Glossary characterization of a gastronomic lexicon of the Mulaló Matrons

Abstract

Objective: to characterize the gastronomic lexicon of the Mulaló matrons and its link with knowledge and ancestral wisdom displayed through rituals, practices and culinary skills of the Mulaló people.

Methodology: this qualitive descriptive research used interviews and observation as information gathering techniques. These techniques revealed a gastronomic glossary, its traits, and meanings that have made the Mulaló women be known as fundamental pillars of their community.

Results: the Mulaló matrons have taken control of an ancestral knowledge through the rituality of their gastronomic practices, which is a major component for the community’s survival. All this is materialized through the compilation of the definite lexicon of the Mulaló gastronomy into a glossary that allowed a lexicographical characterization.

Conclusions: the research highlighted the symbolic aspect of the Mulaló matrons’ gastronomy, as this aspect, conveyed through their discourse, is key to their profession’s representation. The Mulaló people have a strong sense for the term "matron", an ancestral component that links the culinary knowledge, the inclusion of women within the matron specificity and, the family’s value in such inclusion.