The 'good people' of Cochabamba city

Ethnicity and race in Bolivian middle-class food culture

Bibliographic Data

ID2178097
AuthorsSarah Kollnig (Lund University, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume15
Issue1
Pages23-43
Publication date2020-01-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLatin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1744-2222 • E-ISSN: 1744-2230
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17442222.2020.1691795
OpenAlexW2987179319
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited31

This paper argues that everyday food practices reproduce and negotiate power relations of coloniality. The argument developed brings together Quijano’s notion of coloniality and Bourdieu’s writings on distinction, habitus, and taste. Ethnographic data from fieldwork in the “gastronomic capital of Bolivia”, Cochabamba city, brings out the workings of a “habitus of coloniality” in everyday food practices. The author analyzes how the city’s privileged middle class navigates ethnic and racial inequalities, which have deep colonial roots but are constantly being renewed and renegotiated. The members of an emerging middle class, oftentimes with indigenous roots, have been negotiating their participation in spaces of food consumption. This process is often met with disdain by the established middle class, thus reinforcing power relations of coloniality. The author puts forward the notion of a “coloniality of taste”, which reflects the power relations at play in the expression of social distinctions through food tastes. The paper concludes that food practices in Cochabamba and elsewhere center around social inequalities modelled upon colonial patterns

Class (philosophy · Ethnic group · Geography · Middle class · Political science · Race (biology · Sociology · Anthropology · Culinary Culture and Tourism · Gender Studies · Social and Cultural Dynamics

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Open DOISci-HubOpen Access