Photo: Frobenius Institute
Roland Hardenberg is professor at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology of the Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He is also Director of the Frobenius-Institute for Research in Cultural Anthropology which hosts one of the most important collections of rock art worldwide. His previous research focused on Hindu rituals (The Renewal of Jagannatha’s Body, 2011), society and religion of an Indian tribal community (Children of the Earth Goddess, 2018) and death commemoration practices in Kyrgyzstan (ed. Approaching Ritual Economy, 2017). As a co-founder of the “Frankfurt-Groningen Millet network” he is currently engaged in research on the cultural meaning of cereals. During previous research among the Dongria Kond of Odisha he realized the impact of subsidized rice on millet cultivation. When rice was accepted as a staple food, it began to substitute millet on festive occasions and the number of rice fields increased. Rice became an alternative to millet in a variety of contexts: as offering to gods and object of worship, as gift to friends and relatives, as food for daily and ceremonial contexts. In his research, he raises the question what wider impacts the choice for rice has.
His publications on millet and rice include (2018) “Grains as socio-cosmic resources in Odisha/India and Beyond: Rice and Millet in Competition.” Paideuma: Journal of Cultural Anthropology 64: 265-283 and (2016) “Beyond Economy and Religion. Resources and Socio-cosmic Fields in Odisha, India.” Religion and Society: Advances in Research 7: 83-96.
