PAMONHA, IDENTITY FOOD AND TERRITORIALITY

Abstract

In this article, we present the pamonha, which is considered as an identity food, valued and demanded in the territory of the metropolis of Goiânia. We aim to analyze the theme of production and consumption of pamonhas as a rooted culture, delimiting a territoriality that, supports on contemporaneity the social and economic representation of family groups in urban centers. As a methodological procedure, we justified our analysis in the theoretical debates about traditional food, at the same time, we ran a field research in open-air markets and sites where food were traded as well as interviews with street vendors. We highlighted several identity foods in Goiás, however, we chose the pamonha because it represents the diversity in the production, marketing, and consume, plus the different selling spots: conducted by family groups in street fairs, managed by traders in stores and also taken ahold by street vendors. This food presents a wide variety of flavors, which points out to the permanence and resignification of the culture; it is required by its consumers who inflate its identity and reassure its territoriality created by family groups. Thus, unveil the meaning of producing and consuming pamonha means to decode the cultural, social and economic value of an identity food.

Keywords:
Food; Income; Social Reproduction; Tradition; Cultural asset

Resumo

Neste artigo apresentamos a pamonha, considerada como um alimento identitário, valorizado e demandado no território da metrópole de Goiânia. Temos como objetivo analisar a temática da produção e o consumo de pamonhas como uma característica da cultura enraizada, delimitando uma territorialidade que, na contemporaneidade, alicerça a reprodução social e econômica de grupos familiares no espaço urbano. Como procedimentos metodológicos, fundamentamos nossas análises nos debates teóricos sobre alimentos tradicionais e, concomitantemente, realizamos pesquisas de campo nas feiras e espaços de comercialização de alimentos e entrevistas com ambulantes no espaço urbano de Goiânia. Evidenciamos a existência de diversos alimentos identitários em Goiás e escolhemos para esta reflexão a pamonha, por retratar a diversidade das formas de produção e consumo, além dos distintos tipos de comercialização: conduzido por grupos familiares nas feiras, gerido por comerciantes em pontos fixos e ainda apropriado pelos vendedores ambulantes. Esse alimento apresenta uma variedade de sabores, o que denota a permanência e a ressignificação da cultura. A pamonha é demandada pelos consumidores, que nela buscam alimentar a sua identidade e reforçar a territorialidade criada pelos grupos familiares. Assim, descortinar o sentido da produção e consumo da pamonha significa decifrar o valor cultural, social e econômico de um alimento identitário.

Palavras-chave:
Alimento; Renda; Reprodução Social; Tradição; Bem Cultural

Résumé

Il s´agit de presenter la pamonha, considerée comme un aliment identitaire, valorisé et demandé sur le territoire de la métropole de Goiânia. Notre objectif est d'analyser cette territorialité qui sous-tend la reproduction sociale et économique contemporaine des groupes familiaux dans l'espace urbain. En tant que procédures méthodologiques, nous basons notre analyse sur des débats théoriques sur les aliments traditionnels et dans le même temps, nous avons effectué des recherches sur le terrain dans les foires et les espaces de marketing alimentaire, interviewé des vendeurs de rue. Nous avons mis en évidence plusieurs aliments identitaires à Goiás, cependant, nous avons choisi pour cet article la pamonha, elle représente la diversité des formes de production et de consommation, en plus des différents types de commercialisation: menée par des groupes familiaux lors de foires, gérée par des commerçants à des points fixes et toujours appropriée par des vendeurs de rue ou deambulants. Cette nourriture présente une variété de saveurs qui dénote la permanence et la résignification de la culture, elle est exigée par les consommateurs qui nourrissent leur identité et renforcent la territorialité créée par les groupes familiaux. Ainsi, dévoiler le sens de la production et de la consommation de la pamonha signifie déchiffrer la valeur culturelle, sociale et économique d'un aliment identitaire.

Palabras-clave:
Nourriture; Revenu; Reproduction Sociale; Tradition; Bien Culturel

INTRODUTION

Traditional, cultural, artisanal, or - hereon named as - identitary aliments are still demanded and consumed in metropolitan contexts even amidst rapid transformations in alimentary habits face the offer of processed and ultra-processed foods, which are part of modern lifestyle and behavioral values. Rooted in popular cultural identity, there is a contradictory growth of their consumption and the expansion of transformation of traditional aliments impulsified by a valorization of knowledges and doings. As asserted Woortmann (2013, p.6), in “the most different societies, aliments are not only eaten, but also thought of; this means that food has a symbolic meaning - it expresses something more than the nutrients of its composition”. Beyond their physiological dimension, aliments transformed in food are related to social and cultural motes, which, in turn, influence processes of choice. Claval highlights (1995) that it is through culture or cultural attributes that populations mediate their relations with the world and construct a particular way of life, besides territorial rooting.

