Marinduque Silencescapes: History and Stories of Local Silence

Details constituting the sound environments in the island province of Marinduque can be extracted and reconstructed from the H. Otley Beyer Ethnographic Collection papers written by Asunción M. Arriola, Nieves Hidalgo, Eduardo E. Palma, Serapio Rolloqui, Cornelio C. Restar, and Miguel Manguerra (1916-1928) and the writings of Rafael J. Semilla (1970- 71). With these sources one will be able to examine places identified with or produced by silence, which are here called “silencescapes”. Given the challenges on defining, reading, and historicizing silences and silencescapes, there is a need to situate these places of silence within meanings and functions in a culture and society. As a study that examines how silences produce places, it attempts to contribute to the current scholarship on geo- narratives, local history, and countermapping.