RESEARCH PAPER SERIES No SERIES No. 2008-03
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RESEARRESEARRESEARCH PPCH APERAPERAPER SERIES No... 2008-03 Rice in the Filipino Diet and Culture Filomeno V. Aguilar Jr. PHILIPPINE INSTITUTE FOR DEVELOPMENT STUDIES Surian sa mga Pag-aaral Pangkaunlaran ng Pilipinas Filomeno V. Aguilar Jr. is Professor at the Department of History, Ateneo de Manila University. He is also the Editor of Philippine Studies, and the current Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Philippine Social Science Council. He recently served as President of the International Association of Historians of Asia in 2004–2006, and Director of the Institute of Philippine Culture, Ateneo de Manila University, from April 2003 to November 2005. He taught at the National University of Singapore and James Cook University in Australia. He obtained his Ph.D. from Cornell University. This paper is part of an upcoming volume Rice in the Filipino Way of Life: a Retrospect, which is the result of a seminar series jointly sponsored by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) and the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) in celebration of the International Year of Rice in 2004. Rice in the Filipino Diet and Culture Filomeno V. Aguilar Jr. RESEARCH PAPER SERIES NO. 2008-03 PHILIPPINE INSTITUTE FOR DEVELOPMENT STUDIES Surian sa mga Pag-aaral Pangkaunlaran ng Pilipinas Copyright 2008 Philippine Institute for Development Studies Printed in the Philippines. All rights reserved. The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of any individual or organization. Please do not quote without permission from the author or PIDS. Please address all inquiries to: Philippine Institute for Development Studies NEDA sa Makati Building, 106 Amorsolo Street Legaspi Village, 1229 Makati City, Philippines Tel: (63-2) 893-5705 / 894-2584 Fax: (63-2) 893-9589 / 894-2584 E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://www.pids.gov.ph ISSN 1908-3297 RP 11-08-500 Table of Contents List of Tables and Figures iv Abstract vi 1 Introduction 1 2 A Brief Social History of Rice 2 Rice in the Preconquest Period 2 Colonial Transformations under Spain 6 From Abundance to Importation and Hunger: 9 1870s to the Present 3 Trends in Rice Consumption: Some Quantitative Evidence 16 Regional Data on Corn and Rice Consumption 16 Urbanization and Substitution for Rice 20 Family Size and Rice Consumption 22 Income, Class, and Rice Consumption 24 NFA Rice 29 The Specter of Hunger 30 4 The Contradictory Centrality of Rice 34 Rice as Consumer Commodity 34 Imagining the Land through Rice 35 The Pahiyas: a Celebration of Rice? 37 Commensality and commoditization 38 The Continuing Sumptuary Importance of Rice 39 Gastronomic Qualities and Social Inequality 42 Organic Rice: Variation on a Theme 43 5 Conclusion 45 References 47 iii List of Tables and Figures Table 1 Mean per-capita consumption of rice and rice products 23 by household size, Philippines (g/day) 2 Mean one-day per-capita food consumption, Philippines, 32 various years 3 Crude estimates of per-capita rice consumption and calorie 33 supply, 1999 Figure 1 Per-capita crude estimates of availability of milled rice 11 for consumption, Philippines, 1909–2002, in kg/year 2 Trends in palay production and consumption, Philippines, 12 census year 3 Main source of rice consumed 15 4 Consumption of rice and corn by region, Philippines 17 5 Mean per-capita corn consumption, main corn-eating 18 regions, Philippines 6 Consumption of rice by region, Philippines 19 7 Consumption of rice and rice products by region, Philippines 19 8 Consumption of other cereal products by region, Philippines 20 9 Consumption of bread and other flour products by region, 21 Philippines 10 Consumption of noodles by region, Philippines 22 11 Per-capita consumption of rice and rice products 23 by household size, Philippines 12 Total mean per-capita consumption by household size 24 13 Per-capita rice consumption by income class, Philippines, 25 various years 14 Percentage of food expenditure to total expenditure 26 15 Percentage of cereal expenditure to total food expenditure 26 16 Percent share of food types to total food expenditure, 27 all urban 17 Percent share of food types to total food expenditure, all rural 28 18 Frequency of daily rice consumption 28 iv 19 Rating of NFA rice by income group 29 20 Estimated subsidy per household from NFA rice 30 21 Severity of hunger, Philippines: total households, July 1998 31 to August 2004 22 Incidence of hunger by location: total households, July 1998 32 to August 2004 23 Mean per-capita total food consumption 33 v Abstract This paper deals with a basic question: How central is rice to Philippine culture, as gleaned from its role in Filipino material and cultural life? To answer this question, this paper focuses on the structural position of most Filipinos vis-à-vis rice. Economic changes have rendered most Filipinos, even