Igniting food assemblages in Sri Lanka:

Ritual cooking to regenerate the world

and interrelations

Wim Van Daele

Food, human beings, ritual events and the world exchange components while their interaction
alters their heterogeneous constitution as an assemblage. I intend to revise and vitalise
assemblage theory by foregrounding the role fire plays in shaping exchange and transformation
by the very process of ‘cooking’. I elaborate these modifications and alchemic transformations
of existing theory by exploring the ritual cooking of coconut milk and the offerings made in a
harvest rite in Sri Lanka. The offerings of coconuts enable participants to transfer merits as
well as to purify themselves in this surrogate self-sacrifice while reconfiguring the positions
within the cosmology. The boiling over of coconut milk acts as a centripetal force around
which the ritual evolves, drawing together spectators, historical origins, myths, actions and
intentionalities. Heated by fire, the ritual ‘cooks’ these components, from which emerge renewed
assemblages of the world, human beings and food. Hence, ritual cooking of food becomes an
allegorical materialisation of a ‘cooking’ of the world and interrelationships.

Keywords: Food, assemblage theory, ‘cooking’ life, coconut, Sri Lanka, ritual

I
Introduction
In Sri Lanka, many people prepare kiribath (milk-rice) to celebrate pros-
perity, happiness and renewal during life transitions such as weddings,
birthdays and poya (full moon days). At harvest ceremonies, men first con-
duct a kiriutereme rite (ritual cooking of coconut milk until it overflows),
after which they add un-steamed rice to make milk-rice. This is done to

Wim Van Daele is affiliated with Center Leo Apostel at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium.
Email: wimvandaele.x@gmail.com

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SAGE Publications Los Angeles/London/New Delhi/Singapore/Washington DC
DOI: 10.1177/006996671204700102
34 / Wim Van Daele

evoke and bring about prosperity and happiness through life’s renewal,
now pregnant with new life (Tanaka 1997: 118).
I argue here that prosperity and regeneration of life are at the core of
understanding the ritual cooking of coconut milk and milk-rice. The boil-
ing of coconut milk until it overflows is paradigmatic in engaging similar
dynamics in various other rituals. That very kiriutereme materialises
dynamics of heat, bubbling over and the subsequent easing down and
cooling, hence engaging processes of destabilisation and stabilisation.
Regeneration and the pulsation of life, rebirth and world renewal, as well
as the re-origination of generative capacity constitute core issues through-
out this and related rituals, as rendered in the works of Bruce Kapferer
(1997), Rohan Bastin (2002) and Masakazu Tanaka (1997). The boiling
of coconut milk acts as an allegorical materialisation of the concoction
of human life in and of the world. Because food is metaphorically and
physically so pervasive, it is constitutive of human beings and their social
and cosmic life, and has as such the ability to encompass and transform
multifarious aspects of life.
Here, I specifically explore the kiriutereme and its connections to the
harvest inasmuch as it acts as aluth sahal mangalaya (new rice ceremony)
among the Sinhalese in North-Central Sri Lanka. The boiling of coconut
milk until it overflows is a ritual act that precedes the making of milk-
rice, both of which occupy a central place within harvest ceremonies.
Furthermore, ritual cooking of rice and coconut milk entwines with other
activities such as the offering of young coconut saplings as surrogate hu-
man sacrifices. Farmers make these offerings to solicit the deities’ protec-
tion for the following cultivation cycle. Overall, the new rice ceremony
summons the local ancestral deity to share the meal and to renew bonds.
Moreover, by purifying themselves, those making the offerings move a
little closer to their deity. Finally, both deity and devotees acquire merit for
the exchange of offerings and protection and hence, alter their position in
the cosmos. In a ritual centred on food and its cooking, participants thus
blend and ‘cook’ foods, human and non-human entities, as well as their
interrelations. All acts and substances in the harvest ritual collaborate in
addressing concerns of regeneration and renewal and life-sustenance.
My contention that the cooking of food extends into the ‘cooking’ of
life and world resonates well with the Sanskrit term lokapakti that Charles
Malamoud (1996: 1, 23) translates literally as ‘cooking the world’. He
(ibid.: 1–2) states that: ‘this expression epitomises all of the myriad ways

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 Igniting food assemblages in Sri Lanka / 35

in which ritual practice and especially the performance of the sacrifice, is

capable of transforming both the humans who engage in such practices
and the world around them’. He arrives at this conclusion by analysing
ancient Vedic texts, which further link this cooking to processes of fire,
sacrifice and the (physical and moral) maturation and perfection of people.
I extend Malamoud’s structural and textual approach of ‘cooking the
world’ to encompass the cooking of food, which substantiates affectively
and sensorially the renewal and ‘cooking of life’ as evoked and sensed in
the ritual boiling of milk. The relation between cooking food and ‘cook-
ing life’ is not reducible to a mere diluted relation of analogy. Rather,
cooking food both actually and allegorically substantiates ‘cooking’ of
life through blending, seething and transforming material and expressive
components of food and life.
In what follows is an overview of this article. In the first phase, I render
food, human beings, harvest rituals and the world as assemblages, in line
with Manuel DeLanda (2006) who draws inspiration from Gilles Deleuze
and Félix Guattari (1987). An assemblage is an entity that is an emergent
synthesis of the actions of heterogeneous components acting on each
other (DeLanda 2006: 4). In similar vein, I develop food, human beings,
harvest rituals and the world itself as assemblages of practices, elements,
energies, representations and the like. Later on, it will become clear that
I take assemblage theory not so much as a theoretical base, but as a heu-
ristic step to introduce my alchemic approach on the practice of food as
the cooking of a multitude of heterogeneous component-ingredients of
the world and the world as such.
In the second phase, I describe in more detail the several components
that co-constitute the harvest ritual. I account for various activities con-
ducted during the harvest ceremony and discuss these activities from the
perspective of the ‘cooking’ of assemblages (such as food, human and non-
human entities, the world). I argue that in the heat of the ritual, a multitude
of components are drawn into the event and get infused into the food that
is being prepared and offered. Hence, it is rather food in ritual and not
so much ritual as such that solicits my attention here. In the moment of
overflowing milk, human and non-human components such as fragments
of significations, intentionalities and fire are carried towards and into the
cooking pot (like the overflowing of milk, a form of de-territorialisation)
and are subsequently ‘cooked’ and transformed. As the rite cools down, the
various assemblages that have been transformed stabilise and territorialise

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again (DeLanda 2006:13). The boiling over of coconut milk is thus

paradigmatic, engaging general ritual dynamics of de-territorialisation
and re-territorialisation (Bastin 2002). The assemblage of food destabi-
lises and de-territorialises in the heat of the ritual and thus, temporarily
encompasses the whole world before it re-stabilises as a food in the end.
Enabling the renewal and regeneration, the kiriutereme could open the
possibility for a liminal line of flight or complete de-territorialisation into
an infinite multitude of renewed possibilities (Deleuze and Guattari 1987:
222–23). However, the whole ritual process contains this by recapturing
and restructuring the multitude through installing a sequence of activities,
evoking rigidified significations and by alternating the processes of heating
up and cooling down. Hence, the harvest ritual engages both stabilised
structured entities and their meltdown and transformation.
In the third phase, I elaborate on Manuel DeLanda’s (2006) assem-
blage theory and modify it based on my description of the ritual and by
foregrounding the role of fire (sun, gastric fire, cooking fire and fire of
passion) in the transformation of assemblages. The regulation of fire ac-
celerates and decelerates the mutual transformation of the assemblages
of food and the human collective being, alongside the ritual ‘cooking’ of
the world. I will show that by this shift of emphasis, we can vitalise as-
semblage theory and transform it alchemically.

