This study was developed within the context of the project Cansanção - PROCAN- developed by the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil. The study analyzed information concerning cultural patterns which surround the eating habits of the social groups which live in the semi-arid region of Bahia. It is an ethnographic study carried out over the period of 1987 to 1990. The subject of the investigation was the cultural aspect of eating habits of female rural workers, observing the strategies of eating survival as concrete actions to ensure the reproduction of the family unit. The fear of imminent illness and death proves to be fundamental references as ways of conceiving life and of defining food habits, supported by their own understanding of their worlds. The food habits in Cansanção reveal a relationship between the body survival and the reproduction of the family unit, permeated by the daily life in a drought-stricken region. The main activity, the work in the fields, subordinated to precarious living conditions, allows the production and reproduction of ways of interpreting life and, in particular, defines various concepts and classifications about the need to provide sustenance to the body. In some areas of Cansanção food is considered linked to its commercial value; however, the phenomenon of drought still remains the determining factor in the food culture of the population and in its concrete actions to solve the lack of food within the family group.
feeding behavior; culture; food habits