- Home
- Conferences
- Reviews
- 2024 International Conference on Chinese Food Culture
- Panel 6-3 Millet Ark Initiative: Restoring Tayal’s Resilient Millet Culture under the Crisis of Climate Change /Yih-Ren Lin
Panel 6-3 Millet Ark Initiative: Restoring Tayal’s Resilient Millet Culture under the Crisis of Climate Change /Yih-Ren Lin
Yih-Ren Lin
Professor, the Graduate Institute of Museum Studies, Taipei National University of the Arts, Taiwan
This paper argues the often-neglected intangible part of heritage plays a pivotal role in fulfilling comprehensive social function of a material culture. The indigenous food issue is taken as an example. By employing a nearly 10 years participatory action research and narrative methodology, this paper illustrates a true story of how an indigenous Tayal woman has initiated the restoration of millet culture in her village by being inspired by attending an international walking workshop held in Bhutan for the purpose of responding to the impact of climate change. Contrast to the government’s agricultural sector’s preservation method by collecting seeds in the high-quality equipment of refrigerator, the indigenous way of conserving the millet is to grow it in the field. The narrative will show how the intangible heritage like different millet vocabulary, rituals, labor division, skills to process millets, social institution, and its relations to other biological species through the growing of the millets. The paper is divided into five parts: 1. the importance of intangible heritage and its inseparable relationship with the tangible; 2. a brief history of millet ark initiative; 3. the intangible heritage revealed through the action of growing millets; 4. how the millet cultural heritage is functioning in the contemporary society by facing a crisis age; 5. concluding remark: the value and meaning of Tayal’s millet cultural heritage.
Professor, the Graduate Institute of Museum Studies, Taipei National University of the Arts, Taiwan
This paper argues the often-neglected intangible part of heritage plays a pivotal role in fulfilling comprehensive social function of a material culture. The indigenous food issue is taken as an example. By employing a nearly 10 years participatory action research and narrative methodology, this paper illustrates a true story of how an indigenous Tayal woman has initiated the restoration of millet culture in her village by being inspired by attending an international walking workshop held in Bhutan for the purpose of responding to the impact of climate change. Contrast to the government’s agricultural sector’s preservation method by collecting seeds in the high-quality equipment of refrigerator, the indigenous way of conserving the millet is to grow it in the field. The narrative will show how the intangible heritage like different millet vocabulary, rituals, labor division, skills to process millets, social institution, and its relations to other biological species through the growing of the millets. The paper is divided into five parts: 1. the importance of intangible heritage and its inseparable relationship with the tangible; 2. a brief history of millet ark initiative; 3. the intangible heritage revealed through the action of growing millets; 4. how the millet cultural heritage is functioning in the contemporary society by facing a crisis age; 5. concluding remark: the value and meaning of Tayal’s millet cultural heritage.