II
A swift journey into assemblages
In this section, I will briefly introduce some of the basic ideas in Manuel
DeLanda’s assemblage theory. Moreover, I will point out the aspects that
I aim at modifying.
As mentioned earlier, Manuel DeLanda (2006: 4) defines assemblages
as entities that are syntheses of components acting on each other. The ac-
tions of components account for the emerging properties and identity of an
assemblage. The synthesis entails the totality of the actions of components.
Moreover, the components form a heterogeneous assemblage, as compo-
nents can be distinguished between those performing a material role and
those with an expressive role. Assemblages emerge from components that
cut across the nature-culture divide (ibid.: 3–5, 49–50). A human person
is thus an entity that emerges from components that play a material role,
such as cells, associative operations, etc. and those playing an expressive

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 Igniting food assemblages in Sri Lanka / 37

role, such as ideas, representations and the like. These assemblages relate to
each other and form populations of which the members become component
parts (ibid.: 17). Human beings relate to each other and form populations,
such as cities, organisations and nations. In this way, human assemblages
become components of one of these larger collective assemblages.
Hence, DeLanda (2006) installs, from a realist perspective, a hierarchy
of scale and encompassment of the person, organisation and nation. Because
of the hierarchy of scale, we can assume that he opens up a space for the
inclusion of context. As smaller assemblages interact, detach and plug com-
ponents into different assemblages (ibid.: 10), the properties and identities
of a particular assemblage emerge not merely from within, as in autopoesis,
but also in relation to context, as in context-driven actualisation. So, the
specific ceremonial properties and identity of coconut milk emerge in rela-
tion to a ritual context, enabling the emergence of the particular articulation
and expression of this sweet tasting assemblage. Fragments of historical
myths, economic relations and social interactions act as components that
get plugged into food and interact with its other components, leading to the
emergence of a particular synthesis and identity according to the context
in which this component exchange takes place. As food has the capacity
to absorb a large variety of heterogeneous components, fragments and
ingredients, it becomes furthermore ambiguous with regard to DeLanda’s
hierarchy. Food is at first sight a small material item that gets devoured by
human beings and becomes a component part of the latter. Yet, it is simul-
taneously a product around which transnational economies have emerged,
as in the case of sugar (Mintz 1985). Standing for a small material item as
well as for a world economy, food can evolve from a tiny assemblage to
a powerful encompassing entity, such as during rites. As I will show, the
ritual cooking of food embraces the heterogeneous components of social
and cosmic life, and becomes the cooking of life in the ceremonial heat. Let
us now turn to the new rice ceremony to take stock of the heterogeneous
ingredients involved in the ritual concoction of life.

III
The new rice ceremony
This section focuses on the centripetal role of the overflowing milk rite
and the offerings of food-related entities in the revitalising renewal of the
world and the interrelations between human and non-human beings.

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The cultivation of food is prone to many setbacks. Pests, droughts,

floods or animal attacks can rapidly destroy the extensive effort invested
in growing food. Farmers appeal to divine forces to increase the chances
of a bountiful harvest. At the start of each growing cycle, nearly all
farmers hang a coconut in a tree or on a stick close to their field. The
coconut is a reminder to the deity that he will be offered the first por-
tion of the harvest in exchange for his protection. Peasants make this
promise every year, so the force and effectiveness of the barter lies in
the repetition of these offerings and in the outcome. If the harvest fails,
the farmer can only guess that something went wrong during previous
offerings that may have upset the deity. He may also impute the failure
to his own faulty actions, to bad planetary influences, bad luck or to
sorcery, though all these could have been mitigated by deities if pleased
by previous offerings.

Kiriutereme and Kiribath

Offering the first portion of the paddy harvest takes on many shapes. Farm-
ers perform either a short ‘overflowing of milk’ rite, or a more extended
‘new rice ceremony’ that encompasses the former. In both instances,
villagers prepare milk-rice from the first portion of the paddy and the
coconut that they had hung at the start of cultivation. In the first stage of
both ceremonies, they heat milk in a new earthen pot on a log fire until
it overflows, preferably in the four cardinal directions. Thereafter, they
add rice to prepare milk-rice, a thick paste of coconut milk and raw rice.
They then cut this sticky whole into diamond shapes and give the first
bit to the deity. The overflowing of milk and diamond-shaped milk-rice
emerge as signifiers of abundance and prosperity in the first reading. This
significance is enhanced by the tension that builds among the spectators
as they get carried away by excitement while the milk overflows out
of the pot (cf. physical and passionate de-territorialisation). The relief
and ease afterwards are in contrast to the tension of the ‘eruption’ of the
heated milk. Milk-rice is prepared on joyful and transitional occasions in
life, whereas the overflowing of milk is performed in only some of these
occasions, such as during New Year celebrations or harvest ceremonies.
This ritual cooking of coconut milk evokes similar connotations among
Hindus in South India (Beck 1969: 571) and Tamil fishermen in northern
Sri Lanka (Tanaka 1997: 118).

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I wish to suggest an additional reading here. In some stories of origin,

