Clase social y consumo de quinua en Cuenca. 2017

Abstract

This article shows from the voices of women, the re-lationship between social class and food consump-tion. It identifies how the quinoa is today consumed fundamentally by the upper strata of the society in Cuenca and it is almost unknown by peasants and poorer urban strata, the result of processes related to distinction or stigma. Objective: understand the practices of social diffe-rentiation in Cuenca from the alimentation, using as a case study, the consumption of quinoa. Methodology: it is a multisite ethnographic re-search with seven families; four of the urban area and three of the rural area of Cuenca, it was carried out between October 2016 and June 2017. Results: the stories of the women around the fee-ding and the consumption of quinoa allow visuali-zing the symbolic elements that revolve around the food and its praxis in the particular historical and sociocultural context of Cuenca. Conclusions: food consumption is marked by class habitus. The quinoa is an example of this, it disappeared from the family table because of the symbolic depreciation inherited from the colony, and today it returns as a communicating symbol of social distinction.