The Meaning of Culture-specific Food: Rice and its Webs of Significance in Sri Lanka

Sinhalese farmers in Sri Lanka seem to have an ambiguous relation to the Green Revolution. On the one hand, most have adopted the use of these high yielding varieties of paddy, but on the other hand one can easily observe practices and discourses that tear this biotechnology down from its full victory over nature. This article contrasts the various cultural uses of pre-green revolution varieties with those cultivated since. More specifically, their role in social and sexual reproduction is investigated as well as their religious roles. It becomes clear that the so-called new and old varieties allude to the experience of a temporal breach in the cultural evolution due to the green revolution, as particular varieties of rice relate specific ways of life and being. Finally, it is shown that the epistemology and ontology contained in the green revolution clash with the ontology of sociality and being, in relation with nature, of a community based on cosmo-sensitive agriculture.