Remembering Scarcity: The Culture of Food Anticipation as a Conceptual Lens for Understanding Community Climate Resilience in Banyumas, Indonesia

Abstract

Communities living in environmentally vulnerable regions have long developed local strategies to cope with recurring food scarcity. Existing studies have examined food storage, crop diversification, social-ecological memory, and community resilience as important dimensions of climate adaptation. However, these adaptive practices are often analysed separately, providing limited understanding of how they collectively evolve into enduring cultural systems of preparedness. This study introduces the concept of the Culture of Food Anticipation as a conceptual lens for interpreting how repeated experiences of scarcity are transformed into culturally organised preparedness. Using Banyumas, Indonesia, as a theoretical case, the study employed qualitative documentary research based on historical records, government reports, and scholarly literature. Data were analysed through thematic analysis and interpretive synthesis to identify recurring patterns linking environmental uncertainty, collective memory, adaptive food practices, and community institutions. The findings show that recurrent paceklik (seasonal food scarcity) fostered interconnected practices of food storage, cassava-based diversification, reciprocal cooperation, and community food sharing. Rather than functioning as isolated adaptive responses, these practices became embedded within a broader cultural orientation that anticipates future environmental uncertainty. Building on these findings, this study conceptualises the Culture of Food Anticipation as a culturally embedded system through which historical experiences of scarcity are translated into enduring capacities for collective preparedness. The study contributes to ethnic and cultural studies by reconceptualising community adaptation as a cultural process that integrates social-ecological memory, everyday adaptive practices, and collective institutions. It further offers a conceptual perspective for understanding how culture can strengthen climate resilience while informing locally grounded adaptation policies in environmentally vulnerable communities.