Culinária popular em Nossa Senhora do Livramento, Mato Grosso : modos tradicionais de fazer comida

Abstract

This interdisciplinary study began by problematizing the uniqueness of ways of knowing how to make popular cuisine. Its aim was to analyze the epistemic and communicative relationship between the ways of making food in the production of a popular cuisine in the municipality of Nossa Senhora do Livramento, in the Baixada Cuiabana, in Mato Grosso, in relation to the individual and collective memory of elderly women, based on the supply and availability of raw materials produced in the municipality itself and in the surrounding area, which serve as a material repertoire in the resolution of recurring dishes in the daily diet of the people of Livramento. At an exploratory level, the conditions of production of family agriculture in the municipality were studied, as well as a general picture of the raw materials produced and used by the local popular cuisine and a panoramic description of the set of dishes considered part of everyday life in the municipality. The cuts were made based on the social, historical, and communicative elements that contributed to the delineation of this uniqueness. The research considered, as a communicative episteme, the descriptive process itself, which links and disseminates such a diverse production of culinary knowledge, with reference to the geographical conditions of the community, located in the Cerrado and Pantanal biomes of the so-called Baixada Cuiabana. The approach used was qualitative, with a descriptive methodology based on field research, participant observation and photocartography, highlighting the role of three cooks from the region, considered here as research subjects. As a theoretical contribution, we adopted the model of communication studies as culture (Lima, 2001), for the definitions of backyard, kitchen, house (Medina, 2021, Brandão 2011), among others. As a result, thirty-eight local culinary products were identified, including savory dishes, sweets, and drinks. Due to their representativeness and availability in Livramentense culture, three dishes were selected for analysis: free-range chicken with cassava, pork ribs with green plantains and dried meat with rice. The study concluded that, in terms of cooking methods, the most common technique in local cuisine is the stew, which is full of affection and meaning and is passed down from generation to generation, demonstrating that the cuisine of Nossa Senhora do Livramento is a living and dynamic cultural heritage that needs to be valued and protected.