Em todos os países latino-americanos, o modo de perceber a alimentação indígena é diferente, sendo em alguns casos simplesmente ignorada ou desconhecida. Às vezes, elementos dessa comida foram integrados ao modelo alimentar nacional. Em países como México e Peru, esses aspectos foram valorizados, mas, ao mesmo tempo, a comida dos índios de hoje é desvalorizada. Com estudos de caso no México (região mixteca, Estado de Oaxaca) e na Amazônia brasileira (Rio Negro, Amazonas), analisaremos como as dietas indígenas dessas regiões são percebidas sob duas perspectivas, de fora e de dentro. A partir do exame de suas características, será possível entrever que mesmo quando os índios vivem em situações desfavorecidas (no caso dos mixtecos), essas dietas são baseadas em um uso amplo e diverso dos recursos naturais, assim como de técnicas complexas de transformação dos alimentos. A partir dessa análise, discutiremos então se essas dietas podem ser consideradas como patrimônio culinário.

The consumption of greens is reported as being very minor among Amazonian Indians. The authors of this article present a new review of this subject, based on fieldwork with Amerindians and other populations in different parts of the Brazilian Amazon and French Guiana. Written sources on Brazilian, Peruvian, Columbian and Venezuelan Amazon were also reviewed. The consumption of cultivated, semi-cultivated and wild species of greens was taken into account here, as the data specific to wild greens is very scarce. It is confirmed that greens are not commonly eaten among native Amazonians and that some ethnic groups do not consume them at all. The consumed species are usually young shoots of weeds or cassava leaves. Common in the Belém region are some specific aromatic plants, which have been diffused to other parts of the Amazon, together with introduced plants such as kale and coriander. Migrants from Northeastern Brazil settled in the Amazon consume some cultivated greens, especially aromatic plants. Maroons are the ones who use more greens in their diet. Native Amazonian people, who supplement agriculture with game and fish, follow a hunter-gatherer pattern, preferring wild fruit and tubers to greens.

Resumo: Os pequenos agricultores do vale do alto rio Juruá, no Acre, produzem farinha de mandioca para consumo e comércio.Este artigo descreve as práticas que produzem e identificam uma farinha 'especial' do ponto de vista dos produtores locais. Esses processos são tanto técnicos como conceituais e se aplicam às raízes de mandioca, aos objetos responsáveis pelo processamento e à farinha produzida, diferindo da avaliação de negociantes e órgãos governamentais. Esse conjunto prescritivo será confrontado com a percepção dos comerciantes e também com a dos serviços públicos, a qual atua no melhoramento dessa produção por considerá-la desvalorizada e com elevada variabilidade.Palavras-chave: Amazônia. Rio Juruá. Políticas públicas. Farinha de mandioca. Patrimônio material. Abstract:Smallholders from upper Juruá river valley, state of Acre, in Brazil, produce cassava flour (farinha de mandioca) for consumption and trade. This article describes the practices that produce and identify a 'special' cassava flour from the point of view of the local producers. These processes are both technical and conceptual, and they apply to the cassava roots, the objects associated to its processing and the cassava flour produced, differing from the assessment of traders and governmental institutions. This prescriptive set will be faced with the perception of traders and also with the public service, which operates in this production improvement considering it undervalued and with high variability.

D'une production localisée à une indication géographique en Amazonie : les enjeux écologiques de la production de farinha de Cruzeiro do Sul * * Cet article se base sur une communication présentée au Colloque international « Localiser les produits : une voie durable au service de la diversité naturelle et culturelle des Suds ? », Unesco, Paris, 9-11 juin 2009.

After the discovery of America, plants travelled even more, along with people. In the mixtec land (Mexico), a great amount of plants from Spain were introduced over the first half of the XVIth century, some as food for the Spaniards, others - such as the mulberry - for trading. For a few decades, the mixtec highlands turned into the main silk exporting region. In the next centuries, new plants came over through different routes from other regions of Mexico, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Plants keep being introduced, for instance new varieties of coffee selected by modern agronomy. From 1521 to present, over eighty plants were brought to the mixtec land, and were adopted or rejected according to indigenous taste and agricultural practices. Rather than replacing local species, the new plants increased the diversity of agricultural products. They integrated so well that most of them are now thought to be native.

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Mexico is the center of origin and diversification of domesticated chile (Capsicum annuum L.). Chile is conceived and employed as both food and medicine in Mexico. In this context, the objective of this paper is to describe and analyze the cultural role of chile as food and as medicine for the body and soul in different cultures of Mexico. To write it, we relied on our own fieldwork and literature review. Our findings include a) the first matrix of uses of chile across 67 indigenous and Afrodescendants cultures within Mexican territory and b) the proposal of a new model of diversified uses of chile. Traditional knowledge, uses and management of chile as food and medicine form a continuum (i.e., are not separated into distinct categories). The intermingled uses of Capsicum are diversified, deeply rooted and far-reaching into the past. Most of the knowledge, uses and practices are shared throughout Mexico. On the other hand, there is knowledge and practices that only occur in local or regional cultural contexts. In order to fulfill food, medicinal or spiritual functions, native communities use wild/cultivated chile.