Dimakan Sayang: Turning the Common into the Exclusive, Cassava Bread (Embal) in The Kei Islands, Southeast Maluku, Indonesia

Abstract

This article traces changes in everyday narratives considering cassava bread (embal) in the Kei Islands. Various methods of data collection (participant observation, focused group discussion, and survey) were used, and applied purposively to produce critical narratives on the transformation of local food patterns. These data were collected over a short fieldwork period in 2016 from the villages of Wain, Rumaat, and Langgur in the Kei Islands, Southeast Maluku. As this traditional staple food is being replaced by rice, Kei people are creatively adjusting both their attitudes and appetites towards embal. Both conceptual (noetic)shifts and sensory (taste) shifts are apparent. The typical taste or flavor of embal is increasingly celebrated and regarded as a special blessing. Yet, at the same time, many young Kei are now preferring to eat imported rice more than embal. They are losing their appetite for consuming embal as a daily common food, even as they increasingly adore and celebrate it as a luxurious meal. This suggests that the villagers have become bigger consumers of imported food (rice and noodles) than their city-based counterparts. As such, embal consumers (the local food’s contributors to sovereignty) in the market will continuously be under pressure, diminishing in numbers, in accordance with the rise of its exclusive image. Such is the irony for cassava as food sovereignty in the Kei Islands.

Formative research to understand food beliefs and practices relating to pregnancy on Kei Besar Island, Eastern Indonesia

“…The soil is mostly poor and rocky. People practice slash and burn agriculture to grow cash crops such as copra and tubers which serve as their staple food, as well as grow vegetables in their yards [11]. Some people also catch sh, collect clams and seaweed, or hunt wild boars in the forest [11].…”

“…Most of the people in Kei Besar Island belong to one ethnic group, called the Evav tribe, and speak the same language [11,20]. Today, the native language of Kei people, Veveu Evav, is mostly spoken and understood by people over 60 years old, but used rarely by younger people [20].…”

“…Today, the native language of Kei people, Veveu Evav, is mostly spoken and understood by people over 60 years old, but used rarely by younger people [20]. The majority of Kei people speak in Ambonese Malay or for the younger generation, Bahasa Indonesia, the national language of Indonesia [11,20].…”

“…As far as the authors' research, no study of these beliefs and practices has been conducted on Kei Besar Island, an island within the Maluku Province. Kei Besar Island is known for its protein-rich sea produce [11]. However, 21.3% of their pregnant women have CED and more than 28% of children under-two are stunted, making it one of the regencies with the highest stunting rates in Maluku [12].…”

Ethnobotany of cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) in the traditional peri-urban Sundanese community of Cireundeu Hamlet, Cimahi City, West Java, Indonesia

“…Since traditionally, cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) has been considered a main staple, it has been farmed and utilized (praxis) based on local knowledge 117 (corpus) and belief or cosmos (Iskandar et al 2023b). Moreover, cassava has an important function not only as a main staple food, but also as a cultural identity of Cireundeu people (Laksono 2021;. Therefore, an ethnobotanical study on cassava among the rural people of Cireundeu is considered very important.…”