Agriculture

Agriculture in Taromak interconnected the spirits, crops, human community, and many other entities in relationships of mutual support that made up a network of

landscape. This section will discuss some aspects of traditional agricultural methods and crops, the ceremonial relations that maintained agriculture, and the changes that have occurred due to market and national policy influences.

(a) Traditional Agriculture and Ceremonies

The Taromak traditionally practiced swidden agriculture, which was based on the rotational use of land. As discussed in Chapter III, section 1, topic 1, mountain

agricultural land (omaoma) can be differentiated into three types,

1. Drorodroroko: Previously uncultivated land, or land left fallow for over seven years. Also the most fertile and valuable land to cultivate. Millet or rice is usually grown on this type of land.

2. Drorodroro: Land that has been cultivated for one to two years and still has some fertility. Drorodroro is also madolo that has been left fallow for one to two years.

3. Madolo: Land that has been cultivated for over two years and has lost most of its fertility. If the grower has no other land (drorodroro or Drorodroroko) to cultivate madolo is used for growing sweet potatoes or taro, which require less nutrients than millet or other crops.

By using a wide range of land in this swidden agricultural system, the productivity of the landscape could be depended on.

Usually in September or October, when it was time to move from madalro to Drorodroroko, the Taromak would first adhere to dream and bird omens⁹¹, and when the omens were good, prayers to the ancestors would be enacted asking for help and

protection. After these ceremonies the following steps would be taken in preparation for land cultivation:

1. Raba = Cut the trees and larger growth.

2. Lrawbo = Burn grasses and undergrowth.

3. Togoso = clean up the land.

4. Sabolro = throw the millet seeds over the land in a mixture of soil and seeds or,

‘odroli = plant sweet potato, corn (Ngodrangodro), or other crops.

Planting of crops would be carried out around a new moon period, when the sky is filled with stars, which indicates a plentiful harvest⁹².

Main traditional crops include beceng (millet), bolrasi (sweet potato),

taramonage (squash), radrisii (peanut), and Tay (taro). Most of these crops originally were planted in January or February, and harvested in the spring. Millet was strictly grown in one season only, while other crops such as sweet potato and squash had two growing seasons, one from January to September, and the other from about October to January. Now millet is often grown twice a year⁹³. In addition to the above crops, a wide variety of beans (karidrang), gourds (Tabololro), grains and other crops are grown, most of which are planted in January and February.

Millet is the most important ceremonial crop for the Rukai. All stages of its cultivation are marked with ceremonies and festivals, and it is used in a variety of rituals.

For example before planting millet a ceremonial prayer is held in which the ancestors are asked for a successful planting, and adequate rains. They are also asked for a successful harvest “but not too much because then there would be none left! (Naina A).” Although the adoption of world religions by the Taromak has declined the ritual use of millet, several of the millet cultivation festivals are still celebrated, and the chief of the

91Similar to the omens discussed in Chapter Three, section II, topic 3(a).

92This principle adheres to traditional crops, but not to corn, which is instead planted on certain dates, perhaps due to its introduction from other cultures.

93The chief pointed out that now that there are two millet seasons, he is not sure when to pray, and he dares not eat millet from the second season in fear of angering the ancestors.

Lrabalriyoso clan continues to use it in traditional ceremonies. The ceremonial use of millet includes it being the main crop used for sualro’o, it is an important component in Tadila house ceremonies, it is of primary importance during the Maisahoro millet

weeding festival as well as during the Kalralisiya millet harvest festival in which the chief collects sualro’o and makes prayers to the ancestral spirits for thanks and generous future harvests⁹⁴. These ritual uses of millet emphasize its importance as a mediator between people and the ancestral spirits.

In fact, according to the oral history of the Taromak, the origin of millet is from ancestral spirits known as Suadiading that live underground. In a place above Kabaliwa called ‘Adangasa there is a large stone shaped like a pregnant women carrying a child on her back⁹⁵. This was originally the passageway to the underground world where the people who live on top of the earth, could meet with those who live underneath. When the Taromak entered the underground world they would have to adhere to strict behavioral rules. For example they would have to close their eyes as they entered, and they could only take a grain of millet, which the Suadiading supplied them with. This one-grain of millet, when cooked would expand into a pot full of millet grains, enough to feed the family. Once, a woman and her sister wanted to see what would happen if they cooked a handful of millet grains, but as they did, the house exploded full of cooked millet, and one of the women was killed.

The Suadiading are people of the underworld, and have tails, which they are apparently ashamed of because when the Taromak would come to visit them they would sit in their millet-pounding vessel to hide their tail while sharing stories. The Suadiading would defecate into a millet-drying basket, and their feces were lazurite beads, which make up the most valuable centuries-old necklaces of the Taromak today. In recent years a Airang attempted to cultivate the land at ‘Adangasa, which is traditionally a spirit place and must be left untouched. According to Naina A, as soon as the Airang’s backhoe hit

94According to Naina A, once a drunkard decided to test this Tualisiya and eat an abai before the chief’s prayers were done. His mouth and face became crooked after that.

95Once, a pregnant women carrying a child on her back entered the suadiading’s underground lair to collect millet, but on her way out of the entrance she stopped for a break, which was against the rules of the suadiading. Thus she was immediately turned to stone, and the entrance to the underworld was blocked.

the earth it broke and would not move. They tried again after giving several prayers, but the backhoe could still not move the earth, because it is a spirit place.