We initiated a research attuned to Food Geographies¹ in Goiânia’s metropolitan space local culture. Various inquiries were recurrently brought up in this investigation, such as: Which identitary aliments, here understood as traditional/artisanal/cultural, are demanded by Goiânia’s population? How the consumption market legitimizes and sets quotas to maintain the production of identitary aliments? To what extent an identitary/traditional aliment can be considered as a territorial component of urban families to their maintenance and social reproduction in a metropolis?

Seeking responses for these inquires, we employed the following methodological proceedings: bibliographical revision in theses, dissertations, and papers; interviews with National Institute for Historic and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN) technicians in Goiânia; we proceeded with concomitant incursions in the metropolitan area, with focus on street markets, in loco observations, and talks with sellers and consumers. In parallel to the cited activities, we conducted visits to a municipal school, where we developed an activity with students of youth and adult education (EJA) night classes towards understanding traditional aliments consumed in Goiânia. We also visited different spaces built for commercialization of traditional foods, with emphasis on pamonharias. Research dynamics allowed the constatation of an abundance of identitary/traditional aliments in Goiás cuisine: pamonhas, chica doida, rice with pork back, quitandas, homely sweets, melado, rapadura, among others. These aliments compose the varied menu and translate the rural-urban relation in different seasons of the year.

We chose pamonha for this discussion due to its strong spatialization reflected in the presence of pamonharias in different neighborhoods alongside its commercialization in many street markets. It is an aliment consumed by all social classes, beyond the diversity of flavors, ways of production and commercialization, material and symbolic representation. Moreover, it indicates a contraposition to modernization and its advancements on alimentary massification.

To bring up this discussion on elaboration and commercialization of traditional aliments means an effort into unveiling senses of this production to the lives of men and women, their relationships of identity and territoriality, and how this unfolds face the rise of other activities. As Almeida (2005, p.323) states, it concerns “interpreting social values aggregated to them”. Due to the exposed, and its socioeconomic value, this aliment is highlighted for an analysis since its consumption is a territorial bastion and is used for income and work opportunities in the urban space.

Analyzing the relevancy of identitary aliments production and consumption as a cultural manifestation on geographical space, Menezes and Cruz (2017, p.26) asserted that “these strategies or (re)conversions ally cultural practices funded on locally diffused knowledges and doings aimed at generating income and allowing that these groups or families can continue in their life and work place”. It concerns strategies that conform a territoriality face the country’s current unemployment and economic crisis. Simultaneously, we stress that pamonha production, commercialization and consumption invert the belief that culturally traditional products would constitute only a vestige of a pre-scientific society and would be fated to disappear after the advent and dominance of industrialized aliments.

The expansion of production, its resignification, and the growth of projects directed to pamonha consumption were noticed. Thus, this paper is founded on an analytic-cultural reference by means of the presentation of elements that demonstrate the vitality of this contemporary productive system with ascending demand in metropolitan space. In addition to this introduction, this paper is organized in three sections. The second one presents a brief bibliographical revision on the theme. The third brings up main empirical results from the research developed in Goiânia. The last one brings forward the final thoughts.

ALIMENTARY CULTURE: A PRODUCTOR-CONSUMER APPROACH

Traditional aliments remain in space-time and continue being elaborated based on knowledges and doings transmitted through different generations in a given territory. Even with some resignifications, they conserve characteristics related to flavors, textures and local culture. Alimentary culture is understood as “the conjunct of representations, beliefs, knowledges, and practices inherited and/or learned that are associated with alimentation and are shared amongst people of a given culture or social group” (CONTRERAS; ARNAIZ, 2005, p.37). It refers to aliments that mark the geography and history of territories as well as are grounded in experience and rooted in family tradition. According to Woortmann (2013, p.10) “culinary practices are dynamic languages, thus differences between what is considered culturally eatable or not also concerns different times and generations in the same region and ethnic group”. As traditional culture, this language is not static because it is resignificated in space and time and is revalorized in modernity.

Evaluating the traditional-modern relation, Delfosse (1995), in the French context, ponders that tradition is connected to a consumption of products that is maintained as a prevalent habit due to it being a typical product, a local specialty, rooted on an original region, or produced in accordance to particular technics of production and savoir-faire transmitted through generations. Modernity would, then, be associated with a tendency towards adaptation to new consumption demands, mainly in relation to changes in alimentary practices, product packaging, and technical innovation, aimed in producing new, easily transportable, regular forms and tastes. She evaluates that modernization or reinvention is a necessity that adapts traditional products to become part of new markets.

