Grain, state power, and peasant resistance

The standard narrative about grain production is that it is an immense step forward for humankind that allowed for civilization to take place.  We get the impression that there are so many benefits to grain cultivation that people would be crazy not to grow grain, in large quantities, once they knew how to.  And yet, it has been the case that many people around the world actively resisted doing this! 

As I first learned in Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, while grain is easy to store, this also makes it quite easy to steal, en masse.  The bandits in the movie had a practice of stealing as much as they could from the farmers while allowing them to be productive.  In the movie the farmers have a practice of hiding their grain.  Scott discusses how farmers across the world often bury their grain to keep it out of the hands of bandits, tax collectors, and armies.  He offers us some interesting facts that may give a twist to how we consider teaching the importance of grain for civilization: 

1) Because grain is less perishable than fruits and vegetables, it can be stored and used in military marches.

2) Military campaigns have typically been seasonal, planned to avoid the rains, and often in conjunction with the ripening of crops so armies could renew their food supply along the way.  In the Near East, China, and Southeast Asia - and I imagine in other areas as well - peasants with geographically accessible fields of grain would not be surprised to find an army stopping by once the harvest was over. 

3) In Scott's terms, grain is legible: fields of grain cannot be hidden, so the state knows exactly how much is being grown, knows when it ripens, when it will be harvested, and when it can be collected.

4) Grain can easily be destroyed: an effective form of punishment. 

5) Populations that grow grain are not mobile, and easy to keep track of.

6) It is easy to calculate the yield of a field of grain, meaning that a state can predict and plan for grain taxes.  When farmers produced less than the state predicted, they would typically not be cut a break.  This is true especially because from the states point of view, farmers have every reason to lie about their yield.  

All of these factors make grain an efficient crop for the state.  They also make life rather difficult for those who grow grain, and thus, many people have avoided the production of grain.  Root crops in particular are strategic in their illegibility to the state: only the community knows how much food is being grown.  Not only this, root crops can stay underground for a long time – they can be picked as needed by a community, meaning they are not at risk of being stolen en masse as is the case with sacks of grain.  In conjunction with this, many peoples have also chosen to live far from state centers, or in geographically inaccessible areas: the choice to be "uncivilized".