Project Documentary

The highlands of Odisha in eastern India are home to millions of people, many of whom are cereal farmers and gardeners who grow the staple foods of the region: the many different types of rice and millet. Among these cultivators, there are many groups who consider themselves to be Adivasi or the “first settlers of the country”. They speak their own languages and manifest a great cultural diversity, which is reflected in their many agricultural activities, but also in their complex ritual and social practices. Between 2021 and 2025, social and cultural anthropologists and archaeobotanists from India, the Netherlands and Germany have been working with these people to research their cultures, especially the different types of crops they grow. Therefore, the title of the collaborative research projects was Cereal Cultures. This film is a result of these research efforts and looks at how rice and millet, as central resources, affect and are embedded in the lives of the people in the highlands. What do these crops mean to them? How do they deal with new policies? How are their everyday lives and religious practices changing? This film deals with these and other questions. It introduces us to a world where crops are a way of life and where people’s lives are entangled with crops from birth to death.