1976/03/01 by Louis Golomb · 2 citations
Social Sciences · #Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies #Vietnamese History and Culture Studies
paper · doi:10.1017/s0022463400010237
openalex publication_date 1976/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Various students of Southeast Asian agriculture have been at a loss to explain the peculiar distribution of glutinous rice as a staple crop throughout northern and northeastern Thailand, Laos, and neighbouring regions of Yunnan, Burma, Vietnam and Cambodia (see map). 1 Moerman has observed that, “Although this crop … helps to define and isolate a continuous culture area of about 200,000 square miles, it is given scant and inaccurate mention in the literature on rice.” 2 He goes on to suggest that certain “environmental factors” have probably played an important role in establishing glutinous rice in this area. 3 This environmental explanation of origins is echoed with equally little elaboration by Watabe, 4 but the latter denies that physical geography alone can account for the continuing preference for glutinous rice over modern non-glutinous varieties of comparable suitability. He contends that the persistent cultivation of glutinous rice, “is primarily due to an acquired preference of traditional use in the local diet.” Moerman 5 and others have recognized the inadequacy of dietary preference as a sole explanation for persistence, but have so far refused to proceed beyond environmental speculations, even though they have provided a wealth of relevant ethnographic data.