Eleventh International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

The fertile capacity of agro-ecosystems reveals itself in the interactions between seeds, homegardens, kitchens and native forests creating particular flavours and meanings for food as a basis for cultural identity within territories. Agro-ecosystems resilience can be understood as the balance between persistence and adaptability to change from a relational perspective. Resilience has different attributes that enable systems to respond to disturbances and to adapt, namely: diversity, redundancy, buffer capacity, modularity, self-organization, governance, learning, equity, and decision-making. Food growing, preparation, and consumption are constantly changing and adapting as expressions of agency of female and male farmers to decide what they what to eat and how they want to eat it. These interactions are the basis of biocultural memory which can be defined as the set of knowledge, practices and worldviews transmitted through generations, defining cultural ways of interaction with the territory and is elements. In this research, we explore the elements of the bicultural memory that allow mostly female peasants, in La Araucania region of Chile, to continue with their agriculture and food practices despite historic and ongoing dispossession processes. Through up to 80 informal and semi-structured interviews, participant observation and 2 focus groups we explore the elements of the biocultural memory such as affection to particular flavours and recipes, the cultural importance of seeds and reciprocity networks, as well as an accurate knowledge about the indicators of the seasons and weather, these women show resilience and resist current processes of privatization, commodification, and homogenization in local food systems.