The Importance of Food in Tikuna & Baniwa Culture: Differences and Similarities About Two Brazilian Native Ethnic Groups

Abstract

This article presents the general aspects of the foods of Tikuna and Baniwa ethnic groups, who are indigenous peoples of the Amazonia, whose daily practice of food preparation reflects aspects of indigenous culture, which are strongly influenced by rituals, myths, by meanings and commensality within the small villages tribes. The indigenous peoples food was always filled by the cultivation a lot of plant species and prepared by the field manipulation techniques, cooking, extraction and fermentation, as has been part of indigenous knowledge from Amazonia. Different from western values, the food for the indigenous peoples is loaded with symbolism, commensality and beliefs. The food for the peoples Tikuna has importance given expression and the establishment of social relations between individuals in the villages, while that for the Baniwa food represents beyond the social relation, sacred element or cursed, loaded with symbolism cosmological, which extols their deep relationship with the mythological beliefs. Whereas in recent years the industrialized food also became part of indigenous foods, this paper was important to discuss the nutritional influence has affected the health of indigenous of Tikuna and Baniwa as result of the switching of food habits.