Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Part V Food and Drink around the World
- V.A The Beginnings of Agriculture: The Ancient Near East and North Africa
- V.B The History and Culture of Food and Drink in Asia
- V.C The History and Culture of Food and Drink in Europe
- V.D The History and Culture of Food and Drink in the Americas
- V.D.1 Mexico and Highland Central America
- V.D.2 South America
- V.D.3 The Caribbean, Including Northern South America and Lowland Central America: Early History
- V.D.4 The Caribbean from 1492 to the Present
- V.D.5 Temperate and Arctic North America to 1492
- V.D.6 North America from 1492 to the Present
- V.D.7 The Arctic and Subarctic Regions
- V.E The History and Culture of Food and Drink in Sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania
- V.F Culinary History
- Part VI History, Nutrition, and Health
- Part VII Contemporary Food-Related Policy Issues
- Part VIII A Dictionary of the World’s Plant Foods
- Name Index
- Subject Index
- References
V.D.2 - South America
from V.D - The History and Culture of Food and Drink in the Americas
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- Part V Food and Drink around the World
- V.A The Beginnings of Agriculture: The Ancient Near East and North Africa
- V.B The History and Culture of Food and Drink in Asia
- V.C The History and Culture of Food and Drink in Europe
- V.D The History and Culture of Food and Drink in the Americas
- V.D.1 Mexico and Highland Central America
- V.D.2 South America
- V.D.3 The Caribbean, Including Northern South America and Lowland Central America: Early History
- V.D.4 The Caribbean from 1492 to the Present
- V.D.5 Temperate and Arctic North America to 1492
- V.D.6 North America from 1492 to the Present
- V.D.7 The Arctic and Subarctic Regions
- V.E The History and Culture of Food and Drink in Sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania
- V.F Culinary History
- Part VI History, Nutrition, and Health
- Part VII Contemporary Food-Related Policy Issues
- Part VIII A Dictionary of the World’s Plant Foods
- Name Index
- Subject Index
- References
Summary
The continent of South America has been a place of origin of many important food plants. Moreover, plant and animal introductions to the Americas made both before and after Columbus have provided an extraordinary diversity of food sources. Culinary traditions based on diverse foodstuffs show the imprint of indigenous, European, and African cultures. This is because food production and consumption in these lands stem from an environmental duality of both temperate and tropical possibilities. Moreover, throughout the twentieth century in South America, the binary distinction between food produced for commercial purposes and for subsistence needs has continued in a way that is unknown in North America. Contrasting nutritional standards and perturbations in supply add to the complexity of the total food situation in South America.
Domesticated Food Sources
The pre-Columbian peoples of South America domesticated more than 50 edible plants, several of which were such efficient sources of food that they subsequently have served as nutritional anchors for much of the rest of the world. The potato, manioc, and sweet potato, each belonging to different plant families, are among the top 10 food sources in the world today. The potato (Solanum tuberosum and related species) clearly originated in South America, where prior to European contact it was cultivated in the Andes through a range of 50 degrees of latitude. Archaeological remains of these tubers are scanty, but there is little doubt that Andean peoples have been eating potatoes for at least 5,000 years. The center of greatest morphological and genetic variability of potatoes is in southern Peru and northern Bolivia where they fall into five chromosome (ploidy) levels. That the potato is an efficient source of carbohydrates is well known, but it also provides not insignificant amounts of protein (in some varieties more than 5 percent), vitamins, and minerals. In the Andes, the tuber is traditionally boiled, but now it is also fried. Chuño, a dehydrated form of the fresh tuber, may have been the world’s first freeze-dried food. Working at high elevation, Indians still go through the laborious process of exposing fresh potatoes to both above and below-freezing temperatures before stepping on them with bare feet in order to make this easily stored form of food.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge World History of Food , pp. 1254 - 1260Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000
References
- 1
- Cited by