In agreement with Delfosse’s (1995) arguments, Garcia (2003), analyzing the reflexes of globalization into Brazil’s alimentary culture, considers that as part of the mundialization of culture, the definition of tradition is associated to distinct senses since we consider tradition as a permanence of a past in the present. However, according to her, there is a tradition of modernity with the insertion of reinventions in traditional aliments, recycling elements associated to memory. Those are aliments that are reformulated in the present by revising objects and components evidenced in the past. Garcia (2003) also highlights that the valorization of traditional products is connected to notions of a natural dimension, rurality, purity and authenticity.

In the last years, studies have shown that alimentation constitutes one of the most solid traces of identity. The preservation of determined alimentary habits is sought after by migrants dislocated or displaced from their territory. Through this practice, they hope for an approximation towards their territory.

Some migrants, mainly from rural areas, maintain their alimentary habits, costumes and necessities as a way to become occupants of urban centers. They seek these identitary products in the market because they do not have the possibility of preparing their farms and/or raising animals in order to prepare their traditional aliments.

The acquisition of these aliments presently predominates due to the migrant’s impossibility of making their own aliment. The meaning of produced aliments for their daily lives remain by becoming part of their history. This creates demands for its recognition and for similar products from that place. Deterritorialized from rural environments, migrants seek to conserve the consumption of traditional aliments founded on original forms, but by acquiring them from third parties. Hence, with new traces produced in the interior of residencies through masculine and/or feminine hands, they constitute a product of similar symbolic value compared to the one consumed before.

There is a common recollection of past memories when consuming traditional aliments, especially those related to the degustation of these aliments amongst relatives in rural festivities in territories of different temporalities. Raffestin (2003) denominates this territory recalled by migrants as “referential territory”. It refers to a space that is presently distant from the space where the individual has lived and that, in turn, transforms the acquisition of products from this territory in a process of strengthening his identity.

Menezes (2013) affirms that the familiar registry of food is the memory of infancy smells and tastes as transmitted though different generations. According to Mintz (2001), aliments are associated to the past of those that consume them and the technics used in its elaboration, serving and consumption are as varied as they are indicative of their own history. Menezes and Cruz (2017, p.25) collaborate with his discussions and allude that modes of preparation and serving unveil histories, traditional cultural expressions “characteristic of each community or society and also reveal inter-relations not only between individuals, but among themselves and the space where they are in different societies and temporalities”. Representations concerning practices of obtention, preparation and consumption of aliments in these histories aid the construction and maintenance of social group’s identity and are essential in a context of mundialization of aliments and cultural practices. Muchnick (2004) considers that the symbolic value of aliments is related to the construction of collective and individual identities.

Researches associated to a revalorization of traditional production putted in evidence the approximation between productors and consumers. There is a growing movement of consumers seeking aliments produced in local scales and associated with tradition. Therefore, it is observed that the structuration of the commercialization these aliments in urban spaces occurs in short circuits with narrow production and consumption. This constitutes an alternative for strengthening families in rural and urban territories. Thus, traditional alimentary practices founded on knowledges and doings created by groups of relatives as survival alternatives are expanded in urban spaces.

Notwithstanding, there is a growth of unemployment rates in moments of economic and financial crises. Facing this problem, one of the growing activities is the production of aliments inserted in informal markets with commercialization of in natura products and the elaboration of those rooted in tradition and territorial identity.

This elaboration occurs in short circuits, such as street markets, through in loco production or through the commercialization of the aliment made at home. Peiss and Schneider (2020, p.178) consider that street markets, consumer groups, direct acquisition in the propriety, and the sale of aliments in stalls at highway borders by farmers constitute markets of proximity that are grounded on “a face to face relation between productors and consumers that interact in a physical space geographically limited […], as to create a direct flow of the aliment in its space of production and consumption”. These markets of proximity are legitimized by urban consumers demands for traditional aliments and stimulate the search and creation of labor alternatives face the difficulties of insertion into formal markets, as discussed by Menezes (2009) and Cruz (2012).

Strategies of elaboration and commercialization of traditional aliments remit us to Certeau’s (1994) arguments on the arts of doing, tactics and strategies created by inhabitants that produce their marks in the city by instituting daily practices in their uses of public spaces. Nevertheless, the production of identitary/traditional aliments, strongly based on urban demands, presupposes the search and creation of work alternatives facing difficulties of insertion into formal markets and founded on arts of doing.