milk and milk-rice refer to the primordial sea and earth essence respectively.
The Buddhist Agañña Sutta describes the first earth essence in terms of
having the qualities of milk-rice (Collins 1993: 342). Hence, boiling of
milk and milk-rice evokes and activates preterit times. In combination
with the spatial de-territorialisation of the milk, as it overflows in the
four cardinal directions, the milk embodies time-space during its heated
destabilisation. Thus, overflowing milk refers to renewal and re-origination
of the world by evoking the primeval earth essence and sea at the start
of this world-cycle. When the milk gradually re-stabilises and remains
within the confines of the pot, rice is added and milk-rice becomes the
more solid and re-territorialised result. The bubbling over, excitation and
acceleration give way to easing down, relaxation and deceleration. The
originary movement from sea to earth becomes embodied in the milk and
milk-rice that enacts a kind of ‘primordial pulse of life and becoming’.
However, it does not refer to the flip-side of this pulse—the destruction,
waning and withering of life. Milk-rice is never prepared for funerals as
villagers made abundantly clear during my interviews. The cooking of
milk and milk-rice becomes allegorical of the ‘cooking’ of the world and
its regeneration, and materialises and condenses this renewal. Finally, the
‘primordial pulse of life’ enacted in the milk-assemblage is evocative of
the oscillating universe as rendered in Siddhanta cosmology, upon which
some rituals in Sri Lanka draw. Rohan Bastin (2002: 104–05) states that
in Siddhanta cosmogony, the universe oscillates between emission and
re-absorption, that is, between unfolding and differentiating consciousness
(world-becoming) and void. Oscillation is embodied in the overflowing,
erupting annual Munnesvaram temple festival that encompasses the world
and its subsequent re-territorialisation in the temple (ibid.: 202–03). This
movement is reminiscent of the pulse of life embodied in the overflow-
ing milk and subsequent boiling of milk-rice, also offered in this festival.
Hence, we could designate the processes of kiriutereme and kiribath
as paradigmatic and as repeating themselves with regard to many life-
enhancing rituals in Sri Lanka and, by extension, in South India.
The overflowing of milk and preparation of milk-rice hint at and
bring forth, potential abundance, prosperity and the regeneration and
re-origination of the world. For the local ancestral deity in the village
where research took place, this paradigmatic rite is sufficient to please

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him. In a neighbouring village, people perform a more extended new

rice ceremony to which the overflowing of milk and preparation of milk-
rice are also centripetal. However, in that village, inhabitants add other
offerings as well, such as coconuts in various shapes and presentations.
I will show that through the referencing of coconut to human life, these
offerings engage sacrificial aspects as emergent in ritual practice (Bastin
2002; Kapferer 1997; Tanaka 1997). These aspects entail the purification
of human beings and more importantly, the surrogate self-sacrifice of
people. The latter bears on the theme of self-renewal (Tanaka 1997: 97),
thus linking up with the regeneration of the world in the overflowing of
coconut milk. In order to discuss this further, let me introduce some aspects
of cosmography that account for the possibility of variation in offerings
to deities between neighbouring villages.

Buddhist cosmology and deities

Gananath Obeyesekere (1963: 142–47, 1987: 50–70) has extensively

discussed the particular traits of what he labels as the Buddhist pantheon.
All deities, whether high or low in their position in this cosmography,
are under supervision of the Buddha. Moreover, most of these deities
have both beneficial and destructive sides to them (Kapferer 1997: 32)
and their exercise of these potentials has an effect on their karmic posi-
tion. These gods, like human and other non-human beings, are caught
in the cosmic law of samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth. They can
improve their position by performing good deeds and by receiving merit
from human beings. Food has the capacity to carry this merit-component
across by way of its sharing and offering. Hence, through the exchange
of food for protection, human beings and deities acquire merit, get a little
closer to nirvana and/or closer to Buddhahood, and thus reconfigure the
cosmos. For higher deities, meat is not a ‘suitable’ offering, as accepting
it would lower them within the pantheon, so instead, pure food offerings
like milk-rice are made (Kapferer 1997: 145). Thus, food collaborates in
the regeneration of cosmos within which relative positions of both hu-
man and non-human beings are re-negotiated. Yet, the creative variation
among food offerings to deities and thus among villages that are under
their respective protection underscores the variability with which life and
relations can be reconfigured or ‘cooked’. Let us now turn to an account
of the new rice ceremony in the neighbouring village.

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The start of the new rice ceremony

At the start of the harvest festival, the organising team collects from the
participants the new rice and the coconuts that were hung at the start of the
cultivation cycle. Additionally, the society gathers homemade milk-rice
(prepared as discussed earlier) and kävung (oil-cakes made from a mix
of coconut and rice powder). The organisers prepare milk-rice from the
donated portions of rice and coconuts, and cook the evening meal, rice
and curries. From all these donations and preparations, the first portion
is set aside for the local deity, but is offered after the crowd has partaken
of the large meal. The village members, women and men, old and young
and also Muslims later take part in this large commensal event with the
ancestral deity. The bustling affair of cooking takes place in the local
school building and many lend their hands to assist. The joint undertak-
ing forges bonds between villagers that are extended by sharing the food
with the deity and the 200 participants. On some occasions, the heat of
the moment leads to small conflicts about which cooking procedure to
follow. If a drunken man (only men drink alcohol) starts joking about the
team members’ effort, he is guided away to prevent more quarrelling. The
removal of the troublemaker points to the ambiguous nature of alcohol as a
consumption item. It simultaneously binds him into one group of drinkers
and distinguishes him from the organisers. However, the consumption of
this ambiguous social lubricant does not prevent such men from getting
closer to the spirit medium later in the night. Gradually, these drinking
men enter the festival and participate with loosened tongues.

The cosmic tower

When all cooking is finished and the team is ready to dole out portions
for the meal, some go to the devale (shrine) to help the kapurala (deity
priest) prepare the place and offering table. Before the start of the meal,
some men carry adukku kunama (tower construction) to the centre
of the school ground where everyone is gathered. A man purifies the
construct by going around it with a burning incense bowl. After show-
ing their respect by uttering ‘sadhu, sadhu, sadhu’, all those present
sit down, encircling this tower. On top of the tower, there are coconut
flowers that evoke rice pods that in their turn articulate prosperity and
life-sustenance. Rice stands for life in many ways (de Silva 2002) and,

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notes Rohan Bastin (2002: 84), coconut flowers represent rebirth and
renewal, in particular the blossoming consciousness in emerging life, to
which I will return later. I was told that the tower itself renders present
the cosmic mount Meru. Meru, the axis mundi, is the abode of Parvati
(the earth goddess) and Shiva (the sun-god) (ibid.: 135). In some stories,
Shiva fertilised Parvati which resulted in the emergence of rice pods. In
other stories, they brought forth a son, Ganesh. He is the god of wisdom
and the coconut is dedicated to him. So, throughout these stories and ex-
pressive components, a link is established between coconut flowers and
rice pods. The tower articulates and so connects a main life-sustaining
essence (rice) with the emergence of consciousness and life (coconut
flowers) as the fruit of cosmic regeneration. Coconut flowers are indeed
widely used as part of decorations in this and other rituals of renewal,
reproduction and prosperity. The combination of the initial purification
of the tower and the latter’s evocations of cosmic regeneration turn the
interior of this tower into a divine space. Hence, the foods placed inside
this space acquire a new respectful nomination, adukku. The multiple
expressive and physical components thus co-produce a new emergent
identity of the food assemblage within the tower and the ritual context.
After paying their respects to the tower, the team doles out each one’s
share. The tower worship and meal sharing join in with the build-up of
the ritual climax of communication with the ancestral deity.

