Diversity of rice landraces and taxonomic strategies in Kanekes folk-biology as insights for biocultural conservation

Abstract

Abstract. Mulyanto D, Iskandar BS, Aulia SAZ, Ruswanda AS, Sobarna C, Iskandar J. 2026. Diversity of rice landraces and taxonomic strategies in Kanekes folk-biology as insights for biocultural conservation. Asian J Ethnobiol 9 (1): y090114. https://doi.org/10.13057/asianjethnobiol/y090114. The Kanekes of Western Java, Indonesia, one of the last indigenous communities practicing upland rice-based agroforestry, hold a rich folk-taxonomic system that reflects the connection between language and biological knowledge. Rapid infrastructure development has increased interactions with the outside world, putting pressure on cultural and linguistic resilience. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 43 local expert informants, aged 40-70 years. Data were then analyzed through folk taxonomic classification and linguistic analysis of the naming structures. The Kanekes people named 89 upland rice landraces using a binomial structure, with the second lexeme serving as a descriptor. About 46.06% of identified landraces used other plants’ names as descriptors, many of which also held cultural significance in the ethnobotany of the Kanekes. Other descriptors included terms related to the shape, quality, and color of the rice plant parts. This study shows that the widespread use of cross-species metaphors in upland rice nomenclature serves as an important cognitive process for intraspecific classification, connecting sensory perception, ecological familiarity, and cultural memory. These findings enhance ethnobiological models of folk taxonomy by illustrating how metaphorical descriptors integrate landraces within wider ecological and linguistic networks. This case further exemplifies that biocultural conservation relies on preserving crop diversity and maintaining the ecological and linguistic frameworks that facilitate knowledge transmission and varietal identification.