Modern practices of quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa W.) processing and consumption in Lípez, Bolivia: an ethnoarchaeological approach

LOPEZ, ML, ; CAPPARELLI, A., ; NIELSEN A.

Bariloche

Congreso; V International Congress of Ethnobotany (ICEB); 2009

Cyted, Dr. Rapoport, Dra Pochettino, Dra Ladio

MODERN PRACTICES OF QUINOA (CHENOPODIUM QUINOA W.) PROCESSING AND CONSUMPTION IN LÍPEZ, BOLIVIA: AN ETHNOARCHAEOLOGICAL APPROACH María Laura López1, Aylen Capparelli2 and Axel Nielsen1 1Laboratorio de Prehistoria y Arqueología, UNC; 2Dpto Científico Arqueología, UNLP. Currently, the Bolivian people maintain traditional practices in the use of pseudocereals. The objective of the present work is to generate etnobotanical information about processing, storage and consumption practices of quinoa in order to design models to interpret archaeobotanical remains. Ethnobotanical interviews were carried out using standard techniques –participant observation, open-ended and semi-structured interviews- in the North Lípez region, Potosí Department, Bolivia, located at an altitude of 3850 m above sea level. Nine different domestic units were sampled from a total of 28 families of “Villa Candelaria” town. Different types of quinoa grains are prepared for the people as intermediate products from which three are the most important: 1-quinoa prepared to be used as a grain, 2-quinoa prepared to be used to make soups, 3-quinoa prepared to be used to make flour. Each one of these preparations involves a sequence of several stages which produce changes in the aspect and micromorphology of the fruit –eg. loose of the perianth, breakage of the episperm-, which are important to interpret archaeobotanical quinoa remains.