How to hunt a truffle: relations between dogs, fungi and humans in Chilean truficulture

• Grant number: 19/17736-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: December 01, 2019
• End date: May 31, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Felipe Ferreira Vander Velden
• Grantee: Luisa Amador Fanaro
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 22/04226-2 - The potentials of hunting, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the relationships between dogs that hunt truffles, truffles and "truficultores" in Chile, taking as ethnographic focus the practical and semiotic relations involved in training and breeding those dogs, in "managing" the "truferas", and especially , in truffle hunting. In Chile, trufficulture extends from the region of Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins to the region of Ríos - that is, the "cultivation" of truffles happens throughout the central extension of the Chilean territory -, and those (humans) involved in this practice exchange experiences and information through the "Asociación Gremial Truficultores de Chile", created in 2013. Recent practice in South America - the first "harvest" of the black winter truffle (Tuber melanosporum) occurred in 2009 -, truffle hunting dates back to Ancient Egypt, as well as the use of animals as "hunters" of this particular fungus. In this context, based on the ethnography of the material and semiotic relations between humans and non-humans, I intend to unveil what are and what can these dogs, which are, it seems, working animals, and the relationships between humans, dogs and truffles - taking into account the complexity of the "hunting" status of a fungus by humans who "cultivate" them: trufficulture, in this sense, seems to consist of a unique combination of hunting, gathering, and agriculture. In order to do so, I intend to investigate the relationships between dogs and "truficultores", as well as the relation between dog and truffle and between truffle and "truficultor". Thus, the purpose of this research will be the elaboration of a multispecies ethnography with which it is hoped to contribute to the anthropology of human-animal relations, to the anthropology of techniques, and to the discussions about the definitions of the activities of hunting, gathering and agriculture. (AU)