Schneider (2016) argues that spaces of commercialization configured in street markets have an important role in economic transactions in informal markets. It is worth noting that relations in this space are mainly based on the use of liquid money, which is indispensable for the social reproduction of families in the inferior circuit of urban economy, as discussed by Santos (2004). Despite the rejections related by the author’s discussions, the advance of credit card usage is observed.

Alimentary culture is sprawled in urban space with its histories, symbols, tradition and resignification, and has been reappropriated and legitimized by its consumers. An examination into the territoriality of identitary aliments production, as pamonha’s case, enables reflections into the relevancy of a strategy with focus on the social reproduction of familiar groups.

FROM TRADITION TO RESIGNIFICATION: IDENTITARY ALIMENT DEMAND IN THE METROPOLITAN SPACES

Arrais (2013, p.20) asserts that “Goiânia was born from the conjunction of regional and national factors in the second half of the 20th century, these factors are connected to disputes of regional elites and appropriated by a discourse of occupation of ‘empty’ areas in western Brazil”. The agricultural modernization initiated in the 1960s contributed to the acceleration of migration and, consequently, of urbanization, transforming the city into a populous metropolis, centralizer of income and employment opportunities (ARRAIS, 2013).

In the last populational census (IBGE, 2010), 1.302.001 inhabitants were counted in Goiânia. According to IBGE, it has a demographic density of 1.776,74 hab/km² and an estimated population of 1.516.113 habitants in 2019, which indicates the metropolitan sprawl. In his studies on Goiânia, Chaveiro (2001, p.239) indicates that “the city belongs to the ‘knot’ of business networks in the country”, but asserted that its rural traditions were not eliminated. These transformations affected the traditional values presentified in Goiânia’s population sociocultural practices, however, traditional costumes can still be detected. Borges (2013, p.32) highlights:

[…] the city has expanded, acquired characteristics and problems of a metropolis, but some habits considered as traditional that originated in the beginning of its foundations remained in goianienses practices and were adapted into economic, social and cultural changes brought by modernity.

According to the author, new values were incorporated and reflected in the modification of some costumes. Yet, some of the traditional practices were not totally eroded or eliminated. Among the different preserved costumes, the consumption of traditional aliments arises as one that is not exclusively tied to necessity, but to sociability, culture, beliefs, and habits ingrained in its social groups. In the analysis of the relation between traditional aliments and territory, it is pertinent to approach them as a cultural expression evidenced in its social practices and the knowledge inherited by men and women.

Such is pamonha’s case. Considered as a traditional aliment of various Brazilian regions, pamonha alludes to harvest festivities in the northwestern region, where it is mainly consumed in June Festivals. In southeastern and center-west regions this aliment is equally connected to harvest festivities, but its consumption has gone beyond the June Festivals period in the center-west.

There was a special date for pamonha production in Goiás state. Those were the pamonhadas, which consisted of an encounter or reunion permeated by bonds of friendship and sociability that involved/involves relatives, friends, and neighbors. These events were, and are, a special and festive moment of bonding and sharing that people look forward every year that happens in a predetermined house or farm. Barbosa (2015, p.133) defines this moment:

Pamonhadas are a kind of family communion ritual (for close friends and neighbors) at which the entire process of pamonha production (cooked dough of green corn wrapped and shaped inside a bundle of corn husk […]) has its functions divided between the family members by gender, age and hierarchy.

The author reports diverse types of pamonha fillings and incrementations with the recipe’s resignification: the aliment is found on sweet and salty, boiled and fried variations. This aliment was and still is produced in rural spaces during moments of family congratulations, predominantly in the beginning of corn harvest. Even though men participated in pamonhadas, women were protagonists and highly important for taste, paladar and culinary costume preservation. Ortêncio (1967, p.3) describes that:

Men went to the farm to harvest and bring corn and, afterwards, cut its corncob points; women and children, peeled off its husks, others grated, chose the most adequate husks, cut fresh cheese and more fried pieces of pork sausage, all of their own production; careful and patient ladies removed corn hairs incrusted in each corncob. There was a huge pot where the seasoned dough cooked with pork fat and was stirred with an even huger wood spoon. After filling the folded husks with dough and ingredients, they are tied to other husk components with a knot in the salty ones and two knots to distinguish sweet ones.

