TY - JOUR
T1 - Do rituals serve as a brake on innovation in staple food cropping in Timor-Leste?
AU - Browne, Martin
AU - Goncalo, Luisa
AU - Ximenes, Anita
AU - Lopes, Modesto
AU - Erskine, William
PY - 2017/6/1
Y1 - 2017/6/1
N2 - Ritual practices from Christian and older animist belief systems persist across Timor-Leste (T-L). Significant events such as deaths and marriages include elements from both beliefs, and resources to conduct the associated ceremonies can affect agricultural production. In addition, ceremonies based on family lineage groups - lisan - are conducted for numerous purposes, with many related to food production and consumption. To investigate such rituals from a food security perspective, interviews on ritual practices were conducted in a longitudinal study among 18 households in four municipalities in 2006–2007 and among 56 respondents in three municipalities in 2015. Time and resources dedicated to ritual practices varied significantly across respondents, localities and crops. Despite extensive rural poverty, almost all communities dedicated significant resources and time to conduct ceremonies, particularly for maize and rice. Importantly, innovation in cropping was not stifled by rituals. Rituals reinforce social networks that have already been found to be important to food security, so in a broad sense rituals may even contribute to crop production. There was wide overlap between the composition of lineage lisan and mutual labour groups, which can be critical in T-L where, with limited availability of farm mechanization, the household unit of labour is insufficient for some agricultural tasks. A reallocation of resources from rituals to other objectives such as education and home maintenance is now gradually occurring. Looking ahead, respondents indicated that, while rituals could become less elaborate, continuance of the traditions was essential. Agricultural rituals contribute to the social capital needed for crop production and food security in T-L.
AB - Ritual practices from Christian and older animist belief systems persist across Timor-Leste (T-L). Significant events such as deaths and marriages include elements from both beliefs, and resources to conduct the associated ceremonies can affect agricultural production. In addition, ceremonies based on family lineage groups - lisan - are conducted for numerous purposes, with many related to food production and consumption. To investigate such rituals from a food security perspective, interviews on ritual practices were conducted in a longitudinal study among 18 households in four municipalities in 2006–2007 and among 56 respondents in three municipalities in 2015. Time and resources dedicated to ritual practices varied significantly across respondents, localities and crops. Despite extensive rural poverty, almost all communities dedicated significant resources and time to conduct ceremonies, particularly for maize and rice. Importantly, innovation in cropping was not stifled by rituals. Rituals reinforce social networks that have already been found to be important to food security, so in a broad sense rituals may even contribute to crop production. There was wide overlap between the composition of lineage lisan and mutual labour groups, which can be critical in T-L where, with limited availability of farm mechanization, the household unit of labour is insufficient for some agricultural tasks. A reallocation of resources from rituals to other objectives such as education and home maintenance is now gradually occurring. Looking ahead, respondents indicated that, while rituals could become less elaborate, continuance of the traditions was essential. Agricultural rituals contribute to the social capital needed for crop production and food security in T-L.
KW - Food crops
KW - Ritual practices
KW - Social capital
KW - Timor-Leste
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85018385792&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s12571-017-0684-0
DO - 10.1007/s12571-017-0684-0
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85018385792
SN - 1876-4517
VL - 9
SP - 441
EP - 451
JO - Food Security
JF - Food Security
IS - 3
ER -