by Lorraine A. Abagatnan
This medium-sized container may look wooden, but it is actually made from a coconut shell! The original maker of this container cut open the top of a coconut and scraped off the meat from inside of the shell. On the lid and inside the coconut shell, scrape marks are still visible. They attached a lid with a piece of twine, so that the container could be covered and carried around.
Image 1. UMMAA 8074. This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. 
Image 2. UMMAA 8074, seen from the side. This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. 
Image 3. The interior of UMMAA 8074. This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. 
Image 4. UMMAA 8074, opened. Work marks are clearly visible on the interior of the lid. This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
There are four holes on the top of the lid for ventilation, so that people could store hot foods like cooked eggs. The simple container does not have any decorations or unique designs. So, if this container were to break, a person could make another one easily. Indigenous Filipinos create containers like this to store both objects and food.
Coconuts are an important fruit in the Philippines. Because they grow well in tropical climates, coconuts are found throughout the islands. People use coconuts for food for both themselves and their livestock. They use coconut oil as medicine, as a grooming item, for cooking, and more. Coconuts are an important product in both the Philippine and global economies. In the early 1900s, businesses made great profits exporting Filipino coconuts to Europe. Today, the Philippines is the second-largest exporter of coconut products in the world, behind Indonesia.
Image 5. A man prepares to harvest coconuts from a tree. Lantern Slide from the Dean C. Worcester Photograph Collection. This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 
Image 6. Two individuals split coconuts. Lantern Slide from the Dean C. Worcester Photograph Collection. This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 
Image 7. An Ifugao coconut shell bowl. MOA la49, Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia.. Photo credit: Courtesy UBC Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver, Canada.
This coconut container is from Taraka, a town in the Lanao del Sur Province, on the island of Mindanao. Today Taraka is home to the Maranao people around Lake Lanao. The container was picked up in April 1904, after the Battle of Taraka. This conflict, fought between the Moro people of Taraka and American soldiers, was part of the Philippine-American War. In the aftermath, 1st Sergeant Fred B. Morse, an American soldier, picked up the container. Sergeant Morse had been stationed in Mindanao and served as part of the 14th Cavalry in the Battle. At that time, collecting items as spoils or loot was not considered illegal, and it was common practice by soldiers during wartime. UNESCO passed the Hague Convention of 1954, which made it illegal for people to collect cultural items during and after wartime. The University of Michigan purchased this container from Mr. Morse’s wife, Mrs. Marie Morse, in 1926. Many objects from the Morse collection are weapons collected after battlefield encounters, though some objects, like this container, are household items.
Bibliography
Foreman, John. The Philippine Islands: A Political, Geographical, Ethnographical, Social and Commercial History of the Philippine Archipelago and Its Politic. Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh, 1899.
Jacobson, Henry O. Coconuts in the Philippines. Manila: Bureau of Printing, 1915.
Kirker, Constance L. and Mary Newman. “The South Pacific and the Philippines.” In Coconut: A Global History. London: Reaktion Books, 2022.