The Socioreligious Significance of Rice A comparison between two Southeast Asian societies :: essays papers

The Socioreligious Signifi dealce of Rice A comparison between devil Southeast Asian societiesWithout rice, there is nonhing doing.Introduction.The fact that rice plays an central role in the lives of the deals of Southeast Asia is undeniable. It is not just a stochastic variable of sustenance that nourishes the body it is also an aspect of perpetuallyyday life that feeds not only the soul but the unbounded realms of the imaginative human mind. much(prenominal) proverbs as above are an example of how rice is revered and bodied in day-to-day living of the peoples in this vicinity. Even outside the region, as in Mizumono Kuni the Land of Luxurious Rice Crops that is Japan, the placement of rice is that of a very high level next to the Emperor, rice is the most quasi-religious of all things on earth. Money can be squandered and the undoer forgiven, but there is no forgiveness for wasting rice (Piper 199314).In Southeast Asia, rice is seen as the basis of almost all the cultu res and civilizations ever created. It is also said to be responsible for the high populations of this region for if it wasnt for rice that had replaced the millets and other staple food crops that preceded it, far fewer people could deem been supported by agriculture (Piper 19931). The truth remains that the legal age of the cultures of Southeast Asia constitutes agriculturalists with rice as the main crop, with a few exceptions of course, in more industry-oriented nations for example. Two main elements can be derived firstly, since rice has been the major crop cultivated in Southeast Asia for perhaps more than 7,000 years, certainly cultures and civilization are interwoven with each other (Piper 19931). One can safely assume that that long a time must assume been ample enough for gradual evolutions and intermixing of cultures and traditions, rituals and beliefs and so on that is closely joined to rice, so we can see similarities between cultures of different countries within this region that may have even perpetuated from the same roots. And the same goes to the careful selections of faithful varieties of rice over time. Secondly, rice is such an adaptive crop that it is not impossible to successfully grow it in different environments where crops could not have been grown successfully- from swampy valleys and deltas to hot, dry land above the floods and even in the mountain forests (Piper 19931).