Title: Food Preparation and Dietary Preferences among the Arawak Aboriginal Communities of Cuba
Abstract: Food procurement and consumption practices represent an important aspect of a culture and the identity of its bearers. Indigenous communities used a wide variety of approaches for the collection, preparation and consumption of food, determined by an interplay of ancestral traditions, climate, and social relationships established by the ample mosaic of ethnic groups settled in the continental and insular territories. This chapter examines the ethnohistorical strategies, forms of food preparation and its consumption, as well as dietary preferences among Arawak Aboriginal communities in Cuba. It critically evaluates and systematizes the information provided by the early chroniclers in the West Indies (late 15th and early 16th centuries), in order to compare them with the data gathered through archaeological excavations, taking into consideration various paleodietary analyses, as well as the most recent census of faunal remains associated with the sites on the island. It also examines the contributions of the indigenous heritage in the shaping of contemporary Cuban culinary preferences.
Publication Year: 2016
Publication Date: 2016-09-20
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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