in rural areas, as consumers rather than as producers of rice. The paper provides a brief social history of rice, from a mainly elite and nonstaple food in precolonial times to a relatively widely available staple food by the end of the nineteenth century. This process was accompanied by two interrelated developments: the diminution of magical elements, and the symbolic displacement of rice. Today, rice reflects the stratification of Philippine society, as supported by the latest quantitative data on rice consumption. The paper concludes with reflections on the significance of rice for commensality at the level of small groups, and on its marginality for the society as a whole, brought about by consumer culture, urbanization, and the Green Revolution. vi 1 Introduction Food and culture are intimately related and mutually constitutive. However, their precise relationship is a matter of debate (e.g., Douglas 1966; Harris 1974; Goody 1982; Bourdieu 1984). Moreover, the relationship between food and culture is subject to the specificities of time and place, and must therefore be understood as a historical process. The celebration of 2004 as the international year of the rice provided the occasion for this paper’s analysis. Offhand, it is noteworthy that this celebration did not grab the attention of most Filipinos. The muted celebration is indicative of this paper’s main argument. Although some may want to see rice as a glorious manifestation of Philippine culture, I would argue for a view of rice as a register of the complexity of Philippine society, history, and culture. The equation of rice with life, as trumpeted during the 2004 celebration, is a rather simple and even romanticized view that is untenable. In any event, the year of rice offered an opportunity to step back and analyze what we easily take for granted in our collective life. To answer the basic question about the centrality of rice in Philippine culture, this paper focuses on the structural position of most Filipinos vis- à-vis rice, which, as the data show, is mainly that of consumer rather than producer, even in rural areas. The first part of the paper seeks to explain the symbolic marginality of rice by examining its social history and the cultural changes it underwent during the Spanish colonial period. The second part analyzes quantitative data on recent trends in rice consumption in order to understand the sociology of rice in the context of contemporary Filipino society and food practices. The third and final part offers reflections on the significance of rice for commensality in small groups and its marginality in overall Philippine society and culture. 1 Rice in the Filipino Diet and Culture 2 A Brief Social History of Rice Rice in the preconquest period Scott (1994) and Junker (2000) provide valuable information about rice in the social life of the inhabitants of what would later be known as the Philippines. In the preconquest period, rice was highly valued and perhaps considered the most esteemed cereal, but it was not a daily staple. Rice production was insufficient and did not allow year-round consumption: “even datus with many slaves ate root crops in certain seasons” (Scott 1990, 291). In the Visayas, Scott (1994, 35) writes: “But since only in a few places could a year’s supply of rice be produced, root crops were therefore the most common food for part of the year, or all of the year for part of the people.” Subject to seasonal flooding, the alluvial plains of Bikol produced large quantities of irrigated rice and supported a large population, but even there, Scott says: “Despite the abundance of rice in some places and for some people, the staple Bikol food was root crops” (ibid., 182). Taro, yams, and millet were the staple cereals of the islanders. These were planted in swidden fields, and around the margins of swidden patches devoted to dry upland rice. Rice was relatively abundant in the uplands, and cultivated using a dibble stick or pole that men thrust to the ground to make holes, where women placed the rice seeds. In the lowlands, wet-rice cultivation depended on transplanting rice from seedbed to swampland, but water levels could not be controlled and rice plants stood the risk of drowning. Lowlanders desiring to obtain upland rice offered seafood, salt, and pottery in exchange (Scott 1994, 36). At the same time, rice was given to the chiefs as buwis, which Spanish chroniclers called tribute (Aguilar 1998, 66). Among the Tagalog, “standardized measures of rice were demanded by southern Luzon chiefs from their commoner constituency, with the number of gantas (approximately three liters of rice) dependent on the amount of land 2 A Brief Social History of Rice cultivated by individual families” (Junker 2000, 237). Based on archeological evidence, Junker argues that “rice was significantly more prevalent in the presumed elite habitation zone in comparison to the nonelite residential zone” (ibid., 331).