Building up ritual heat

After everybody finishes eating, they go in perehera (procession) towards

the decorated shrine. Men carry the tower construction at a rapid pace,
followed by excited and chatting village members. Young men and boys
throwing firecrackers to chase away malicious spirits spearhead the
procession. The increasing noise and speed of the procession heat up the
event. People present at the shrine are struck by the priest’s outburst of
intemperate behaviour, such as suddenly running fiercely towards the
tower. People can guess by now that he has become possessed by the
divine power of the ancestral deity. I was told that he is säray (in a very
hot state at that time), a point noted also by Masakazu Tanaka (1997: 111).
The outbursts of his licentious dancing, explosive utterances and running
around intemperately cause a shift in the initially indifferent attitude of
many spectators. Rohan Bastin (2002: 93) and Bruce Kapferer (1991:
10–11) note the importance of the aesthetics of ritual action in drawing

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hitherto disinterested spectators into the event. The boiling over of the
spirit priest gradually draws everybody towards and into this event (physi-
cal, spatial and emotive de-territorialisation of people towards the ritual
centre). More and more elements (acts, offerings, utterances) get added
and the concoction of the ritual gradually expands while encompassing
more and more people. The seething event overflows in conjunction with
the outbursts of the priest who occasionally runs outside the ritual area
(outward de-territorialisation). The deity is rendered present through the
intemperate priest and via him, people re-negotiate their relation with the
deity by way of collective offerings. They ask whether the deity is pleased
and if they can do anything else, such as offering him a new statue. They
also express their gratitude for the harvest.
To sum up, we have noted that in the harvest rite, the world is being
regenerated in various ways, such as in the boiling of milk. The recurrent
overflowing of milk and milk-rice evoke the primordial earth essence and
the re-origination of the world. The kiriutereme enacts a spatial and tem-
poral de-territorialisation by encompassing originary earth essences and
the process of world-becoming. The whole movement of overflowing milk
and the overflowing of ritual re-enact the oscillation between emergence
and absorption in Siddhanta cosmogony (Bastin 2002: 183). On top of
that, the tower construction links with the theme of world re-origination
by embodying the originary axis mundi, mount Meru, as well as the origi-
nation and cosmic regeneration of paddy. Finally, through the exchange
of food offerings in return for the protection of the ancestral deity, both
human beings and deity acquire merit and ascend a little closer to nirvana,
hence re-negotiating their relations and again reconfiguring the cosmo­
graphy in a minor way. Hence, we see that in the paddy harvest ceremony,
the movement and origination of the world as well as the cosmic law of
samsara are invoked and reconfigured in the heat of the event. Multiple
ingredients, such as mythological references, merit, mobilisation of affects
and transformation of food items get mixed and heated up in the emerg-
ing ritual food assemblage, which temporarily encompasses the whole
world and its inhabiting entities in their regeneration. In the overflowing
of the ritual, the world and its relations are re-negotiated, refashioned and
regenerated. The role of heat in this sacrificial rite, in which the cooking
of milk and milk-rice is pivotal, forms a crucial theme in Vedic texts as
well (Malamoud 1996: 34), but emerges here not only in a cognitive, but
rather enacted, affective and allegorical way.

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Evocative coconuts

Alongside this collective movement and ritual concoction of life, villagers

make additional offerings. I will turn to these later, but because I will focus
on various evocations of coconut offerings, I first need to contextualise
coconut’s multiple significations and articulations. The coconut is a fractal
signifier that is replete with a multitude of fragments of diverging refer-
ences to consciousness, human life, mythical origins of life and cosmic
beings. Hence, the coconut intersects well with the overall themes of world
regeneration and the renewal of (human) life and inter-relationalities.
As noted earlier, many rituals and offerings entail a sacrificial logic.
Various food offerings ‘are considered as substitutes and are “destroyed”
as sacrificial victims instead of the offerer. Among these offerings coco-
nuts seem important...’ (Tanaka 1997: 97). Regarding this latter remark,
there are many reasons to believe that coconut sacrifice directly suggests
human sacrifice (Bastin 2002: 68; Tanaka 1997: 97). This direct link is
‘explained by the myth that Shiva used a coconut as a substitute for his
own self-sacrifice. The coconut has three spots which are associated with
Shiva’s three eyes’ (Tanaka 1997: 97). The rendering of the coconut as a
head is further substantiated by two other stories. In the legend of Kusi
Raja from Kochi, South India, it is narrated that a worshipper of higher
gods wanted to create a superior race of human beings. After completing
the head, the lesser gods became alarmed and persuaded him to stop.
The head became a coconut tree and was dedicated to Ganesh, the god
of wisdom (Nevill 1886: 70). In a Sri Lankan story, the coconut emerged
out of an astrologer’s head chopped off by a king at an auspicious time
(De Silva 1954: 96). These stories link the coconut to Ganesh, the god
of wisdom and to both human and non-human consciousness. Moreover,
like rice, Ganesh is the result of the cosmic reproduction of Parvati and
Shiva dwelling on mount Meru, as materialised in the coconut flowers
on the top of the cosmic tower discussed earlier. The coconut, dedicated
to Ganesh, and rice are combined in the tower construct and the coconut
flowers placed on top of it. We now have an extended chain of fragments
of conjoined evocations that surrounds this tower construction. The tower
synthesises and articulates the interrelations between Ganesh, coconuts,
consciousness, coconut flowers, emerging life, cosmic reproduction, paddy
and the sustenance of life. I suggest that the establishment of the chain
of mythical links between rice and coconut is often rendered present by

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the combination of these two food items in the iconic ritual cooking of
coconut milk and milk-rice, and that these ritual acts endorse the ‘cook-
ing’ of the world.
The coconut, however, not only evokes consciousness that is nearly
equated with life, but also fertility. People designate the three germination
holes as the female side of the coconut, linking it more explicitly to repro-
duction. In many villages, people play a ritual game, porapol, in which
they throw porapol (unfertilised nuts) and break them open by hitting the
female side of the coconut. These unfertilised nuts are deemed to be full
of menacing heat, like virgins. Breaking them releases the (sexual) heat
with the aim of increasing the next harvest (Bastin 2002: 155–57). Thus,
in the porapol game, coconut articulates both human fertility and good
harvests and as such, connects these two. We can thus see that there are
a multitude of evocations invested in the coconut; however, a particular
interpretation only emerges when the coconut is related in a specific way
to the context in which it acts.

Co-evocative coconuts

Coconuts do not only articulate consciousness and life in a general sense.

