‘Cooking’ Life The Vibrant Entanglement of Food and Human Beings in Sri Lanka. Manuscript presented to obtain the Joint Degree of Doctor in: - Interdisciplinary Studies, submitted at The Faculty of Science and Bio-Engineering Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel. - Comparative Science of Cultures, submitted at The Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Ghent University. By Wim Van Daele VUB Promotor: Jan Broekaert Ghent University Promotor: Koen Stroeken VUB Co-Promotor: Peter Scholliers June 2013 Table of Contents Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................................. i Chapter 1: Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 Transversal Themes .......................................................................................................................... 9 Desire .............................................................................................................................................. 9 Insecurity ....................................................................................................................................... 11 Food .............................................................................................................................................. 14 Topical Themes ................................................................................................................................ 17 Everyday Food Life ....................................................................................................................... 17 Food in Ancient Ayurvedic and Buddhist Texts............................................................................. 19 Ritual ............................................................................................................................................. 20 Activism ......................................................................................................................................... 22 Research Questions ......................................................................................................................... 25 Set-Up ............................................................................................................................................... 28 Approach and Methodology ........................................................................................................... 33 Chapter 2: The Vibrant Entanglement of Food and Human Beings in Mutual Becomings ............................................................................................................................................................... 37 Anthropology of Food ..................................................................................................................... 39 Points of Concern ............................................................................................................................ 41 Assemblage Theory ......................................................................................................................... 43 Potential Materialist Criticisms on Assemblage Theory ............................................................... 47 Food as a Machinic Assemblage ................................................................................................... 51 Shortcomings of the “Ontogenetic Assemblage-Entanglement” Approach .................................. 55 Ayurveda and Buddhist Canon ...................................................................................................... 61 Resonances and Consistencies ...................................................................................................... 61 Desire, Anxiety, Consciousness, and the Human Subject .............................................................. 63 Entangling the Stock of Ingredients into a Fine-Tuned Food Conceptualisation ..................... 68 Historicity ...................................................................................................................................... 69 Co-(re)Production ......................................................................................................................... 70 Cooking and ‘Cooking’ of Life ....................................................................................................... 76 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 84 Chapter 3 : Food in the Rhythmic Mix of Everyday Life ....................................................... 85 Context of Research ........................................................................................................................ 86 Entry into a Domestic Network of Sharing .................................................................................... 87 Leaving Home ........................................................................................................................... 89 Flexible Time ............................................................................................................................ 90 Stop Over ................................................................................................................................... 91 Arriving at the Māha Gedere in Kiribathgama .......................................................................... 91 An Implicit Arrangement of Food Sharing .................................................................................... 92 Searching for a New Food Arrangement ....................................................................................... 95 Everyday Village Rhythm and Life of Food ................................................................................. 99 Starting the Machine ..................................................................................................................... 99 The Concert of Tea .................................................................................................................... 99 Co-Generating Rice and Side Dishes ...................................................................................... 100 A Sudden Visit ........................................................................................................................ 105 Relational and Individual Rhythms of the Body ..................................................................... 106 The Flexible Meal ................................................................................................................... 108 The Sequenced Consumption of the Meal ............................................................................... 110 The Ambiguous and Bivalent Relational Capacity of Food .................................................... 111 Moving Back to the Collective Rhythms ................................................................................ 112 Creative Productions ................................................................................................................... 113 What Is a ‘Farmer’? ................................................................................................................. 113 The Village Setting .................................................................................................................. 115 The Rains Catalysing Decision-Making .................................................................................. 123 Rental Contracts ...................................................................................................................... 125 Selecting Rice Varieties Collectively ...................................................................................... 125 Starting up the Cultivation Machine ........................................................................................ 126 Domestic Rhythm as Affected by Cultivation ......................................................................... 129 Procuring Food at the Market .................................................................................................. 130 Collecting and Foraging .......................................................................................................... 131 The Wild, the Jungle, and the Anti-Buddha? .......................................................................... 132 Deceleration of Lunch ................................................................................................................. 136 Flexible Lunch ......................................................................................................................... 136 Porosity of Food ...................................................................................................................... 137 A Deceleration ......................................................................................................................... 138 The Afternoon Accelerator ...................................................................................................... 139 Towards a Heightened Intensity of the Evening .......................................................................... 140 A Busy Sunset at the Kadē ...................................................................................................... 140 The Bustling Evening Bath in the Wewa ...............................................................................