Page 217 - Vol_2_Archaeology of Manila Galleon Seaport Trade

11 The Development of Humåtak Village: The Life-Line … 189

11.2 Cultural Exchange and Encounter

The Manila Galleons not only transported trading goods, but also people who
brought with them their cultures from back home. Soldiers, missionaries, traders
and skilled laborers traveled to the Mariana Islands between Mexico and the
Philippines by way of the galleon trade route.
Cultural exchanges took place as extended stays became frequent. In 1668,
Jesuit missionary Father Diego Luis de San Vitores secured funding and royal
support to establish the !rst Catholic mission in the Marianas.
New political and social systems were introduced after a forceful displacement
of the CHamorus from their villages on the northern islands to Guam (known as the
reducción), in order to control the indigenous inhabitants of the Mariana Islands.
Spanish gobernadors (governors) administered the islands, gobenadorcillos
(“little governors”), and Spanish, Filipino and Mexican soldiers kept the peace. The
Catholic Church became the center of village life replacing the traditional practices
of ancestral worship. No longer allowed to construct or sail their magni!cent and
agile outrigger canoes, the CHamorus continued to !sh, but also cultivate new food
items like corn on their lanchos or ranches located on their ancestral lands outside
the main villages.
Architectural building styles changed as stone forts, bridges and houses made
from a technique known as mampostería were built around the island, and roads
were constructed connecting the different villages to the administrative center in the
Capitol of Hagåtña (Fig. 11.3).
The intermarriage of Chamorro women with men from Spain, the Philippines
and Mexico also impacted the islanders’ customs, traditions, language and social
organization. The power of matrilineal clans was diminished and replaced with
patrilineal lines of inheritance while lands were taken by the Spanish government
for public use.
Traditional spiritualists known as makahna, lost their influence over Christian
belief, but re-emerged as herbal healers called suruhanu and suruhana. Ancestral

Fig. 11.3 New architectural building after Spanish encountering