During our field work in the Philippines (1994-2020), Cambodia (2015-2023) and India (2002-2023) we often deal with rice wine, or rice beer, an essential part of ritual among ethnic minority cultures and one of the symbols of almost every “tribal”, “indigenous”, “mountain” ethnic identity. Apart from being an integral part of everyday food culture, rice wine is sacrificed to the spirits, poured over sacrificial animals, helps the shaman/medium to communicate with the inhabitants of other worlds. Rows of rice wine jars signify the coming of a big ritual occasion. The visualization of indigenous tribal identity implies the image of a rice wine jar, often accompanied by a g-string and a gong – symbolism, accepted both internally, by the indigenous community, and externally, by the state administration. At the same time, rice wine is conspicuously unimportant, practically non-existent in the ritual life and daily/festive consumption of the non-tribal population. Filomeno V. Aguilar Jr., a prominent researcher of the Southeast Asian history and ethnography, considers the colonial Catholic Church responsible for disenchantment of the rice plant in the Philippines: “Under Spanish colonialism, rice became a staple but it underwent disenchantment and symbolic marginality” (Aguilar 2013: 297). The ancient bas-reliefs of Bayon (Cambodia), old Khmer inscriptions and other early evidences from Southeast and Southern Asia show that rice wine consumption had been important part of life. The majority of population of India and Southeast Asia, whether they profess Buddhism, Hinduism or Christianity (not to mention Indonesia, Malaysia and other Islamic states, where alcohol made of cereals is altogether banned) have later on abandoned ritual and festive practices connected with rice wine making and drinking. The paper touches upon several aspects, including tracing the paths of borrowing rice wine terminology between Austronesian and Austroasiatic languages since the ancient times to present.