Processes of agriculture modernization, foremostly agribusiness, resulted in migrations and propelled urban growth. It triggered the emergence of this strategy of reproduction in urban space, particularly in Goiás’ metropolis. However, difficulties concerning the elaboration of the diverse production steps in the city, as stated by Ortêncio (1967), alongside a scarcity of time, stimulated demands for purchase of this traditional aliment and propelled families to produce and commercialize this delicacy.

Similar to Sergipe’s rural farinhadas of beiju fabrication studied by Menezes (2013), pamonhadas were organized with antecedence by a given family as a special moment that attributed use value to the aliment. In the city, traditional beiju previously focused on the cited researches and, in this case, pamonha, started to be produced by families but it acquires trade value by being commercialized.

Pamonhada tradition still occurs in rural areas. However, as previously stated, they became sparce in the metropolitan space. In spite of this, the commerce of corn dough and husk to those that decide to make their own pamonhada at home has grown into a recurrent practice at Goiânia’s street markets. Contraposing the logic of corn reduction in metropolitan surroundings, pamonha consumption remains - or even increases - with the purchase of this product in commercial establishments, street markets, or when people acquire the product in vehicles with speakers that divulge and sell the delicacy in neighborhoods and public spaces.

Pamonharias are settled in different neighborhoods and are attended by distinct social classes. In middle- and high-income neighborhoods establishments are sophisticated and the aliment has a higher price; in popular neighborhoods, filling variety and prices are lower (FIGURE 1). Thus, reunions to produce pamonha are substituted by encounters in these specialized spaces.130 commercial establishments were identified at Goiânia’s. However, these numbers have changed in accordance to the circumstances. Beyond these commercial places identified through social networks, of which around 15% were visited, it was constated that this delicacy was also sold in innumerable cafeterias and bakeries. Chart 1 indicates pamonharias at each neighborhood. It was also relevant that various establishments are commercial networks of up to three pamonharias in different neighborhoods. This characteristic is connected to establishments which produce aliments with high reputation and consumer demand.

Table 1
Goiânia's Pamonharias.

Localization (Neighborhoods)	Quantity
Jardim América	08
Setor Central; Jardim Curitiba	06
Setor Oeste	05
Pedro Ludovico; Morada do Sol	04
Vila Redenção; Parque Amazônia; Jardim Planalto; Setor Leste Vila Nova; Setor Centro Oeste; Setor Campinas; Jardim Nova Esperança; Balneário Meia Ponte.	03
Cidade Jardim; Setor Bueno; Residencial Itaipú; Jardim Novo Mundo; Setor Sudoeste; Residencial Celina Park; Setor Candida de Morais; Vila Itatiaia	02
Jardim Guanabara III; Setor Urias Magalhães; Vila Santa Helena; Setor Perim, Vila Regina; Vila Maria Dilce, Setor Progresso; Setor Caravelo; Residencial Recanto dos Bosques; Floresta, Residencial Solar Ville; Residencial Vale dos Sonhos I; Jardim Maria Helena; Vila Mutirão I e II; Setor Rio Formoso, Parque Santa Cruz; Setor Recanto das Minas Gerais; Jardim Liberdade; Jardim Caravelas; Maringá; Jardim Petrópolis; Vila São Francisco; Jardim Vila Boa; Nossa Senhora de Fátima; Jardim Santo Antônio; Jardim Presidente; Jardim da Luz; Alto da Glória; Setor Sul; Setor Aeroporto; Setor Bela Vista; Setor Leste Universitário; Aeroviário; Vila Aurora; Vila Concórdia; Jardim Bela Vista; Vila Pedroso; Jardim Leblom, Jardim São Judas Tadeu; Setor Negrão de Lima; Conjunto Riviera; Setor Crimeia Leste; Vila Maria José; Parque Anhanguera; Jardim das Hortências; Setor Coimbra; Jardim Atlântico; Jardim Europa; Setor Parque Tremendão; Residencial Prive Atlântico; Loteamento Solange Parque I; Loteamento Araguaia Parque; Residencial Goiânia Viva; Vila Abajá; Lorena Parque; Vila Teófilo Neto; Vila Jardim Pompéia; Nova Suiça.	01

Source: Google Earth (2020).

Figure 1
Goiânia’s Pamonharias Spatialization - 2020.

A resignification concerning pamonha’s flavor diversity is evidenced in these commercial establishments. Salty pamonhas with cheese filling and pamonhas with reinvented or resignificated forms, such as à moda, chicken, chicken with cream cheese, sausage with pepper. Traditional pamonhas are filled with sun-dried meat, cheese, green pepper and coriander, besides the types with Jiló and sausage, amongst other small variations. In these establishments it is also possible to find: Sweet pamonha; salty and sweet cooked pamonha; and the chica-bacana pamonha, which is not wrapped in corn husk and is elaborated with green corn dough, shredded sun-dried meat, minas fresh cheese cut in cubes, olives and tomato sauce.