Besides the many ceremonies related to agricultural crops, the traditional rain making ceremony shows another glimpse of the nature-culture network in action. The last rain making ceremony took place in the early 1950’s in a period of drought. At that time the women of Taromak would wear their bell skirts and walk along the riverbanks calling to the ancestral spirits saying ‘We are growing millet and we need rain! Take pity on us!

Udala (Rain)! Muleldalrdalr. Take pity on us.’. A Siya’elreng (female shaman), and the chief would perform more specific rituals, while the other villagers would pray using betel nut and other gifts for the spirits. This would sometimes cause it to rain immediately, or it might take effect after several days. People from other villages would also take part, especially because the Taromak were well known for their ability to effectively call forth the rain, sending water downstream. Naina A provided a more detailed description of the rain making ceremony,

“When it did not rain for a long time the young men and women would prepare to go to Mt. KinDoor. The strongest runner young man would run up to Mt.

KinDoor wearing bells on his butt, to pick a special flower. Once he got the flower he would yell down to us. He would run down from KinDoor with the flower and everyone waited for him at Mulrawnga. When he got there they would separate and make a path for him, cheering him on. But this time he was not strong enough to continue running. The rain was chasing him and as soon as he stopped at Mulrawnga the rain came down. The rain would chase him because he took the flower from KinDoor Mountain. The shamans at Nanwang or other villages would pray and not get any rain, it was the Taromak that could get the rain. The runner could not eat before he went. At that time it was not successful because he stopped at Mulrawnga, so the rain just stopped there. You can’t try again. This was when I was 16 or 17 years old. The flower is beautiful, and it only grows on Mt KinDoor, its called Lrangoderesay (coming from the root udalre meaning rain, it is a type of fern) meaning the flower of rain, it looks like the lraragare flower, which grows everywhere, but it only grows on a giant tree on KinDoor mountain. That was the last time they did it. The elders told us how to do that. We would do that if it did not rain. The chief would also be there to watch, but it certainly was not his duty.”

In this rain ceremony, the Lrangoderesay flower of Mt. KinDoor was mobilized as an important actor in the relationship between rain and the Taromak. The ritual also connected the Taromak to their neighboring villages in that their rain ceremony was known as being most effective.

The traditional agriculture landscape of Taromak included a variety of actors whose appropriate relationship maintained the food supply of the human community. The

appropriate use of land in a swidden agricultural method sustained the community and allowed for soil regeneration. Stars, birds and dreams were messages from the spirits as to when it was a good time to cultivate. The most ceremonial important product of the land, millet, acted in a variety of ways that maintained relations amongst humans and the divine inhabitants of the landscape. By mobilizing the Lrangoderesay flower from the top of Mt.

KinDoor, the rain was also engaged in order to provide water for the human community of Taromak, their crops, and their neighbors as well. The wellbeing of the collective

depended on these relationships that interconnected humans, plants, and spirits.

(b) Contemporary Agriculture

Many economic, policy and lifestyle changes have transformed the agricultural aspect of the Taromak’s nature-culture collective. The need for financial stability has led many young people to move away from the village to find jobs as wage laborers in the cities, thus reducing the local work force capable of maintaining an agricultural industry.

In addition, land rights policies have made swidden agriculture legally unfeasible due to the amount of land needed for rotational use. These changes to land rights are described by Naina B,

“The agricultural area used to be far ranging and there was enough for people to move around within their clan-based districts. They may only use land for one or two crops, or up to several years and then move to a different area to cultivate.

But then some people started to grow more long term crops, like betel nut or ginger on their land and so they got rights to the land when the government measured the reservation area and gave land rights to people using it. Other people who practiced traditional agriculture lost a lot of their land because they were using only part of it temporarily, and a lot more over the long term.”

The changes to land rights directly affected the crops grown, causing a trend towards more long-term crops, rather than short-term crops that are more suitable for a mobile swidden agriculture.

The government agricultural bureau has promoted several cash crops in an

attempt to develop local indigenous economies. These crops include lemon grass, peaches, plums, wet cultivated rice, buddha head fruit/custard apple, betel nut, ginger, and Xiang-Chun (Latin name: Toona sinensis, leaves are used for Chinese medicine and tea). In the Japanese era, after the Taromak had moved out of the mountains rice was grown as a main cash crop, but now that most rice is imported from mainland China, its value has dropped

and other crops have been promoted. Plums were promoted about twenty years ago, but again, the mainland China plum market soon devalued the Taromak’s plums. The most recent cash crops have been Xiang-Chun, which is difficult to grow because any chemical pesticides that drift onto the valuable leaves of the trees from other farms ruin the crop;

and the Roselle flower, which can be sold back to the government agricultural bureau for little return. Although the Taromak continue to grow traditional crops for personal consumption in between cash crop seasons, the agricultural bureau now supplies subsidies for leaving land fallow, thus decreasing available land for these traditional crops. Forestry has also been promoted and many people gain very small subsidies for growing trees on their land that can be harvested after over twenty years⁹⁶. The land policies, cash crops and subsidies introduced by government development organizations have extended the Taromak’s nature-culture collective into the realm of international trade, and have influenced the feasibility of maintaining connections between the many actors that originally made up and supported the collective.

96See Chapter Three, section III, topic 5.

A B