Dietary Habits and Plants in the Rurality of Sierra de Ancasti (Catamarca, Argentina)

Abstract

This work aims at characterizing the role of food plants in the dietary habits of rural farmers in the Sierra de Ancasti, the eastern part of the province of Catamarca, Argentina. Ethnobotanical research guidelines were followed, with methodologies from the social and natural sciences, in addition to qualitative and quantitative analyses. Semi-structured surveys and in-depth interviews were conducted in household units. Seventy-seven species and 133 different nutritional applications were registered, as well as a diversity of traditional and current food preparations. A large number of culinary practices, recipes and traditional dishes compiled in this work resemble the food of Catamarca’s folkloric past. We found that the most common local cuisine includes food based on corn (Zea mays) and squash (Cucurbita spp.) and that prepared in the form of jams and arrope. On the one hand, increasingly less diversified recipes, loss of ingredients, and use of traditional cultures were seen in the domestic cuisine in the rural Criollo population; on the other, a small group from the neorural population were found to encourage innovations in food and edible species.