|
Anthropological Approaches to Indigenous Food and Nutrition
Coordinators:
Maurício Soares Leite.
Institution:
Department of Nutrition, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina.
Maximum number of participants:
30
Summary:
The examination of the reality of food and nutrition in Brazilian indigenous societies reveals a multi-faceted area whose understanding demands pushing the limits of disciplinary borders. In addition both the investigation and health treatment of these populations occur in inter-ethnic contexts whose influences demand inclusion in data interpretation. Bearing these factors in mind, the course plans to explore the natural possibilities of adopting an anthropological perspective in the analyses of food and nutrition in indigenous societies, in a reflective exercise that does not limit itself to native ethnographic contexts.
The course will, one the one hand, position indigenous food and nutritional data in a larger context which includes aspects that are outside of a strictly biological sphere, while, casting, on the other hand, a critical eye on characteristic investigative practices and analyses, here understood as a group of culturally specific ideas and also subject to singular norms and values.
In this context reflections will be made upon the possibilities and limits of the application of, from an indigenous point of view, notions such as edibleness, nutritional value, and the relationship between diet and health. There will also be a discussion, from an anthropological perspective, of the use and interpretation of the parameters most commonly employed in nutritional anthropometry.
The discussions will be an overview of the immense socio-diversity which characterizes this segment of the Brazilian population and the singularity of the ethnographic contexts in which these profiles are rendered and also distinguished by the registration and analyses of data.
Target
Audience:
Researchers and health professionals interested in the nutrition and health of indigenous peoples.
|