Additionally, the various stages of the coconut co-evoke corresponding
stages of development of human consciousness and life; this is clear in
the orchestration and decoration of the pre-birth angulimala pirith that I
have observed. The decoration is made by placing a coconut covered with
leaves and/or coconut shoots on top of a pot with water. A rope connects
this construct with a little finger of the pregnant woman and hangs above
the table where pious men chant Buddhist verses. The rope channels the
life-enhancing power of these beneficial verses towards both the mother
and the construct, which I suggest represents the unborn baby and its
emerging consciousness. Similar ‘full pot’ constructs are present in other
rituals as well. Masakazu Tanaka (1997: 107) states that: ‘The pot of
water suggests the very idea of fertile womb.’ Both Masakazu Tanaka
(ibid.: 136) and Rohan Bastin (2002: 138) further assert that the pot also
represents the body and the coconut on top of it, the human head. This
angulimala pirith ceremony is held after six months of pregnancy when
consciousness arrives in the baby. The blossoming consciousness of the
unborn baby, to which the power and merit of the verses is transferred,
is ritually materialised and condensed by the coconut flowers and/or the

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covered coconut. Hence, the coconut not only evokes a kind of developed
consciousness and life, but the way it is presented (covered) or selected
according to its own life-stage (flowers), resonates with the stage of human
development. The covered coconut and coconut flowers render tangible the
unborn baby in the womb, its emerging consciousness and the presence
of a potential for evolving human life. The rope that connects the mother
with her own ‘child’ is infused with merits from the chanting men in order
to enhance the potency of life and consciousness in the fragile transition
from the womb to the world.

Coconut and human sacrifice

Let us now turn back to the harvest ceremony, while further exploring
the coconut as a fractal or multiple reference to human life at particular
life-stages. Between the regular eruptions of spirit priest and collective
offerings, there is also space for individual sacrifices that link individual
concerns with collective ones. Among these individual offerings is the
paranayata parana (life-to-life rite). In this short ritual, mothers line up
to offer a young coconut sapling to the village deity who has offered his
protection during the birth of their baby in the last year. The exchange of a
coconut sapling in return for the life of the baby underscores the argument
of Masakazu Tanaka (1997: 97) cited earlier, that coconut sacrifice is a
substitute for human sacrifice. The life-to-life ceremony denotes the ideal
that one should give a human life to the deity in return for his facilitation
of the birth of a baby in the preceding year. So here again, the coconut in
its various stages of life becomes co-evocative of the stages of human life
and consciousness. Whereas the young sapling materialises the newly born
in this life-to-life rite, the covered coconut and coconut shoots condense
the blossoming of consciousness and life in the pre-birth ritual.

The offering table

Having explored the multiple recurring and stabilised evocations added

to the coconut assemblage in various ritual contexts as well as this
harvest ritual, we are now equipped to render the ingredients of the
offering table intelligible. I suggest that the presentation of coconuts in
their different stages alongside other offerings on the table almost com-
pletes our collection of ingredients for the ritual ‘cooking’ of life. With
these ingredients, it is possible to regenerate not only individual human

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 Igniting food assemblages in Sri Lanka / 47

beings, but also the generations of human beings and again, the world.
The mixture presented by the offering table encompasses generational
time and space as well as the renewal and re-origination of the world
and the beings within it. Let me now turn towards these offerings as
shown in the photograph.

Offering table

Source: Author’s collection.

On the elevated part, we see coconut shoots, a whole husked coconut, a

halved coconut serving as an oil lamp and a covered coconut on a heap of
paddy on top of a banana leaf. This last coconut is covered in betel leaves,
which are often utilised to increase the solemnity of gifts. All these offer-
ings are placed in front of the image of the local ancestral deity (Ratne
Bandara Mutta) and some of his attributes.
Following our earlier analysis, I suggest that the three life-stages of
the coconut (flowers, wrapped coconut and mature coconut) presented on
this table substantiate the sacrifices of the various generations of people
in the village. Flowers evoke the future-born, the wrapped coconut ren-
ders present the nearly born and the full coconut articulates the present
generation. The offered young saplings (recent-born) stand beside the
altar. Hence, these offerings blend generations of the village on the table
in their collective sacrifice. Moreover, all villagers join in the transfer of
merit by way of their offerings, enhanced by their surrogate self-sacrifice.
Villagers and the deity join together in the re-negotiation of their positions
within samsara and so regenerate the cosmos. Additionally, the threefold
offering (wrapped coconut on paddy on top of banana) again articulates

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re-origination by its reference to mount Meru (heap of paddy). As noted

earlier, Parvati and Shiva dwell on this mythical mountain and have
brought forth paddy and Ganesh, evoked by the coconut. Moreover, the
coconut as a human being is supported by the heap of unhusked paddy,
which articulates the potential for life as well (de Silva 2002: 136). Hence,
human life and harvests become articulated (as intrinsically connected)
in this physical arrangement of offerings. Moreover, the presentation of
various life-stages of the coconut co-evokes human generations as well as
generations of harvests. The offering table actualises the cycles of offering
and protection that secure life-sustenance and generations of people in the
cycles of past, present and future. We can, in this sense, understand that
these coconuts substantiate the renewal and regeneration of life and the
world. As in the overflowing of coconut milk, we observe another form
of de-territorialisation of the coconut, albeit of a more temporal kind.
Offering coconuts in various life-stages thus further actualises the themes
of regeneration and re-origination as present in the paradigmatic cooking
of rice and coconut milk.

Destruction and renewal

Issues of renewal and rebirth are further elaborated by another sacrificial

evocation on the offering table. The halved coconut, functioning as an oil
lamp and with its white flesh still attached to the shell, is reminiscent of
another form of self-sacrifice. As Masakazu Tanaka (1997: 97) explains
with regard to coconut sacrifice:

When the coconut is bisected, its milk flows out and white inside flesh
can be seen. The former symbolises...arrogance, vanity and lust. By
contrast, the white flesh is the pure and innocent nature of the soul.
The offerer destroys his own evil aspects and attains a purer ritual
status...

To denote this self-purification, the white flesh remains attached to the shell
of the oil lamp. Moreover, the fire of the lamp also destroys, devours and
regenerates the offerer (Tanaka 1997: 141–42). Thus, villagers not only
reconfigure the cosmos by way of merit transfer, but also by attaining a
higher status through their initial self-destruction, self-purification and
regeneration. Hence, the fire of the oil lamp and the heat of affect accelerate

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 Igniting food assemblages in Sri Lanka / 49

and ‘cook’ the renewal of participants’ positions in the cosmos. Towards

the end of this ritual concoction, including the oil lamp, the overflowing
of milk, the affective excitements, the assemblages of food, the human
beings, the deity and the world re-territorialise as the event cools down.