These alterations bring us to Giard’s (2003, p.212) discussions which state that “alimentary habits constitute a dominion at which tradition and innovation have the same importance, where present and past are interwoven to satisfy the moment’s necessity, to bring an instant of happiness and conviviality amidst the circumstances”. Therefore, an alimentary culture is not fixed once we notice alterations in the insertion of new ingredients stimulated by consumer demands that prompt families to create new products that attract clients.

According to Certeau (1994), the materialization of reality is concretized in the invention of everyday life through assemblages of reinterpretations, creations, reactions, and conformities that reign the daily happenings of social life. In Goiânia’s society, we constated the composition and recreation of traditional aliments in these commercial establishments, where chica doida, cural, fried corn cake with pork sausage, pottages, corn soup with chicken and cream cheese, amongst other corn derivatives besides pamonha are sold.

Pamonha’s price is varied. The price for sweet or salty pamonha, considered as traditional, is lower - it varies from R$4,00 to R$8,00 - due to a low diversity of ingredients, which are corn, salt or sugar, oil or pork fat, and cheese. Its price is also connected to the neighborhood, commercial establishment size and the social class that frequents it. When the commercial establishment is located at a middle-class neighborhood, or at a peripherical one but with a high reputation and fixed clientele, pamonhas’ prices are higher. In farthest neighborhoods and in pamonharias of simpler structures, the pamonha size is reduced and the price is inferior to those of more famous establishments and/or situated in middle-class areas. The addition of other ingredients, such as sun-dried meat, sausage or others, are added, also increases prices.

The production of this corn derivative at these commercial establishments is similar to that previously experienced in rural spaces. Division of labor with distinct tasks is observed. Men are responsible for cutting, cleaning, and grating corn. Women prepare the dough and shape of the pamonha. Men were seldom found acting in dough preparation.

Aside from the fixed selling places, the commercial establishments also sell the delicacy ready for consumption. This commerce was identified in 80% of Goiânia’s street markets, as were in the special street markets. There are 122 street markets and 35 special street markets registered at Goiânia’s City Hall (PMG, 2020). More than a territory of buying and selling, these spaces constitute a place of encounters. In his research on Goiânia’s street markets, Borges (2013, p.10) points out that “sprawled trough almost all of Goiânia’s neighborhoods, street markets take turns all days of the week, commercialize diverse products […], receive frequenters of all social classes, and are democratic spaces, full of smells, colors and flavors typic of popular culture”.

Beyond the commercialization of pamonha and grated corn, the aroma exhaled in the preparation of this delicacy also caught our attention during our walks into street markets. Pamonha is prepared by families in ten street markets. Two of those are of the same family - aunt and nieces. The arts of making and selling pamonha in street markets has been common for at least the last quarter of a century.

The work of producing the aliment starts the day before the street market through the following activities: organization of corn, pots and tools for mounting a kitchen in public space; and disposing tables and chairs for aliment consumption at the local. The role of informal networks in corn distribution for these groups of families is also evidenced. Most of it is distributed by peasants from Inhumas, Catalão and other small municipalities that transport corn into the metropolis. There is a division of labor in the process of producing this aliment by involving men and women: “each one has its function and cannot stop because there is a high demand for pamonha, so we make several rounds of pamonha per day” (M.J., Setor Oeste’s street market, Set. 2019).

Men are responsible for cutting corn, separating husks, packaging pamonhas and selecting corncobs that are in good state for production. Aside from these, they are the ones that manually grate the cleaned corn without husk and hair. They do so with electric graters, differently from traditional rural pamonhadas, which employed artisanal grates.

It is a continuous work. It begins at 6 or 7 in the morning and ends in the first hours of the night in some street markets. Women act in the elaboration of the delicacy - dough and filling preparation - be it the traditional salty or sweet or the à moda preparation with diverse products, such as onions, coriander, garlic, sausage, and pork. These are also made in a similar manner to the other flavors produced in pamonharias. It concerns products that are elaborated based in the traditional knowleges and doings, but also in subjective consumer preferences expressed on the delicacy’s flavor and aroma. The quantity of pans/pots in industrial stoves reveals the diversity of flavors elaborated in a given selling place (FIGURE 2).

Figure 2
Pamonha Production at Setor Coimbra’s Street Market, Goiânia, 2019. Photo: S. S. M. Menezes. Fieldwork. Setor Coimbra’s Street Market, Oct. 2019.

