| dc.description.abstract | "Abstract
What is for you Peruvian? Try to ask a couple Peruvian and you ll see that they find it a complicated and confusing question to answer. In a country as diverse as Peru, food serves as unifying factor. This thesis focuses on the role of Peruvian gastronomy as a tool for social development. The Peruvian gastronomy has underwent significant changes over the last years, a process which is often referred to as the gastronomic boom . The unifying power of food makes it a powerful lens of analysis for a wide range of social phenomena. In many contexts, food has proved to be a very useful lens of analysing identities, nationalism, globalization, and localities. Anna Tsing s (2004) notion of friction serves as a key concept for this thesis as an analytical lens. Tsing uses friction as a metaphor for understanding global interconnectedness, and the co-existence of the global and local, the universality of local difference.
We conducted an ethnographic case study on the impact of Peruvian gastronomy on the society by analysing this from the perspective of fine-dining restaurants. We gathered our data during a period of three months in which we among others interviewed different actors related to gastronomy and used participant observation as a way of gathering data within different interrelated groups. One of the researcher worked for a month in the kitchen in one of Peru s best known restaurants and one of the researchers lived during this period with two Andean communities connected to this restaurant.
In this thesis we aim to connect our fieldwork findings in the gastronomic sector of Peru with anthropological theory and debates. We will discuss three frictions existent in Peruvian gastronomy that stood out to us. The first friction is the connection between food and identification in Peru, the dynamics between national, global, and local levels of identification. Here we argue for the context-dependency of identification and its hybridity. The second friction focusses on the possibly conflicting - dual goals of Peruvian gastronomy that are cultural preservation and adaption to global markets. In this context, we will connect findings and theory regarding cultural commoditization, the change in value and meaning of food practices when derived from a rural community and transformed into the setting of a fine-dining restaurant. We will focus on the case-study of MIL Centro, a fine-dining restaurant in the Andes which is collaborating with local rural communities and seeks to be an interpretation of the Andean cuisine. We argue that the goals of cultural preservation and adaption to international markets don t necessarily have to be conflicting, and that cultural commoditization can be beneficial for all groups involved, as long as there is space for community-involvement. The third friction is between the government and grassroots movements within the Peruvian gastronomic sector. Appadurai s (2006) discussion of vertebrate and cellular modes of large-scale organization serves as a key lens of analysis for our focus on this friction. We argue that a gastronomic grassroots movement, to the extent that it operates as a cellular form of large-scale organization, can more effectively promote economic and social development than the government programs are doing, especially in a country as diverse as Peru. A top-down governmental approach to using gastronomy as a tool for development is here opposed to a bottom-up approach.
By analysing these frictions and connecting them with each other, we aim to provide the context in which gastronomy can serve as a tool for development in Peru.
As mentioned by Gastón Acurio, one of the main actors shaping the uplifting of the Peruvian gastronomy, the big contradiction is how to accelerate the benefits of the Peruvian gastronomy while connecting these benefits to small farmers. We argue in chapter one that local and global levels of identification can reinforce each other. Gastronomy can offer a way for shared identification to create unity in Peru. A researcher of a gastronomic NGO notes: For a very short period of time we have this opportunity in which gastronomy can be a grow-bar that opens doors. In this little time we feel collectively the same way and we imagine ourselves together in the same way, around the same things. We can use this imagery to make significant social change .
The argument discussed in chapter two is that within the adaptations to global flows and markets, communities can be strengthened and cultural preservation can be pursued. But only if, as chapter three illustrates, the friction between goals of cultural preservation and adaptation to global markets is tackled by the involvement of grassroots movements, providing bottom-up solutions for sustainable innovation.
It are these grassroots movements that provide an answer to the contradiction described by Gastón Acurio, and can efficiently make the benefits of Peruvian gastronomy reach small producers." | |