Blending in ritual sideways

As mentioned earlier, the collective concern of this event is to engage with

the precariousness of life and cultivation. In the harvest ceremony, rice and
coconut are offered in various forms, articulating (forging a connection
with) and co-evoking human life. The ritual ‘cooking’ further heats and
blends these foods and evocations, and spills over to encompass the world
and generations into a joint concoction. The regeneration of the world and
the reconfiguration of inter-relationalities serve to enhance the continuation
of cultivation and life-sustenance. We can see this fundamental concern
as the cosmological and collective motivation of the ritual. Moreover,
individual concerns are tied into this collective rite, highlighted in the
offerings of young coconut saplings. In addition to this, other motivations
come into play as components acting in this event-assemblage. The fol-
lowing description of some of these additional motivations will complete
our inventory of ingredients in the harvest ritual.
During the time when many gather for an individual ‘session with the
deity’ during individual offerings, some men discuss various political
and personal issues while smoking and drinking alcohol. Simultaneously,
teenage boys and girls try to seize the chaotic moment to seduce each
other in darker corners. In the ritual event, parental control of girls is less
rigid because many are drawn towards the hot possessed priest. Boys and
girls take advantage of this lapse in social control to concoct passionate
relations. When the girls go home and control over them is re-established,
some of the boys go as well (indicating their motivation), but others stay
with the spirit priest to consult him.
As this interlude illustrates, much happens at the fringes of the harvest
ceremony, which ties in, not necessarily harmoniously, with collective,
cosmological and other personal motivations. The way many young people
participate in such rituals (seducing, comparing mobile phones, etc.) could
tempt us to mistakenly perceive their participation as being driven only
by motivations other than the overt ones that lead to the organisation of
this event. Their fascination, scepsis and initial disinterest would support

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such rendering, but it is not sufficient to account for the strong reactions
the medium’s utterances produce in some of these same youngsters.
The event thus re-assembles a multitude of expectations, aspirations
and desires connected through the offerings. Besides the cosmological
concoction, we see a re-negotiation of relations among people on the
fringes as well. Such mundane regeneration of social relationships is no
less important than the centre of the ritual, yet less heuristic for introdu­
cing my approach of ‘cooking’. The offerings become the axis mundi
around which these motivations, significations, actions, myths, people
and deity gravitate. In the renewal of the world, all these components
get re-fashioned, though not as radically as they would in an absolute
de-territorialisation.

The ritual cooking of food and ‘cooking’ of life

We have now taken stock of the various components that interact and
compose the assemblage of the ritual food event. Here, I will return to
the conceptualisation of assemblages (DeLanda 2006). In particular, I will
revise assemblage theory by drawing upon our discussion of the trans-
formative interaction of components by the very process of ‘cooking’.
From a South Asian perspective, I will foreground the role of fire, which
vitalises and accelerates this transformation. Finally, I will expand our
understanding of this transformative heat by addressing different types of
fire and cooking that are distinguished among Sinhalese.

Assemblage interaction and transformation

Manuel DeLanda (2006: 3–5) defines assemblages as wholes or entities

that are constructed from heterogeneous parts cutting across the nature–
culture divide. The identity of such assemblage emerges from the forces
that their component-parts exert on each other. In our case, the ritual food
assemblage (coconuts in different shapes, coconut milk and milk-rice)
emerges from the mobilisation of heat, food items, deity, spectators, myths,
activities and the like. The interacting components thus co-produce and
generate the ritual food assemblage and vitalise and transform it in the
process of ‘cooking’. In relation to the de-territorialised bubbling coconut
milk, the spectator becomes temporally a component-part or ingredient
and so gets transformed, at least partially. When both assemblages re-
territorialise, residues such as experiences, efforts and evocations remain

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in the respective food and human assemblages. Our description of the

ritual highlighted the spill over of human beings into food and vice versa
(cf. coconut and human consciousness). Such overflowing into each other
occurs through an intermingling of multiple ingredients, such as myths
pertaining to the coconut, acts of self-sacrifice in the surrogate form of
coconut sacrifice and acts of boiling milk and rice. As such, these foods
substantiate, materialise and articulate processes of renewal. Moreover,
the spill overs between food, human beings and ritual emerge from the
exchange of components between these respective assemblages, thereby
establishing connections in their articulation and mutual becomings, as
they emerge as renewed entities in the very process of ‘cooking’. In the
course of exchanging components between assemblages, one inflates as
another deflates, like bubbles in the ‘cooking pot’ of life. As I have shown
in the ritual boiling over of coconut milk and the cooking of milk-rice,
human beings toss components, such as acts, myths, attention and inten-
tions, into these food items. In addition, the ritual invests heat, excitement,
utterances, dancing acts and ritual constructs into the food that overflows
at the peak of the heat. The food gets infused with such a large number of
component-ingredients that it inflates to the extent of encompassing the
human person, the world and even primordial time and space. The ritual
food becomes temporally the context made from fragments of social,
historical and mythical contexts that are part of embodied time and space.
After the re-territorialisation of milk and milk-rice, beings devour this food
item and subsequently encompass it. Hence, our alchemic rendering of
assemblage theory melts down the realist hierarchies of scale that Manuel
DeLanda (2006) establishes among assemblages and brings the generation
of scale and intensity into the very process of ‘cooking’ itself.
In contrast to DeLanda’s realist hierarchy of assemblages—in which
food would be a component of the larger human subject and likewise the
human subject a component of ritual and ritual a component part of the
world—I follow Bruno Latour’s (2005) flattening move, at least initially.
His approach entails a flattening out of scale and hierarchy between human
and non-human actors or components, yet, I diverge from Latour (2005)
in that the ‘cooking’ process fabricates various scales and intensities and
creates bubbles of inflating and deflating assemblages, thereby acquiring
more and sometimes less power at particular times. The inflating infusion
of a multitude of components accounts for food’s powerful agency in
the world despite physically remaining relatively small. Nevertheless,

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we can account for the inflating and deflating assemblage-bubbles and

their alternating encompass-ability as a consequence of their exchange
of components in their mutual articulation in the process of ‘cooking’.
This process of exchange and mutual becoming is vitalised by the
heat and fire of the ritual, which facilitates de-territorialisation and re-
territorialisation. The latter concepts were indeed not expressed among
farmers in the paddy fields, but they seemed to be part of a rather practi-
cal, implicit epistemology. The ritual cooking moves people emotionally
and physically towards the seething event. The spectators get enthralled
and carried away at the moment of overflowing or at the outbursts of
the priest. If physical overflowing fails, people get disappointed. Such
mishap could potentially produce a veritable destabilisation and a line of
flight from the expected. Hence, to appease the potential dangers of such
radical de-territorialisation, various justifications have been concocted to
bring this mishap in a dominant and stable line of thought (e.g., instead
of overflowing of milk, there were only some drops that splashed out of
the pot and the spectators argued that it was still enough to bring about
the desired effects).
I will now turn to the issue of fire, which is related to a variety of fires
in popular thought, Vedic texts (e.g., Malamoud 1996) and Ayurveda. I
will show the intrinsic links between these types of fire, which indicate
how the fire or heat of ritual is not merely metaphoric, but directly extends
from the fire on the hearth (stomach of the house, kitchen as kusiye) and
continues as the gastric fire in the stomach (kitchen of the body, stomach
as kuse) in Ayurveda. For our purposes, let me first introduce the role of
gastric fire in Ayurveda.

