Agricultural Research & Technology: Open Access Journal
Abstract
Migrant families are key to observe the dynamic
relationship between social groups and their territories. We have
analyzed different aspects of the migration process of a large group of
people in Argentina that currently dwell in a lowland’s peri-urban
location (Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area) but whose genealogical origins
are placed in Jujuy Province rural highlands (Humahuaca and Tilcara
Departments). This paper presents a brief communication about our
results and findings of a long-term research on agricultural practices
and knowledge deployed in both geographical areas, which are united by a
considerable migrant flow intensified during the last three decades.
Regularities and changes in family farming type of organization and food
knowledge and practices, are key to understand the cultural heritage
firmly rooted in these families and the strength and sustainability of
the migration process.
Keywords:Upland to lowland migration; Agricultural knowledge and practices; Knowledge transmission; Argentina
Introduction
This case study presents the analysis of knowledge
transmission related to agricultural practices and representations of
rural migrant families in Argentina, from an anthropological approach,
with emphasis in two articulated issues. On the one hand, the material
aspect regarding the agricultural productive practices and, on the other
hand, a symbolic aspect which informs the agricultural knowledge
system. We consider the agricultural practices as the link connecting
territory - identity - food [1]. In addition, it comprises particular
inherited representations,
beliefs, knowledge and practices that those individuals within
a specific socio-cultural group learn and share, in which certain
regularities and features are established [2].
The study includes two different geographical areas
(Figure 1). The first of them is in Florencio Varela District, in the
Southern Metropolitan Area, in the Buenos Aires City’s peri-urban
border. Great amounts of migrant families from very different origins
form part of the population, making it a large reception area. In this
region, there is no cattle raising activities. The second one, is in
Humahuaca and Tilcara Departments (Jujuy Province), in the Northern area
of Quebrada de Humahuaca, a narrow mountain valley. In this Province
the population in the rural area’s accounts for 40% [3]. The more
relevant economic activity is horti-
floriculture production complemented by herding for self-supply and
exchange.
The study of migrant mountain families’ agricultural
practices and representations presents a privileged stage to understand
those strategies they displayed in the lowlands, which combine knowledge
transmission and adaptability to the current location. The results of
the analysis led us to understand
a) the identity building process in migrant context through the
production, elaboration and consumption of specific meals;
b) the reproduction in lowlands of similar agricultural
patterns (family farming);
c) social health through a culturally adequate food.
To address these issues, we have been doing ethnographic
fieldwork for the past ten years, carrying out different activities:
observations and participant observations of agrarian
productive system : in-depth interviews to families through
snowball methodology [4] : geographic information analysis. In
addition, we have used other data such as national population
and agricultural censuses, photographic and historic documents,
among others.
Case Report
Along the last 3 decades, a profound change in food practices
has taken place. It included, for lowlands and highlands, new food
supply in everyday diet (fresh or industrial). This process made
people slowly abandon traditional and local food practices, which
has negatively affected social local health. However, both in rural
and urban areas there is a strong cultural memory regarding local
foods as a central element for their personal and community
territorial identity [5,6], and many people recreates, for special
occasions, those meals they remember having made by their
mothers or grandmothers in highland homes. In Florencio Varela,
highland families have abandoned quite significantly daily food
practices of their home territory, incorporating new elements
within the migration context. However, meals from their family
territory are made by replacing ingredients and modifying the
cooking base, trying to keep the seasoning base as similar as
possible. Although the production of the same vegetal species (e.g.
certain varieties of potatoes, maize or “ajies”) from the place of
origin does not have the same characteristics in the new context
(like performance, size or flavor), it is important to emphasize
that migrant people continue consuming the same products from
purchase, exchange or shipment through family. In this sense,
consumption has an important role, giving the possibility to
reproducing a particular family farming type of organization.
Thus, availability and access to raw materials are key issues
that different communities have managed to overcome, especially
through fairs and “ethnic” retailers (often first generations of
migrant) [7] who provide the community with their own cuisine
elements. Migrant families always mention their constant craving
for local food (even those family members of the following
generations who have never been there). The community
memory of meals made of maize, potatoes or peppers is one of
the substantial elements that link all those families together and
strengthen the connection with their home territory.
Discussion
Given the geographical features of Florencio Varela, a
fundamental aspect of highland families’ migration process is
the replication of productive structures that respond to Andean
patterns of family farming (type of organization, predominantly
reliant on family labor, technology, cultivated species, farming
techniques, among others) [8]. The characteristics of this
replication enhance the possibility to produce much of those
foods that remain in the community’s representation of their
territory. In this sense, migrant families carry certain knowledge
along and are connected to the new territory through practices
and representations taken from the highlands, but with added
meanings regarding their migrant trajectory. The fact that migrant
families are able to obtain farming smallholdings in peri-urban
lowlands, and hence the possibility of job opportunities in which
they are able to use knowledge and memories from their home
territory, consolidated the migrant process through family farming
practices. This case study shows the importance of family farming
in both an economic dimension, and in terms of cultural heritage,
including notions of healthy and suitable food with strong identity
ties, that keeps both territories connected.
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