The process of pamonha production can be observed by the consumers. They sometimes have to wait while the aliment is cooked after being bought at the stall. Due to the high demand, consumers usually await the sellers that, in turn, annotate the orders in account of the time of arrival of each client until the pamonha finishes cooking.

Corn husks are previously cooked in caldrons in order to not break when the dough is inserted in the husk ‘cup’ made by the women. This traditional packaging is found in various Brazilian states in the southeastern, center-west and northwestern regions. In a sequential manner, women include fresh cheese strips and ready-dough in the husk dough then tie the package with rubber bands. The color of the bands differentiates sweet and salty ones. The rubber bands are also previously cooked in order to not interfere in the taste. Pamonhas are then putted into aluminum pans with fervent water to cook during 40 to 60 minutes (Figure 3).

Figure 3
Insertion of pamonha dough into a husk cup, Goiânia, 2019. Photto: S. S. M. Menezes. Fieldwork. Setor Coimbra’s Street Market, Oct. 2019.

Knowledges and doings elaborated and re-elaborated by families that produce pamonha remind us of Almeida’s (2017, p.8) assertive that “the ways of preparing and serving aliments - beyond the manners through which they would never be made - reveal the modes by which individuals of different societies project their identities”. Although she was not focused on the production of this specific aliment, we constate this affirmative in the forms of preparing and serving and in its relations with consumer demands.

Similar to pamonharias, street market stalls also commercialize other derived products beyond pamonha dough and corn husks. Many consumers eat pamonhas there and others acquire dough and husk to prepare the delicacy at home. A consumer narrated that: “I like to eat pamonhas here, but I take away dough because street markets happen every eight days, and so I can make my own pamonha at home; and this cold climate gives me more desire to eat pamonha. When it rains, we eat pamonha” (J.V., Setor Oeste’s Street Market, Oct. 2019).

These pamonha spaces in Street Markets also constitute places of encounter. There, men, women, youngsters and adolescents are reunited. A significative part of consumers has rural origins and seeks to keep their traditions of that place. These people demonstrate that they retain strong attachments and intend to conserve traces of their culture, traditions, and particular infancy or teenage stories. In our conversations, they highlighted their rooted past, but are not illuded by a possible return. Consumers of these corn-derived products belong to diverse social classes. We constate that many consumers recall past facts when tasting the aliment, which reveal traces of their identity. Street market consumers valorize the aliment and its rural origin in their narratives when they revitalize remarkable facts. They report to their territory of reference when consuming the product:

Every Sunday I come here to eat a pamonha. Sometimes I come with my family and we recall our pamonhadas at the farm. When I am in a hurry, I just take away, but I prefer to eat here because it makes me remember our family’s pamonhadas. This is a time that can’t come back because everyone is living here in the city and we don’t have a farm anymore. (A.S., Setor Pedro Ludovico Street Market, Goiânia, Jul. 2019).

These places are emblematic and their dynamics expresses resistances founded on the potentiality of knowledges, doings, and local culture and manifested in forms of territoriality or strategies of reproduction in urban spaces. Although it concerns places marked by their economic relations, bonds of trust between sellers and consumers can be identified.These bonds legitimize the consumption of identitary/traditional artisanal aliments since those are commercialized without a formal certification, wrapping, identification seal or any recognizable branding (FIGURE 4).

Figure 4
Pamonhas ready for purchase or consumption. Photo: S. S. M. Menezes. Fieldwork. Setor Pedro Ludovico’s Street Market, Mar. 2020.

In the metropolis is still possible to find another unusual situation: “The Pamonha car is passing! Pay attention to the Pamonha!”. Besides the ambulant commerce in cars and motorcycles, bicycles are also employed to sell this aliment in the streets.

These intra-urban itinerant sellers usually reside in municipalities of Goiânia’s Metropolitan Region. They go everyday into the capital’s neighborhoods with the objective of commercializing the aliment. This commerce, a part of informal economy, presents typical characteristics of the short circuits of commercialization (SABOURIN, 2009) and provides the main income of the family.

Men who sell in these vehicles remark that the crisis and their unemployment incited the creation of this alternative in order to provide possibilities of social reproduction in the city. Together with their wives, they rememorate the knowledges and doings transmitted by relatives and learned during infancy and adolescence to generate an income for their maintenance in the present.

