[SHS.ANTHRO-SE]Humanities and Social Sciences/Social Anthropology and ethnology

Comer implies a complex social fact that brings together a set of production and consumption movements, both material and symbolic. Therefore, food intake and the social and cultural processes underpinning it contribute to shaping collective identities while being an expression of social and power relationships (Álvarez, 2002). In this view, we will address the problem of the emergence of nationalist culinary narratives in the context of the late 19th century and early 20th century crioll society. To this end, we work on the following scenarios: (1) there is a close link between kitchen and different state projects; 2) which are articulated through political, aesthetic and social speeches, which refer to a totalising identity and which we understand in terms of nation; (3) that identity therefore incorporates into intimate and daily practices elements specific to historically determined actors who challenged, within and outside the dominant class, a self-legitimising discourse of cultural domination. In order to cross-check these assumptions, we proposed to look at historical archives, the press of the time and political and literary texts of some of the key actors in the period, in order to regain a vision, as finally as possible, of motivations and tensions within the local elite when defining a model of state for Argentina, after the collapse of rosism. This led to the identification of a constellation of symbolic elements that were integrated through culinary narratives and concrete comensality practices, through which popular subjects and privileged elites formed part of a larger group, which tended to widen the borders of class and which we identified as characteristic of nationalist thinking. In this regard, the role of the armed forces, the Catholic Church and the large landowners was key in understanding how elements such as cow meat, fire and the large knife were brought in as central centres for nationalist gastronomy, and the operations by which other forms of culinary identity were eliminated or invisible. In short, our aim in this thesis was to break down the historical and anthropological process through which a monocorde speech was made about ways of eating and cooking in Argentina at the end of the 19th century. FIL: Olsen, Juan Francisco. University of Buenos Aires. Faculty of Philosophy and Letras.

Comer implica un hecho social complejo que pone en escena un conjunto de movimientos de producción y consumo, tanto material como simbólico. Por tanto, la ingesta de alimentos y los procesos sociales y culturales que lo sustentan, contribuyen a moldear identidades colectivas a la vez que son expresión de relaciones sociales y de poder (Álvarez, 2002). En esta tesis vamos a abordar el problema del surgimiento de narrativas culinarias nacionalistas en el marco de la sociedad criolla de fines del siglo XIX y comienzos del XX. Para ello, trabajamos sobre las siguientes hipótesis: 1) Hay una estrecha relación entre la cocina y diferentes proyectos de Estado; 2) que se articulan a través de discursos políticos, estéticos y sociales, que remiten a una identidad totalizante y que nosotros entendemos en términos de nación; 3) por tanto, dicha identidad, inscribe en prácticas íntimas y cotidianas elementos propios de actores, históricamente determinados, que pugnaron, dentro y fuera de la clase dominante, para entronizar un discurso autolegitimante de dominación cultural. Para contrastar dichas hipótesis, nos propusimos indagar en archivos históricos, prensa de la época y textos políticos y literarios de algunos de los actores fundamentales del período, con el fin de recuperar una visión, lo más acabada posible, de las motivaciones y tensiones dentro de la élite local a la hora de definir un modelo de Estado para la Argentina, luego de la caída del rosismo. De allí devino la identificación de una constelación de elementos simbólicos que se integraron a través de narrativas culinarias y de las prácticas concretas de comensalidad, por medio de las cuales los sujetos populares y las élites privilegiadas formaron parte de un colectivo mayor, que tendía a borrar las fronteras de clase y que nosotros identificamos como propio del pensamiento nacionalista. En este sentido, el rol de las Fuerzas Armadas, de la Iglesia Católica y de los grandes propietarios terratenientes fue clave para entender cómo se entronizaron elementos como la carne de vaca, el fuego y el gran cuchillo como centrales de las gastronomía nacionalista, y cuáles fueron las operaciones por medio de las que se tendió a eliminar o invisibilizar otras formas de identidad culinaria. En definitiva, nuestro objetivo en ésta tesis fue desglosar cómo fue el proceso histórico y antropológico a través del cual se constituyó un discurso monocorde sobre las formas de comer y cocinar en la Argentina a finales del siglo XIX. Fil: Olsen, Juan Francisco. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras.

Cooking, nation and identities: A historical and anthropological approach to the emergence of nationalist culinary narratives in Buenos Aires (Argentina) during the second half of the 19th century 

Cocina, nación e identidades: Un abordaje histórico-antropológico sobre la emergencia de narrativas culinarias nacionalistas en Buenos Aires (Argentina) durante la segunda mitad del Siglo XIX

Voluntad❦Querer❦Albedrío❦Testamento

Grammar, Comparative and general--Context

Ταυτότητα (φιλοσοφική έννοια)

