Wagering the Land Ritual, Capital, and Environmental Degradation in the Cordillera of Northern Luzon, 1900-1986

Development of truck gardening in the cool highlands of northern Luzon, an area perfectly suited to the cultivation of temperate vegetables, gained momentum after World War II. Martin Lewis describes engagingly the economic and social life of Buguias and the centrality of religion during the first four decades of this century, the complete destruction of prewar agriculture and animal husbandry in 1944, and the explosion of commercial farming thereafter. Unaccustomed prosperity reinforced the religious practice of lavish communal feasting, which not only honors the dead and bolsters the status of the living but also brings "good luck" to the host farmer's enterprise if the ritual succeeds in placating the ancestors. Heavenly favor thus overshadows sound environmental practices, and the region's inhabitants are quite literally wagering their lands in the hope of gaining prosperity and prestige