Meat and sadness - on caxinauá cuisine and ways of knowing

• Grant number: 10/09370-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: September 01, 2010
• End date: August 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Indigenous Ethnology
• Principal Investigator: Dominique Tilkin Gallois
• Grantee: Ana Martha Tie Yano
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 05/57134-2 - Amerindian network: generation and transformation of relationships in the South American lowlands, AP.TEM

Abstract

Being great hunters, the caxinauá, peoples of speakers of a Pano/Panoan language, say that game meat (yuinaka), when mixed with vegetables such as maize (xeki), macaxeira (atsa) and banana (mani) becomes the finest and most flavorful dish of their sophisticated cuisine. Eating well is to them an art: it gathers people, strenghtens the thought (xinan), brings joy (benima). In the course of my stay at San Martín, in Alto Purus, the oldest did not hesitate to praise the beauty (duapa) of person reputed for his or her generosity and hospitality - thus did they refer to those who are deemed wise, xinanya, gifted with "good thought" (xinan pepa). This work aims to reflect on some aspects of the relationships articulated about the act of preparing the food and offering it to another, viewing the caxinauá cuisine and their manners at the table as a privileged way of expressing (pieces of) knowledge and circulating them.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

YANO, Ana Martha Tie. Meat and Sadness - on the cuisine of the caxinauá and their manners of knowing. 2015. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD) São Paulo.