Cultural Heritage in Namayan Island, Philippines.”

The study on the woman namamaklad was also co-authored with Center for the Conservation of Cultural Property and Environment in the Tropics Director Assoc. Prof. Eric Zerrudo.

The study is an ethnographic presentation of the vanishing cultural heritage of the women fisherfolks in the small island of Namayan, in Malolos, Bulacan. Namamaklad is a manner of scooping fish in the fish corral, wherein the “nightlife” of the women is when they join their husbands in scooping fishes along the estuary of Manila Bay.

As an ethnographic study, woman namamaklad recall their chants; how they sort the fishes while their husbands scoop in the fish corral. Their closeness to the sea made them realize that food security is at stake as development takes place in the adjacent cities.

The workshop, which carried the theme “Placing Islands in Sustainable Urban Development: Heritage, Histories, Tourism and Identity” was organized and sponsored by the Asian Research Institute.