Embodied Tastes: Food and Agrobiodiversity in the Colombian
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EMBODIED TASTES: FOOD AND AGROBIODIVERSITY IN THE COLOMBIAN ANDES by JUANA CAMACHO (Under the Direction of Virginia Nazarea) Through an examination of food production, perception and consumption, this dissertation explores how Colombian Andean peasants use and conserve agrobiodiversity for their diets, and the social implications of their food practices and tastes. It interrogates normalized assumptions about the simplicity and monotony of the peasant diet. Premised on the assumption that food has the ability to tie the private and mundane with larger socioeconomic and cultural processes, this dissertation explores aspects of the evolution of the Andean diet in regards to agricultural modernization, food and nutrition policies, and social discourses on peasant foods in Colombia. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and a mixed-methods approach, this dissertation examines dislocations, contradictions, and paradoxes between peasant cultural and embodied relationship to food and the dis- embodying effects of food and nutrition policies and market forces. The importance of peasant foods and food practices to cultural and alimentary diversity in Colombia is underscored. INDEX WORDS: Food, Agrobiodiversity, Embodiment, Andes, Peasants, Colombia EMBODIED TASTES: FOOD AND AGROBIODIVERSITY IN THE COLOMBIAN ANDES by JUANA CAMACHO B.A., Hunter College of the City University of New York, 1989 M.A., Universidad Javeriana, Colombia, 1999 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2011 © 2011 Juana Camacho All Rights Reserved EMBODIED TASTES: FOOD AND AGROBIODIVERSITY IN THE COLOMBIAN ANDES by JUANA CAMACHO Major Professor: Virginia Nazarea Committee: Pete Brosius Arturo Escobar Susan Tanner Julie Velasquez Runk Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2011 DEDICATION To my family Alvaro, Nora, Carlos, and Julia: the roots, the stem, and the flower. For their unconditional support and love. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge first and foremost my advisor, Dr. Virginia Nazarea, for guiding me with patience, generosity, solidarity and much good humor through the bittersweet completion of this dissertation. I thank her for exposing and encouraging me to explore new theories and topics that have brought new understandings of anthropology and the value of cultural difference. I am also indebted to the other members of my committee: Peter Brosius for stressing the need for theory and critical thinking; Julie Velasquez-Runk for her insightful comments and support all along; to Susan Tanner for listening and reading with dedication and care; to Arturo Escobar for his generosity and belief in my work. Arturo’s work and life has been a powerful source of inspiration. In one way or another all committee members played an important role shaping my thinking and writing. I would like to mention Dr. Robert Rhoades to whom I did not get a chance to say good bye but whose memory and example are embedded in the Andean mountains where I live. Margie Floyd has been one of the most generous, caring, and supportive persons in the Anthropology Department. I am indebted to her for her gentle emotional support. I also thank Lisa Norris and LaBau Bryan for their help with administrative matters. Betsy Reitz and Ted Gragson silently supported me finding the financial assistance without which I could have never finished the writing of this dissertation. v The peasants and families in Alban and Garagoa who collaborated with me and opened their homes and kitchens, who cared for me, made me laugh, and constantly challenged me to think about diversity, tenacity, resistance, and hope deserve my deepest acknowledgements. I hope I have conveyed some of their teachings here. I thank them for embedding my life with new meanings and bringing light to the embodied dimension of everyday life. I try to listen more carefully to my body now. The people that in one way or other contributed to this research such as Ana Camila Garcia, Dora Monsalve, Juan Camilo Sánchez, Bladimir Rodriguez, Juan Carlos Morales, Maria Teresa Barón, Eloisa del Castillo, and Nurys Silva, also deserve my gratitude. Roberto Franco helped my put a historical perspective to this research. I am also indebted to the Instituto Colombiano de Antropología for covering some of the costs of my research. Its director Diego Herrera made it possible for me to take a leave of absence to complete this dissertation. I also thank my colleagues and friends Margarita Chaves and María Clemencia Ramírez for believing in me and encouraging me in the decision to finish. The World Wildlife Fund provided funds for the first two years of academic training at the University of Georgia. Funding from Colciencias in Colombia covered some of the costs of fieldwork through the project Quienes son los campesinos hoy, which I coordinated during the period 2008-2010. These entities deserve recognition and credit. To the people who literally fed me and nourished me in so many different ways during the writing stages, many thanks: Cristina Aurrecoechea, Rocío Rodriguez, Chris Joseph, Scott Dougan, Kiran Asher, Stephanie Paladino, Juan Monroy, Patricia vi Navarrete, Patricia Vargas, Andrea Sanchez, and Magda Corredor. I thank Luz Marina Ussa for taking care of my family in my absence. My extended family must be credited for their love and understanding even when they were going through hard times too. I am sorry I did not get a chance to say good bye to my father-in-law whose death took us by surprise. My parents, my husband, and daughter deserve all the credit for pushing me through. Their calls and messages during my lonely hours in the windowless lab kept me whole and embodied when things seemed to be falling apart. They are the salt and the sweet of my life. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION .................................................................................................................. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ xii LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER 1 THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK .....................1 Introduction ..................................................................................................1 Research questions and research areas ........................................................8 Peasants: old and new issues ......................................................................16 Anthropology of food and body .................................................................28 Methods......................................................................................................36 Structure of the dissertation .......................................................................46 2 THE RESEARCH SITE: ALBAN AND GARAGOA ....................................48 Introduction ................................................................................................48 The Colombian Andes, an environmental and socioeconomically complex region .........................................................................................................49 Garagoa: an agricultural community on the Tenza Valley ........................52 Alban: A frontier for national development ...............................................75 Conclusions ................................................................................................97 viii 3 FOOD AND BODY: POLICIES AND PRACTICES .........................................100 Introduction ..............................................................................................100 Food, nutrition, and “the degeneration of the Colombian race” ..............101 Agricultural modernization and food and nutrition planning ..................111 A sacred government superfood ..............................................................124 Peasant bodies and embodied food and health practices .........................129 Conclusions ..............................................................................................144 4 PRODUCTION, ENSKILLMENT, AND AGROBIODIVERSITY MANAGEMENT ...........................................................................................151 Introduction ..............................................................................................151 Mixed knowledges and enskilled practices ..............................................154 Peasant agriculture in the Eastern Cordillera: cultivating diversity .........158 Shade coffee agroecosystems and other management practices ..............167 Sementeras, huertas, and potreros: sites of agrobiodiversity for livelihoods ................................................................................................181 Conclusions ..............................................................................................200 5 CUISINE, TASTE, AND IDENTITY ...........................................................204 Introduction ..............................................................................................204 Scholarly and culinary biases ...................................................................207 Peasants