Of Rice and Men: Commodity, Hybridity, and Collective Memory in the American Marketplace

This studyexamines the hybridizationof ethnic cultures in the U.S., using rice products as a case in point. The paper presents and analyzesphotographic observations of various brands of ricefrom six cultures in local stores in an American Midwestern city. The analysis of the rice brands helps us understand the first and the third of the three levels of hybridity. The firstlevel hybridity, or merchandizing hybridity, takes place when rice commodities from foreign cultures become available in the host society’s market; the second-level hybridity, or consumptive hybridity, occurs when people’s practices and lifestyles change by adopting rice and cuisine choices from more than one culture; the third-level hybridity, or symbolic hybridity, involves the mixing of the ideas and collective memoryassociated withrice of various origins.The analysis suggests that hybridization in America through rice occurs on the first level. Further evidence is necessary to demonstrate hybridization on the second level. On the third level, some hybrid collective memory is contained in two popular rice brands.