The Importance of Combination of Food Materials among the Shifting Cultivators in Southeastern Cameroon

The importance of combination of materials in the dietary culture of shifting cultivators in southeastern Cameroon is described and analyzed. First, the diet of an immigrant group living in tropical rain forest is described. It is then compared with that of their mother village situated in the savanna zone extending along the forest margin.While the mother group depends almost exclusively on the thick porridge from bitter type of cassava as starchy food, the immigrant group has adopted plantain banana as their staple food, almost as important as their former staple, bitter cassava. This is due to the change in the natural environment and also to the contact with the forest-living neighbors who heavily depend on plantain banana.Bitter cassava and plantain banana are, however, taken with different types of relish, in particular condiments; the former with gravy often with spices, nuts and/or sticky herbs, while the latter with oils or simple bitter soup, sosok, of Solanum sp. fruit.While the immigrant group use both plantain and cassava, they show a strong preference to the specific combination of staple, relish and condiments. It is thus concluded that such cultural preference is one of the major factors for selection of food materials

Agriculture · Agroforestry · Archaeology · Biology · Environmental health · Ethnobotany · Food habits · Geography · Immigration · Medicinal plants · Preference · Socioeconomics · Staple food · Agriculture and Rural Development Research · Ecology · Mathematics · Medicine

• Paths in the rainforests

  Jan M Vansina, Jan Vansina•Paths in the rainforests•1990

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