Cabinet of Curiosities: History from Philippine Artifacts

 Not bad, not bad at all! I guess the overall choppiness of the narrative is attributable to the fact that this is a collection of short essays, but otherwise it???s pretty fun! I liked how it wasn???t just things like statues and coins and jars and such, but included literary works and even a menu. The connections he drew between artifacts, history, and culture make for some very interesting reading, and really live up to his aim of making these ???mute??? artifacts ???speak??? in the same way that written history does. 
I noted though that he seemed to get a wee bit defensive on the matter of repatriation. He makes a good point about how several of the artifacts he mentions were spared from destruction because they weren???t in the country when the Battle of Manila happened (because the Americans practically leveled the city - it was the second most-devastated city, after Warsaw, at the end of World War II), but at the same time I kind of think this question of repatriation is one that should be revisited and reconsidered in the current period. Maybe not for all artifacts currently out there, but for a few. 
I also noted how Ocampo pecked at contemporary political and social issues here and there, wherever they were relevant to a particular artifact. For example, when discussing the Murillo Map that helped bolster the Philippines??? territorial claims against China in the UN arbitral court, he briefly tackles the Philippines??? ongoing dispute with China over the West Philippine Sea. It would have been interesting if he???d been able to expand a bit more on those political ideas, but I also recognize that this book might not be the best place for them; besides, he???s got columns and socmed accounts on which he can expand on his ideas as he wishes. 
Another thing that Ocampo points out regularly, especially when discussing precolonial artifacts, are the efforts of local archaeologists to preserve remnants of the Philippines??? past before the colonizers arrived. Between the less-than-ideal preservation conditions and looting both past and present, being an archaeologist in the Philippines is a very difficult and dangerous job, and Ocampo makes note of that in the essays accompanying many of the precolonial artifacts featured in the book. Their persistence and oftentimes downright heroic efforts are the main reason why the enormous gaps in our knowledge of the Philippines??? precolonial past are slowly but surely getting filled in. 
So overall, this was a nifty and informative read. While there were times when I wished Ocampo had gone into greater detail and depth into the history of a particular artifact, for the most part the essays were fine on their own as starting points for creating greater interest in Philippine history as a whole.