They narrate the establishment of friendship bonds with consumers, building networks of clients in the neighborhoods, and allege that there is demand among people of all ages. Elderly people, in particular, are usually the most regular costumers due to their difficulties of displacement and health conditions. An elderly man described that: “I like to buy pamonha from one of these cars because it’s easier for us that can’t go to street markets anymore. It’s also fresh and hot. It has been a long time since I started buying from the same person” (G.S., Nov. 2019). This narrative remits us to Cruz, Krone and Menasche’s (2014) discussions that emphasizes that trust is based on local relations of sociability and their networks of inter-knowledge when there is this direct relation between those that produce and that consume. As one can notice, these practices are grounded on relations of solidarity and trust that exist among sellers and consumers.

Many of these sellers are connected by information technologies. I.e., they use social networks, whatsapp, and/or home delivery platforms to facilitate their sells. “Clients telephone, send messages with their orders and I already separate it for them” (J.S., Dec. 2019). This practice indicates the adaptative capacity and search for strategies of keeping and strengthening bonds with consumers since the sellers depend on these to have an income.

In an activity carried out at a Goiânia municipal school with students of youth and adult education (EJA) night classes, we reflected about production, consumption and change of alimentary habits. We returned to this school in a second moment for students’ presentation of activities related to an identitary aliment that represents them. Pamonha has emerged as one of the cited aliments, especially in regard to its knowledge and doing, flavor, cultural relation and forms of commerce and consumption.

Nowadays, it is common to have pamonhadas in churches, e.g., Saturday afternoon. The funds gathered by selling it to members are used in structural works at the church or for other ends.

Facing the dynamics of cultural representation of this traditional aliment in Goiânia, we enquired IPHAN-Goiânia to verify the existence of any process of registry in course for the formal recognition of pamonha-making knowledge and doings as an element of cultural identity. It is important to indicate that Brazilian Federal Decree nº 3.551 of August 2000, instituted the Registry of Cultural Goods of Immaterial Nature (BRASIL, 2000). Knowledges, practices and ways of doing foods like the minas cheese or Bahia’s acarajé were registered as Brazilian Immaterial Cultural Heritages based on this decree.

In an interview with IPHAN technicians, it was asserted that there is no ongoing process for the historical investigation or National Inventory of Cultural References (INRC) into the knowledges and practices concerning this aliment. At this time, there is no solicitation by a group to propose the registration of the knowledge and doing of this aliment. A technician highlighted that although it is really a cultural manifestation of the city and state, the product is produced, commercialized and consumed without restrictions. In face of this situation, producers have yet to perceive a necessity to fight for the registry of this delicacy.

CONCLUSION

This study had the objective of analyzing the themes of pamonha production and consumption as a rooted culture that created a territoriality contemporarily grounded on social and economic reproduction of familiar groups in the urban space. Thus, this paper described pamonha production in formal spaces and street market stalls alongside itinerant commerce. It emphasizes the importance of pamonha-making practices by showing that pamonhadas are contemporarily organized in churches aiming to gather resources for charity and structural works. When we presented the interviews with consumers, we evidenced that pamonha is one aliment constitutive of their identity because it is regarded as a delicacy rooted in their way of life.

Consumers are of diverse social classes. They frequent commercial establishments, street markets, but also acquire pamonha commercialized by street vendors that reside in bordering regions of the city or even in other cities of the metropolitan region. There is a conformation of proximity, bonds, and friendships among producers and consumers. In synthesis, consumers seek a nostalgic relation with pamonha, considered an identitary aliment, which conducts part of the consumers to valorize products with rurality and associated to their territorial imaginary.

Studying aliments is an effective way to understand identity, ways of life and the culture of a given social group. Investigation upon this thematic allows the indication of identitary/traditional aliments relevancy as productors of a territoriality through their generation of work and income opportunities in the metropolitan territory. Facing the advance of massified and ultraprocessed aliments, the ratification of pamonha productive dynamics in its artisanal process at the metropolis confirms a countercurrent grounded in a market demand. This is founded on relations of trust and proximity that contribute to the social reproduction of families. Thus, pamonha’s bioculture constitutes an identitary aliment of high cultural, social and economic value.

NOTE

• 1
  Research developed as a Post-doctoral Internship at Laboter/IESA/UFG, PNPD-CAPES 2019 grant, in the June 2019 to May 2020 period, under supervision of PhD. Professor Maria Geralda de Almeida.
• 2
  Consumers call it Moreira Street Market due to its close proximity to Moreira Hypermarket located in Perimetral Avenue surroundings.

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  15 Mar 2021
• Date of issue
  2021

History

• Received
  23 May 2020
• Accepted
  20 Oct 2020
• Accepted
  15 Jan 2021