Gastric fire

Assemblage theory resonates with Ayurvedic theory in that the latter

sees the world, human beings and food as kinds of assemblages made
up of varying combinations of the same elements. Radically simplified,
Ayurveda views all entities as being composed of five bhutas (elements):
ether, wind, water, earth and fire. The different balances among these ele-
ments account for differences in appearance among the various entities
that populate the world. By way of these common elements, the human
body, environment and food are thus inter-penetratingly related (Osella
and Osella 2002: 470–71). While eating, the digestive fire of the human

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 Igniting food assemblages in Sri Lanka / 53

being re-assembles, transforms and cooks the elements of food into

seven dhatus (components) of the human body: food juice, blood, flesh,
fat, bone, marrow and semen (Obeyesekere 1998: 201), which the five
elements continue to permeate. The seven components re-combine into
three body humours: va (air), pit (bile) and sem (phlegm) (Seneviratne
1992: 180), which need to be balanced for maintaining both good physi-
cal and mental health. The ingested food thus sheds component-parts in
the process of digestion and these are re-incorporated into the human
body assemblage. The gastric fire heats up this exchange of components
and radically transforms the composition and combinations of these
components absorbed into the body. Hence, both assemblages of body
and food get re-composed of new and old components that start to act
differently upon exchange and interaction. As a result, the properties and
identity of these assemblages alter. The gastric fire transforms food into
body-components as well as into excrement and finer waste (hair, nails),
whereas the person gains strength and (mental) health. Hence, in the diges-
tive interaction between the assemblages of food and human being, both
mutually transform each other. The transformative and life-sustaining role
of gastric fire is extended in popular rendering to the log fire employed
in the actual cooking of food and the sun fire required for the growing,
ripening and ‘cooking’ of food-bearing plants. Among Hindus, cooking
implies: ‘all those conditions and stages that help raise crops in the field,
including “ripening” and those which help its actual procurement and
handling up to the actual ingestion’ (Khare 1976: 3). Additionally, Charles
Malamoud (1996: 48) has found that according to Vedic texts, the sun
cooks everything in the world. The vital role of the sun as a source of
life-formation (like gastric fire) is indicated by the celebration of the sun
in the annual Hindu New Year by performing Ponkal (again a boiling of
milk-rice) (Tanaka 1997: 118).
Thus, sun fire, hearth fire and gastric fire transform and cook the assem-
blage of food throughout its life cycle in conjunction with human activities.
Just as in the digestive process, plants, foods and human beings exchange
components throughout the life cycle of food, such as during cultivation
and actual cooking. Throughout their life cycles, food and human beings
thus co-produce each other in the process of cooking, heated by various
fires. Such cycles of mutual enmeshment have also been foregrounded in
the works of Akhil Gupta (1998) and Miriam Kahn (1986).

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Fire of passion

The fire of passion is among the multiple fires involved in the mutual
transformations of food and human beings. During the cooking of food,
the hearth fire conjoins the fire of passion, as love and dedication are
added to the boiling food. The flame of social intentionality of the cook
joins in with social relations that are forged around the cooking pot and
dining table. When sharing food, people also share love and care. Hence,
both cooking and eating intermingle with the socially oriented fire of
passion and individual gastric fires. Social relations that evolve around
the cooking pot and dining table become part of a process that ‘cooks’
social life on the hearth and at the table, as well as in the digestive tract.
It should be noted that the fire of passion is intimately linked with gas-
tric fire in popular thought. Many say that a person with a strong gastric
fire is likely to be very active and passionate. People with an excess of
passionate heat are called badeginni karaya (literally meaning a ‘gastric
fire person’). Such individuals are more prone to be oversensitive and
hot-tempered, burning and destroying their social relations. Hence, in the
attempt to avoid such burning consumption of relations or of the body,
the gastric fire needs to be counterbalanced by eating specific foods that
calm this fire. Likewise, the heat in rituals must also be carefully managed
by the spirit priest to avoid him becoming devoured and destroyed by it
(Tanaka 1997: 129–50). So, the transformative and regenerative fire is
ambiguous and must be carefully managed throughout the various cycles
of cooking food and ‘cooking’ life. Cooling efforts and deceleration must
counter balance the heating, acceleration and bubbling over of various
assemblages. The alternation of these processes of de-territorialisation
and re-territorialisation infuses assemblages with the pulse of life. This
pulse is recurrent and immanent in the various rituals of Sri Lanka and
particularly in the overflowing of milk as a substantiation and articulation
of the renewal of the world.

Life-sustenance and relationality

Fire thus has a life sustaining, catalysing and burning potential. The
multiple fires must be balanced throughout the cultivation, preparation
and consumption of food as well as in social and cosmic interactions.
If not, the fire in the cooking of food and the ‘cooking’ of life could be-
come excessive and jeopardise the continuation of life-sustenance. This
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balancing of fire in its various forms is inherently relational and in this

way, relationality and life-sustenance are intertwined. Farmers attempt
to achieve equilibrium in their relation to the deity by organising the
harvest event to obtain his protection. If the offerings are not ‘suitable’
to his status, the deity might become upset and the relationship of barter
may break down, jeopardising cultivation. To avoid the disintegration of
life-sustenance and relationality, farmers in the village of study do not
offer potentially polluting foods, such as meat or rotten items (burned by
too much sun), but employ milk-rice instead, considered the purest food
(Kapferer 1997: 145). Moreover, the villagers purify and offer themselves
in the form of coconut sacrifices in order to obtain the beneficial influence
of the deity’s divine power over cultivation.
It should be clear from our discussion that gifts and sacrifices of food
offerings are intimately bound up with relationality and renewal of life. As
noted regarding the new rice ceremony, the offering of food in exchange
for the deity’s protection and divine power reconfigures cosmology by
the accrual of merit of both parties and their subsequent ascent in the
karmic cycle of death and rebirth towards nirvana. Moreover, by their self-
purification and self-sacrifice, villagers again and in a different way, get
closer to the deity. Hence, through this offering ritual, farmers reconfigure
their inter-relationalities with the non-human and in doing so, regenerate
the world and cosmos through their gifts and sacrifices. The combination
of these food offerings with the ritual cooking of milk and milk-rice thus
renews and re-originates the world, ‘cooking’ it in all its inter-relationality.
The fire of passion and that of boiling milk have to be carefully managed
in order to make it overflow to encompass and concoct the regeneration
of cosmic and social life, not to burn it. The ritual ‘cooking’ of the world
and its interrelations is a fragile process as there is always the possibility
that an excess of fire will burn the relational world and destroy it. We can
thus see, in line with Marcel Mauss (1990: 38), that the gift of food is
‘total’, pervading nearly all aspects of life. The food-gift collaborates in
this event; it acquires a powerful agency (by being invested with such a
multitude of components) in the forging and ‘cooking’ of human life and
its relationalities with the world. However, the gift of food and its possible
effects are ambiguous (Bloch 1999; Mauss 1990: 63), something which has
been elaborated upon by many anthropologists. In our case, the deity would
not be pleased by rotten or burned food offerings and so might withdraw
from his protective activities. Likewise, in everyday gift-relations, people

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negotiate forms of reciprocity to avoid anger, frustration, jealousy and the

like. Gifts of food thus powerfully mediate relations. The cooking of food
expands into the ‘cooking’ of life in this total way.

