Musing on Agri-History

Viewpoint Asian Agri-History Vol. 17, No. 2, 2013 (183–191) 183 Musing on Agri-history Lindsay Falvey Hassad Australia, University of Melbourne & Institute for International Development, Australia. (email: [email protected]) Why agri-history is important http://www.hinduwebsite.com/history/ kautilya.asp). Yet here too, it is easy to Today, we who write are mostly distant reduce history to empires and miss the from the agricultural life of the past, which bonds between nature, religion, and society peppers many historical perspectives with that invariably emerge with agricultural the pitfalls of value judgments, secularism, occupations. and a romantic view that David Ludden (1999; p. 3) in his ‘New Cambridge History In my own country, Australia, awareness of India’ refers to as ‘stubborn, enticing of the food production practices of the otherness’. indigenous population prior to European settlement has begun to instill an Even though most of history grows out understanding of the cultural meaning of of agriculture it is seldom considered as landscape and food. While easy to overstate, its center. Nevertheless, it was agriculture this seems to offer a means of appreciating that allowed the settled life that led to the eras over which such landscapes are civilization, and its efficiencies in food formed and to recognize that humans security that allowed a leisured class to have always altered the environment, as engage in writing and the codifi cation of religions as part of creating agreed ethics continues today in modern agriculture’s and power bases. Histories that center shaping of the land, its waters and even its on rulers or states do not seem conscious air. It also informs the sense of feeling ‘at that they are using a proxy for agricultural home’ in our homelands and our cultural history, and so miss much that history has ideals of beauty and aesthetics. In this sense, to offer the present. This alone makes agri- agriculture is a civilizing infl uence on the history important, but so do many other land as it is for society – it brings concepts factors. of ownership, territory, and power as well as of identity, nature, terroir, and equity. As a great birthplace of agriculture, India Indian and Pakistani ownership of and has established the link between the state identifi cation with the noble Basmati rice is and food production, culminating at one an example (Manoj, 2006). And all of these point in Kautilya’s Arthasastra with its concepts once came from the reverence overt recognition of the role of violence in of food security as a value underpinning a kingdom secure in its food base (Source: society. 184 Musing on agri-history As we have all been shaped by our experiences, There are also differences with today’s so has our social milieu been formed by civilized viewpoints, such as time itself. agriculture. Our aphorisms often reveal In agricultural contexts time can be elastic agricultural roots, as shown for example, – waiting on the rain and when it arrives in the book on Thai folklore by Charan acting quickly. The difference pervades Chantalakhana and Pakapun Skunmun the many urban-city divisions of every (2007). Our festivals vary across regions country today where long codifi ed seasonal according to agricultural calendars – and we festivals may be viewed quite differently in continue to hold onto these festivals, even ‘the bush’ and the city. Historical texts that when a foreign religion supplants traditional relate Asian battles of a few centuries ago as beliefs. So it is well said that agri-history taking place between growing seasons too is more than the history of agriculture; it is easily portray this as a quaint custom. Thus the source of history itself although this is they can miss the deeper knowledge that war often either assumed or neglected in various and expansionism of a realm waited on the presentations of history, be they religiously agricultural calendar, which was the essence or evidentially based. of the religions, the oracles and auspicious days for battles to begin. It waited on The link of agriculture to religion repeats agriculture because a secure food supply itself through civilizations, yet the common was the common need of both ordinary focus on rulers limits this understanding people and armies that needed feeding. when contextualizing history. For example, the Hebrew story adopted by Christianity of While such arguments are sometimes reduced Moses being found in the marshes of the Nile to romantic ideas of synchronicity, they are River (Source: Holy Bible Exodus 2:3–5), facts that deserve proper consideration is commonly considered to have been at through the overwhelming majority of the site known archaeologically from its human history. It made sense for the rhythm Greek name of Tanis. Yet much of its history of life to be determined by nature’s cycles of is related under the name of its ruler and food production. And this seems consistent builder Ramses and the architecture of the with the views of those who