Rice, Culture and Ideology

Rice played different roles throughout Filipino history. A magical item in ancient times up to Middle Ages, rice transformed to a consumer product whose consumption reflects the stratification of the Filipino society. From a central cultural element in the Philippines islands rice was gradually downgraded to a side cultural detail due to its commodisation, urbanisation, industrialisation and the Green Revolution. However, in our times rice started to play a new role of cultural artefact referring to invented traditions having little in common with ancient culture of the islanders. Besides, it became a tangible sign of ideological movement against the Green Revolution.