Millet Culture and Indigenous Cuisine in Taiwan

10.6641/PICCFC.13.2013.13.08

Emiko Takei

Taiwanese indigenous people ； cultural heritage ； endangered species ； milletcooking ； Selaria italic ； Panicum miliaceum ； Sorghum bicolor ； Eleusinecoracana ； Coix Iachryma-jobi ； Spodiopogon formosanus ； Taiwan oil millet

2013 中華飲食文化國際學術研討會論文集

第13屆（2013 / 10 / 20）

193 - 210

英文

Millets (small grain crops) have been important in many ways for Taiwanese indigenous people. They have served as staple foods along with upland rice, taro, and sweet potato. Historically, millets had a higher status in rituals than rice. Recently. foxtail millet has become a symbolic food for Taiwanese indigenous people in most regions of Taiwan. Botanically, millets in Taiwan include introduced and endemic species. Five species, foxtail millet 小米(Seturia italica), sorghum 蜀黍(Sorghum bicolor), common millet 黍(Panicum miliaceum), finger millet 穇子(Eleusine coraccma), and Job's tears 薏苡(Coix lacryma-jobi subsp. ma-yuen) are thought to be introduced. Taiwan oil millet 臺灣油芒(Spodiopogon formosanus = Eccoilopus formosanus) appears to be an endemic domesticate in Taiwan. This little known millet was confused with other cereal crops for almost a century since it was first botanically identified. The main uses of millets are for food (starch), alcohol production and fermentation with meat and fish (which can then be stored). Glutinous varieties of foxtail millet, common millet and sorghum are used for making sticky cakes (pounded or steamed). Although some community leaders have tried to promote foxtail millet cultivation, most local varieties have already disappeared, and other millet species (especially finger millet and oil millet) are endangered. To help preserve millets and millet culture, the conservation of genetic resources and further documentation of folk knowledge are desired.