Indigenous Relationalities of Rice: Myth, Ritual, and A·chik Agricultural Traditions

Abstract

Indigenous agriculture is often reduced to technical and economic activity. In many indigenous societies, rice cultivation connects myth, ritual, and cosmology, and expresses relationships among people, land, and the sacred. This study examines indigenous relationalities among the A·chik (Garo) of Meghalaya, North-East India. It draws on ethnographic fieldwork in selected villages, where communities following indigenous faith practices engage in rice cultivation, ritual observance, and agricultural knowledge systems, along with oral narratives, published folklore, and historical sources. Rice is revered as rong janggi (“life-giver”) and holds a central position in A·chik cosmology. The communities cultivate it through jhum (shifting cultivation), the main agricultural system in the hilly region, and the continuity of agriculture is sustained through origin narratives, ritual practice, seed preservation, matrilineal stewardship, and the Wangala festival. The study analyzes the sacred narratives of Misi Saljong and Rokime (god and goddess), which describe reciprocal and responsible relationships among humans, ancestors, deities, and landscape. In this context, agriculture does not remain as a technical or economic activity alone, but it functions as a moral-ecological system that integrates cosmology, ritual practice, and ecological life in A·chik worldviews. The article contributes to discussions on indigenous relationalities, spiritual ecologies, and indigenous agricultural traditions. It also highlights the continuity of A·chik ecological knowledge and human–environment relations in Northeast India, contributing to broader debates on environmental ethics.