This process that I observed during my time in Bolivia is one that is occurring across the globe with increasing frequency. The importance of anthropology in this case is to document these changes in hopes that we can improve methods of adoption and avoid a superimposition of cultural traits when the receiving population doesn’t want them. Anthropologist’s forays into the daily lives of the world’s population reveal a startling amount of diversity in culture. I don’t believe that fears of a homogenized culture will ever come to pass. My fieldwork in Bolivia showed me that Bolivian food was far from becoming Westernized. In Cochabamba, I found that traditional food was still being consumed with gusto. However, this “traditional food” is the product of previous global influences and was therefore already part of a “hybrid” food culture. There is a constant process of adaptation taking place every day in every culture across the world, creating more diverse and multifaceted entities.
Posted by Emma Matthies '14 The welcoming apthapi in our rural homestay. We spent four days in a small village just off of Lake Titicaca. During the meal we ate seven different kinds of potatos with a homemade pico de aji (garlic salsa). Despite not speaking the same language all of us were laughing by the end of the meal (Photograph by Heidi Baer Postigo) The influence of foreign countries on Latin American culture is an ever-evolving process with a distinct manner of adaptation. In anthropology, studies of globalization have mainly focused on the influence the Western world has on South American countries, but the way in which new ideas are adopted and incorporated into culture is a crucial part of the process. Food culture in Bolivia has changed drastically throughout its history, from the Spanish colonists to NATO’s food aid to the introduction of fast foods. My study is based on ethnographic research carried out from February until May of 2013 in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and focuses specifically on culinary traditions and how they have changed in response to a variety of factors within the country and also because of pressures from outside. The importance of traditional foods still prevails through much of Cochabamba’s culinary world, but at the same time new foods are cropping up all across the city. I found that the global and the local coexist in Cochabamba and thus create new meanings within its population. Changes in Bolivian food culture are part of a larger movement towards a hybrid culture that incorporates traditions from the past as well as global influences. The resulting culture is not threatened by increasing amounts of foreign goods, services and ideas, but instead incorporates the new into the old. Meanwhile, a significant increase in national pride is occurring under indigenous President Evo Morales and his buen vivir movement. This movement aims to promote pride in the founding characteristics of Andean culture, such as the importance of community and the environment, over Western ideals of individualism and capitalism. While the ideas of buen vivir stand against Western ideals this does not necessarily denote opposition to the West. Instead, it represents the Bolivian identity revolution and the effort to convince Bolivians that they can be the proponents of their own cultural development. These efforts are important if Bolivia is going to continue to support of the sixty percent of the population that claim indigenous roots. It will go a long way in supporting efforts to decolonialize Bolivian food culture by bringing back meals that were eliminated because of their relation to the poor and introducing new foods that are traversing cultural boundaries.
This process that I observed during my time in Bolivia is one that is occurring across the globe with increasing frequency. The importance of anthropology in this case is to document these changes in hopes that we can improve methods of adoption and avoid a superimposition of cultural traits when the receiving population doesn’t want them. Anthropologist’s forays into the daily lives of the world’s population reveal a startling amount of diversity in culture. I don’t believe that fears of a homogenized culture will ever come to pass. My fieldwork in Bolivia showed me that Bolivian food was far from becoming Westernized. In Cochabamba, I found that traditional food was still being consumed with gusto. However, this “traditional food” is the product of previous global influences and was therefore already part of a “hybrid” food culture. There is a constant process of adaptation taking place every day in every culture across the world, creating more diverse and multifaceted entities.
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8/11/2022 05:45:59 am
Çok güzel bir konu teşekkür ederim. Gazipaşa transfer: https://www.alanyagroup.com/haberler/gazipasa-transfer-7-24/
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12/19/2022 11:32:05 am
İnstagram takipçi satın almak istiyorsan tıkla.
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