New research uncovers traces of rice in Mariana Island pottery dated to 3,500 years ago, corroborating a theory that suggests rice was present in Remote Oceania 2,000 years earlier than once thought. The findings indicate that the first people to travel from Asia to the distant Pacific Islands brought rice with them to farm for use in rituals and special occasions. Rice permeated the Asia-Pacific region a little more than 4,000 years ago. However, records indicate that the staple plant did not reach the faraway Pacific Islands until the 1500s – except for Guam and the Mariana Islands. On those specific islands, it was mainly used for special occasions and in mortuary ceremonies. Remains of rice in Guam and the Marianas date to only 1,000 years ago, but linguistic clues from Indigenous vocabulary hint that the plant was there for far longer and arrived with the first transoceanic 2,300 kilometers-long journey. By analyzing fossilized plant tissue particles, using micro-CT scanning, and conducting thin-section petrography, Mike Carson and colleagues dated rice husk and leaf traces on red-slipped pottery (called Marianas Red) to 3,500 to 3,100 years ago. The pottery came from the Ritidian Site Complex in Guam, which includes two ritual caves, smaller caves, and an area of open-shoreline habitation. The team also examined pottery, stone tools, and sediment from the Unai Bapot site in Saipan, which was occupied from 3,500 to 300 years ago. Cross-comparison of samples with sediment from swamp and farmland areas in Guam corroborated this timeframe. “Rice can be confirmed as one of the domesticated crops brought by the earliest Pacific Islanders, […] successfully completing the longest ocean-crossing journey of their time,” Carson et al. write.

The June 2025 issue of Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints features a range of scholarly articles and book reviews exploring indigenous healing traditions, state welfare misdiagnoses, and the evolving landscape of Philippine Studies in China. Highlights include Armand Nicod-am Camhol’s study on the multifunctionality of the bulul, Marie Bembie A. Girado’s critical analysis of conditional cash transfers among the Palaw’an, and Ma Yuchen’s cross-border perspective on Philippine Studies. The volume also reviews recent publications on indigeneity, colonial religious devotion, conflict in the Bangsamoro, Filipino leadership, and the historical impact of typhoons.