Food and memory: the issue of regional cuisine patrimonialization

Abstract

Through the study of eating habits and heritage processes we have access to various manifestations of knowledge and practices of each community and the processes of (re)affirmation of regional cuisine. In this paper we will approach the relationship between food and memory and also how the patrimonialization of local gastronomic dishes can be, or not, influenced by memory or simply by marketing issues. We ask ourselves to what extent the processes of food heritage refer to the memories, doings, and particular knowledge of the population in question? In this text, we seek to understand the processes of patrimonialization of culinary preparations and, for this, we will use as an example the case of the chicken stuffed dish, in the city of Santa Cruz do Sul, in Vale do Rio Pardo/Rio Grande do Sul. As methodology, field research was used with the support of semi-structured interviews carried out with six women, with the support of a field diary, official documents, and reports. The method for analyzing the narrative memory documents was based on Textual Discourse Analysis. By exploring the wealth of information in the narratives and documents, it was possible to understand that identities and cultural heritages may not respond to market discourses, but rather to the ways of being, living of communities, mediated by memory as a device of popular praxis.