Biocultural Diversity, Campesino Kitchens, and Globalization

Ethnobiological Perspectives on Dietary Change in Southern Bolivia

Bibliographic Data

ID8241978
AuthorsKatherine L Turner (0000-0001-8727-5506, University of Victoria, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume39
Issue1
Pages110-130
Publication date2019-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Ethnobiology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0278-0771 • E-ISSN: 2162-4496
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2993/0278-0771-39.1.110
OpenAlexW2969464919
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited25

Widespread reduction in traditional foods has been extensively documented around the world, despite a growing scholarship in ethnobiology and nutrition studies attesting to the value and importance of traditional food systems. A processual ethnobiology approach—one attuned to the historically situated nature of traditional ecological knowledge, and the influence and interplay of micro- and macro-level forces—may offer new insights into processes of dietary change and continuity. Using this perspective, I present a case study from Southern Bolivia on rural peoples' descriptions of how and why their foodways have changed over time, as well as how their traditional food system is being sustained. I draw on data gathered over 12 months through interviews, participation, participant observation, and document review. Animal protein and commercial crop production promotion and discourses disparaging traditional meals are some of the factors affecting availability, affordability, and acceptability of traditional foods. Nevertheless, there are also many examples of how local foods and recipes have been adapted, rather than abandoned, and of promising initiatives rebuilding the prestige and cultural acceptability of traditional foods. These findings suggest a more complex and nuanced process of dietary change than is often posited in the nutrition transition model. Place-specific, historically informed understandings of how attitudes, availability, and other factors have influenced local food systems are needed to develop policies and programs that effectively respond to locally identified concerns surrounding the continuity of traditional food use

Agriculture · Ethnobiology · Food security · Food systems · Foodways · Geography · Indigenous · Nutrition transition · Participant observation · Political science · Prestige · Scholarship · Situated · Social science · Sociology · Traditional knowledge · Anthropology · Biochemical Analysis and Sensing Techniques · Culinary Culture and Tourism · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Medicine · Ecology

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