Peru is undergoing a gastronomic “boom.” The government, together with the private sector, actively promotes “its” food as an engine of growth and national unity and branding. One key component of this gastro-politics is the emergence of elite gastronomy, such as Nikkei food. Broadly defined as Peruvian and Japanese fusion food, Nikkei food is celebrated as emblematic of the nation’s immigration history and rich ethnic diversity. Today, it is arguably the most successful subgenre of Peruvian food to have made its mark in the global culinary market. How has Nikkei food “made it,” and who is behind the process? In this paper, I examine Peru’s gastro-politics in explaining the emergence and success of Nikkei food, focusing on the role of elite chefs and the Japanese-Peruvian community. Drawing on document and historical analysis, as well as field research in Lima, I argue that a key lies in how different actors promoted “their” food within the framework of Peru’s gastro-diplomacy--namely, (1) how Peru’s gastro-elites promoted Peruvian food globally, mostly through gourmet fusion food, (2) how the Japanese-Peruvian community capitalized on it by promoting Nikkei food as their own, and (3) how different actors came together in defining Peruvian gastronomy as “fusion” made up of diverse culinary traditions. Nikkei food has succeeded, partly because of its association with Japanese food, already popular in the global culinary market, and partly because of the resources and status of Lima’s prosperous Japanese-Peruvian community; but what also mattered was Peru’s gastro-politics, of how Peru’s gastronomy was promoted, by whom, and for whom.

Perú está experimentando un boom gastronómico. El gobierno, junto con el sector privado, promueve activamente “sus” alimentos como un motor de crecimiento, unidad nacional e imagen de marca. Un componente clave de esta gastro-política es el surgimiento de la gastronomía de élite, como la cocina Nikkei. En su definición más amplia como comida fusión peruana y japonesa, la cocina Nikkei se celebra como un emblema de la historia de inmigración de la nación y de su diversidad étnica. Hoy podría decirse que la cocina Nikkei es el subgénero más exitoso de la cocina peruana en el mercado gastronómico mundial. ¿Cómo lo logró y quiénes están detrás de este proceso? En este artículo, examino la gastro-política en Perú para explicar el surgimiento y el éxito de la comida Nikkei centrándome en el papel de los chefs de élite y la comunidad japonesa-peruana. Sobre la base de documentos y análisis históricos, así como de una investigación de campo en Lima, sostengo que una clave está en cómo los diferentes actores promovieron "sus" alimentos en el marco de la gastro-diplomacia peruana, a saber, (1) cómo la gastro-élite peruana promovió la comida peruana a nivel mundial, principalmente a través de la cocina fusión, (2) cómo la comunidad japonesa-peruana aprovechó esto al promocionar la comida Nikkei como propia, y (3) cómo diferentes actores se unieron para definir la gastronomía peruana como una “fusión” compuesta de diversas tradiciones culinarias. La comida Nikkei ha tenido éxito, en parte debido a su asociación con la comida japonesa, que ya es popular en el mundo entero, y en parte debido a los recursos de la próspera comunidad japonesa-peruana de Lima; pero lo que también importó fue la gastro-política en el Perú, cómo se promovió la gastronomía peruana, por quién y para quién.

“Nikkei Food” for Whom? Gastro-Politics and Culinary Representation in Peru

Representative government and representation

αντιπροσωπευτική δημοκρατία

This thesis is a critical reflection on the contemporary phenomenon of the “Gastronomic Boom” in Peru—a seemingly sudden surge in interest, development, marketing, and exportation of gourmet Peruvian cuisine. I examine this process looking at productions from the top and bottom of the social hierarchy in Peru. For perspectives from the top, I describe and critique the discourse of investment in gastronomy as a means of representing an entire nation in it’s cuisine, as well as a means of economic development and vehicle of social change. To get the view from below, I conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Cusco, Peru and surrounding areas. The informal interviews and participant observation, especially at community organizations such as Centro Bartolomé de las Casas and El Parque de la Papa, helped to ground this discourse and confirm assumptions about the local affects of the Gastronomic Boom, particularly on farming and indigenous peoples in the region. After analyzing cultural productions, such as a documentary film, that package the discourse on gastronomy, national identity and economic development as a means to social change, and comparing them to the articulations of resistance to thoroughly elite, neoliberal projects such as this, I take the position that the Gastronomic Boom as it currently stands exacerbates historical racial and economic inequalities in Peru. Using concepts of food justice, including food security, food sovereignty, food regimes, communities of food practice and food gentrification, I think through the Gastronomic Boom and discuss it’s potential for contributing to a substantive food movement that would take advantage of the success of this elite, upper-class gourmet project in getting food on the national agenda, but shift the meaning-making and production power to the campesino and indigenous peoples who grow the ingredients used to make Peruvian cuisine.

Peru's "Gastronomic Boom": critical perspectives on elite gastronomy and social food justice

Pueblos indigenas❦Los pueblos indígenas

Εθνικά χαρακτηριστικά

State sovereignty (International relations)

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Food since 1800

Cooking, nation and identities: A historical and anthropological approach to the emergence of nationalist culinary narratives in Buenos Aires (Argentina) during the second half of the 19th century

“Nikkei Food” for Whom? Gastro-Politics and Culinary Representation in Peru

Peru's "Gastronomic Boom": critical perspectives on elite gastronomy and social food justice

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