note that the Egyptian pharaohs, and even then the site existential angst that characterizes modern is overshadowed by the better-preserved society appears to be correlated with and more popular ruins in drier upstream alienation from nature, seasonal foods, and climates. Thus neither the religious nor the ritualized traditions (Kierkegaard, 1946). architectural stories develop the otherwise Agri-history is part of unraveling this aspect obvious agricultural aspects of such a major of our nature also. ruling city being deep in the fertile Nile Delta, and neither dwells on its later demise Agricultural urbanization probably being from siltation and climate change rather than non-historical conquests With agriculture providing the surplus that by the Israelites (Joseph Free and Howard led to urbanization from at least 9500 years Vos, 1992). ago in South Asia and signifi cant cities Asian Agri-History Vol. 17, No. 2, 2013 185 encouraged new groups of suppliers for Histories that center on rulers or states ores and skills as agriculture expanded. In do not seem conscious that they are this milieu, new cities based on trade that using a proxy for agricultural history, could purchase food must have assumed an and so miss much that history has to importance perhaps in some cases greater offer the present. This alone makes than agricultural cities. Such cities on trade agri-history important, but so do many routes were even more vulnerable to food other factors. insecurity as a siege could threaten all wealth, and so food reserves became an integral part of urban management. Without appearing about 5000 years ago (Sharma the ability to feed a city, governance was et al., 1980), worldviews must have begun not possible. to diverge between sedentary and nomadic Such Indianized civilization expanded peoples. Confrontations between farmers along trade routes in what is now Thailand, and pastoralists passed down in religious Malaysia, and Indonesia and also extended stories and customs indicate differences, albeit written by the victors – agricultural to Cambodia through theocratic political cities. Power structures to defend cities will systems that were to establish the basis for have required rituals and beliefs, which may much of Southeast Asia cultures (Tarling, well have been adapted from a past nomadic 1992). And with that assumption of Indian lifestyle, maybe even pre-Vedic hymns and manners by local chieftains, attractive rituals. Thus some interaction may have technologies were adopted, some of which accompanied periodic confl ict as farming remain obvious today such as the distinctly sporadically took over pastoral lands. As different rice harvesting techniques of pastoralists opened new well-watered southern Thailand compared to those grasslands farmers followed and thus also practiced in the other more Chinese- followed trade, wealth, sophistication in infl uenced regions of that country (Lindsay religions and the literature from which we Falvey, 2000). As the Asian Agri-History glean glimpses of the past. Foundation’s publications indicate, much of the information about these developments, Rather than springing into being as fully particularly in India, is to be found in formed political entities, cities will have ancient texts – sometimes referred to as followed various models of governance, religious texts. So it is not only the Vedic with trade as the connecting element. scriptures that point to the indissoluble Technology no doubt followed trade with link of agriculture to religion, but the less agriculture as its major focus since it was ancient Buddhist and Jain texts that indicate the major business of the populace until the associations of trade routes, cities, and cities became more sophisticated. Thus technologies. innovations in the use of labor, metal tools, irrigation, nurseries, and animal and plant We now understand the expansion of breeding affected farming technologies and agriculture and hence agricultural cities as 186 Musing on agri-history being isolated harbors in a sea of pastoralists more that a wave progressively washing The link of agriculture to religion over a ‘primitive’ pastoralism two to three repeats itself through civilizations, yet millennia ago (harbors – in both the sense of the common focus on rulers limits this protection from mobile pastoral aggressors, understanding when contextualizing and as trade entrepots often on coasts and history. rivers). Eventually, possibly in the Gupta era, as agriculture began to encroach on pastoral lands more consistently, it must Whatever the basis of farmer-pastoralist have been under a replicable agrarian interaction, pastoralism continued as governance system that allowed some the dominant lifestyle into the present autonomy for local chieftains – a model of millennium. This was common to areas early colonial expansion. Alliances would contiguous and distant from India, from have been cemented through common Central Asia to Mongolia and the Middle rituals and religions, giving rise to some East.

Load more