{"id":3311,"date":"2015-03-01T14:06:26","date_gmt":"2015-03-01T21:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/?p=3311"},"modified":"2016-09-26T13:25:31","modified_gmt":"2016-09-26T19:25:31","slug":"the-lima-foodies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/2015\/03\/01\/the-lima-foodies\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lima Foodies"},"content":{"rendered":"

After our first month in Lima, we\u2019ve gotten into the rhythm of class and exploring the city.\u00a0 Our group has explored numerous museums, archeological sites, local attractions and more during the first block.\u00a0 Everyone took his or her own approach to block break\u2014some of us stayed in Lima to relax and explore while others traveled to areas like the northern coast to enjoy the lush green reserve and beautiful beaches.\u00a0 And now, three days into our next course, we\u2019re back into business mode.<\/span><\/p>\n

A central component of our new course, Anthropology of Food, is the process of research (especially since we\u2019ll be turning in a 20-page research paper as our final assignment).\u00a0 However, Shelley Harper, who is a librarian at Tutt Library back in Colorado, has been given the opportunity to join us for a week here in Peru.\u00a0 Throughout this first week, Shelley has been giving us useful tips and strategies for approaching this research process; each day we dedicate about an hour of our class time to learning about new and effective methods for researching unique topics.\u00a0 That is to say, our professor Mario Monta\u00f1o has given us final paper topics that are specifically chosen for the reason that they are less developed, and this can make the research process challenging when there are fewer secondary sources to work with.\u00a0 Nevertheless, with the help of Shelley we are now well on our way to narrowing down our topics and collecting sources for Friday\u2019s bibliography workshop.<\/p>\n

Throughout our first few lectures and assignments from Mario, we have all been transitioning to the mindset of the anthropologist.\u00a0 We\u2019re invited to think about food not only as something that we eat three times a day, but as something that at its root defines the very people who eat it.\u00a0 Mario constantly emphasizes the importance of food and its relationship with society\u2014analyzing food can tell us about poverty, social customs, history and even politics.\u00a0 For example, we recently read and talked about an article that discusses culinary history in pre-Hispanic cultures from South America.\u00a0 As human beings adapted themselves from being simple, nomadic tribes of hunter-gatherers to domestic, agricultural societies, several important evolutions occur.\u00a0 Food once was and still is an important pillar in human life, and its presence, or lack thereof, can truly define a civilization.\u00a0 The Incan empire was one of the first well-organized civilizations to emerge in South America; through the lens of food, our class has talked about how nobles and common citizens\u2019 lives reflected a disparity that was generated by food.\u00a0 While nobles had an abundancy of food, which was often a product of power and control over a newly developed agricultural society, common citizens ate more sparsely.\u00a0 Nobles had large dinner corridors, servants and often regal eating traditions whilst other people simply ate off the ground in their small house.\u00a0 At the root of all these differences is food, and as we continue to explore the culinary history of Peru, and more generally South America, we look forward to uncovering more about how food deeply affects the social structure of our lives.<\/p>\n

Today we visited Villa El Salvador for the second time as volunteers.\u00a0 This particular site is incredibly well-known for its historical significance but also poverty.\u00a0 The story originally takes place just outside of Pamplona, which is roughly six miles south of Lima.\u00a0 Previously an abandoned site, in 1971 it became occupied by over 200 different families that sought refuge in a new community.\u00a0 The population thrived, and shortly thereafter, a violent conflict erupted between the new tenants and the central government, which resulted in numerous deaths, widespread international media coverage and intense outcry within Peru.\u00a0 After the conflict finally came to a close, the government resolved to create a new community site, this one 12 miles south of Lima that would be a more suitable location\u2014Villa El Salvador it would be named.\u00a0 Still, the new roots of this community were shallow and unstable in the beginning; the vast sand dunes seemed almost uninhabitable.\u00a0 Today, Villa El Salvador is a recognized \u201cfood desert,\u201d in anthropological terms, and still suffers from poverty.\u00a0 As volunteers, our plan is to visit once a week to play soccer, volleyball, jump-rope or whatever fun games the center has planned with the kids. While some of us were outside playing and romping around with the diverse group of kids that gather each day at the center, several other students were indoors helping reorganize the community\u2019s small library.\u00a0 Service trips such as those to Villa El Salvador are important to our group\u2014not only do we enjoy spending several hours each week giving back to these bright young children, but it also helps provide essential perspective of the place in which we\u2019re studying and<\/i> living.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After our first month in Lima, we\u2019ve gotten into the rhythm of class and exploring the city.\u00a0 Our group has explored numerous museums, archeological sites, local attractions and more during the first block.\u00a0 Everyone took his or her own approach to block break\u2014some of us stayed in Lima to relax and explore while others traveled … <\/p>\n

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