The Ecological and Cultural Bases of Nutrition and Dietary Habits of Iranian Kurds: A Case Study of Bukan

Abstract

Food is considered as one of the common instinctive needs of both animals and human beings. In fact, in anthropological perspective, human food is affected and determined by cultural characteristics and traits. In this respect, each culture depends upon its cultural contexts and traits develop particular rules and regulations whose recognition provides a better understanding of their culture. In anthropology, this task is followed mainly by ethnographic method. The aim of this paper is to explore the dietary habits and nutrition among Iranian Kurds, in so doing; it employs the cultural ecology approach as theoretical perspective and ethnographic fieldwork as research strategy. The study was conducted in the west Azerbaijan province of Iran, Bukan Township. The findings demonstrate that the dietary materials of Kurdish people of Bukan are collected mainly from their surrounding environment; while presenting a wide range of traditional food in this Kurdish community, the findings also indicate that the ecological and cultural properties shape the food and nutrition pattern in an interrelated way.