Igniting assemblages

Food and human beings are assemblages that exchange heterogeneous

components between them and with the ritual event and the world. In these
exchanges among assemblages, all are transformed and regenerated in their
interactions and enmeshment. This transformation renews assemblages,
components and their interrelations. The various forms of fire (sun fire,
gastric fire, log fire, fire of passion) heat up, cook and vitalise these ex-
changes between assemblages and accelerate their transformations. Fire
enables assemblages to melt, spill over into each other and to achieve
through this temporary de-territorialisation an alchemical renewal and
regeneration. Heated by fire, the ritual boiling of milk and rice ‘cooks’ the
heterogeneous component-parts (spectators, myths, actions) into renewed
assemblages of the world, human beings and food. Igniting these assem-
blages through the process of ‘cooking’ infuses assemblage theory with
the pulse of life, which is embodied in the paradigmatic overflowing of
milk and subsequent re-territorialisation of a re-balancing of heat.

IV
Conclusion
We have seen that the precariousness of life-sustenance motivates these
Sinhalese farmers to hold a harvest ceremony to enhance the sustenance
of life. Moreover, I have shown that rice and coconut serve as powerful
collaborators in the negotiation of life and the relationalities it involves.
These foods are infused with a multitude of heterogeneous components.
In some cases literally, in others more passionately, the food is heated
until it overflows and substantiates so many references, forces and ener-
gies that it encompasses generations of people and harvests, world-cycles
and the cosmos. As such, it de-territorialises under the heat and fire of
the ritual. In the concoction of the offerings, these foods that substanti-
ate and articulate (including the sense of connecting with) the world,
human life and consciousness, regenerate the world while transforming
the interrelations between food, deities and human beings. These themes

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of renewal, regeneration and re-origination, along with the iconic co-

conut and rice are recurrent at many other rituals in Sri Lanka (Bastin
2002; Kapferer 1997; Tanaka 1997). Yet, in the harvest ceremony, all
these themes and activities centre on a particular life-cycle moment
of paddy, its harvest. The centripetal rice brings a whole village and
their ancestral deity together in a mix of activities, people, aspirations,
desires, all of which do not always neatly fit into a harmonious whole.
Some small conflicts over which procedures to follow do occur in the
heat of the moment. The description of a whole event as an assemblage
has the advantage of being able to account for such a synthesis among
components that are not necessarily acting harmoniously. Similarly, food
has been defined as an assemblage as well, however, a more unstable
and de-territorialising one. Food is transformative and life-giving in
its cooking and is henceforth pervasive in life. When a multitude of
aspect-components are invested into food, it can inflate beyond the
person and his contemporary life-world, thereby becoming ambiguous
to both the hierarchy of assemblages as envisaged by DeLanda (2006)
and the flat landscape of Latour (2005). Such possible radical inflation
is further enabled by the widely held view in South Asia and Sri Lanka
that food is permeable. It can carry across not only merit and love, but
also evil thoughts, speech, looks and moral pollution (Kapferer 1997:
200–01, 264).
The radical permeability of food makes the position of food more vola-
tile with regard to the stable hierarchy of scale of assemblages as rendered
by Manuel DeLanda (2006). Moreover, its inflating and deflating capacities
render food also ambiguous with regard to Latour’s flattening move, in
which assemblages are on par with each other. Yet, in the process of ‘cook-
ing’, these assemblages gradually take on more three-dimensional shapes
through the exchange of components in which scale and intensity are
fabricated as well. I argue that such a non-hierarchical and non-static flat
rendering of assemblages add to the de-essentialising projects of DeLanda
(2006), Latour (2005), and Deleuze and Guattari (1987). My alchemic
rendering contributes to their project by viewing scale as emerging within
the dynamic bubbling, inflating and deflating of assemblages that acquire
their synthesis through the actions and inter-exchange of components in
the process of ‘cooking’. I have shown that food and human beings are
embroiled with each other throughout the cultivation, preparation, con-
sumption and digestion of food. Sometimes, food acquires a multitude of

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components so as to encompass the whole world in ritual cooking, after

which a re-territorialised food is devoured and generally encompassed
by the human person. Moreover, by foregrounding the element of fire
as rendered in Ayurvedic, popular and ritual terms, assemblage theory is
further vitalised with the pulsation of heating and cooling, acceleration
of transformation and deceleration, eruption and relaxation. This move-
ment of Siddhantic emission and re-absorption, re-territorialisation and
de-territorialisation (Bastin 2002: 183, 202–05) is epitomised by the up
and down movement of the overflowing milk, which materialises the
general ritual concoction of the world. The formulation of renewal and
transformation in terms of ‘cooking’ bears witness to a similar rendering
in Vedic texts (Malamoud 1996). Each of the fire-induced transformations
(in cultivation [sun], cooking, digestion, ritual) entails a recurring trans-
formation, hence a renewal and rebirth condensed in the overflowing of
milk. Not only is the world and its inhabiting entities renewed in a general
sense, but more specific renewals and relationalities are also re-negotiated
in the harvest ritual. As noted earlier, the rebirth of human beings by
means of coconut offerings is enabled by the merging and articulation of
both entities through multiple references tying the coconut life-stages to
those of human beings and their consciousness. The offering of coconuts
thus becomes a surrogate sacrifice of human beings. The self-sacrifice
purifies the offerer and brings this person nearer to the deity, but is also
a strong means of transferring merit to the deity. Hence, through these
acts of offering, coconuts merge with human beings and people transform
and regenerate the cosmos and the relationalities among the people and
deity within it. By the process of spilling over and the enmeshing of food
and people, extending even to the world and cosmogony, food becomes
ritually all encompassing. As such, food is an extremely powerful col-
laborating and exchanging assemblage in the regeneration of the world.
The heating of fire catalyses these transformations in the concoction of
the world as relational.

Acknowledgements
This article would not have been possible without the generous grant from the Flemish
Fund for Scientific Research (G.0293.08). I also wish to convey my deepest gratitude to
René Devisch, Judith Farquhar, Koen Stroeken, Peter Scholliers, Diederik Aerts and Nicole
Note for their inspiring and supportive comments which helped to shape this article, none
of whom, however, bears responsibility for the views expressed here.

Contributions to Indian Sociology 47, 1 (2013): 33–60

 Igniting food assemblages in Sri Lanka / 59

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