Swallowing their pride: Indigenous and industrial beer in Peru and Bolivia

Abstract

In this article, we examine the relations between food and social identity through an analysis of consumption in Peru and Bolivia, where food and drink are central components of many social gatherings. The key dimensions of social inequality in these countries are well known: a sharply skewed distribution of income and wealth along lines of social class, a separation between more dynamic urban areas and the more static countryside, regional differentials between more developed core areas and poorer interior and frontier zones, ethnic distinctions between national majority populations and indigenous minorities. In these countries, food systems also combine distinct and unequal elements. Indigenous and European crops are both widely consumed, though the latter are usually more prestigious. Moreover, simple peasant technologies of food preparation coexist with higher-status modern industrial technologies of food processing. What connections, then, exist between the sharp class, regional, and ethnic divisions on the one hand, and the composite food systems on the other? Does the patterning of food consumption simply reflect pre-existing social identities, or does food consumption play a more active role in forming and expressing these identities?