Beyond Sustenance: Exploring the Cultural and Narrative Significance of Rice in Five Ifugao Narratives

Ifugao is recognized worldwide for its Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) and the Ifugao Rice Terraces (IRT) inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1995. For the Ifugaos, the tinawon rice is the center of their life, tradition, and festivities. Various narratives take the tinawon rice as their inspiration. Each narrative has its portrait of rice. Through the qualitative approach, this paper advances that the selected narratives rationalized the establishment of the tinawon rice as the basis of rites, practices, social organization, and value system practiced by the Ifugaos. Moreover, rice is a symbol of the mutual exchange and partnership between Skyworld and the first people of Ifugao to warrant well-being. Lastly, rice symbolizes the favorable response of the gods to human needs. Consequently, the absence of tinawon rice would result in the cultural and literary demise of the Ifugao people, thus, the rise and fall of the Ifugao literary and cultural heritage.