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Gastronomic Ethnobiology

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Introduction to Ethnobiology

Abstract

The inextricable link between biodiversity and cultural customs related to the holistic domain of food (gastronomy) represents the very foundation of the human experience and contributes in a variety of ways to the well-being of humans and their oikos. The study of the complex interactions between human societies, food, and their environment—what we define here as gastronomic ethnobiology—is nowadays considered “the” crucial pillar for fostering food security and especially food sovereignty. This research area emerged from a broad range of studies encompassing, for example, those concerning folk categorization and uses of wild food plants and mushrooms, uses and management of neglected crops and local landraces, local bio-fermentative processing of food, as well as folk perceptions, uses, and management of animals/ethnoveterinary, nutritional transitions among migrant and diasporic groups, and bio-cultural interactions between foodscapes and terroirs.

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Correspondence to Andrea Pieroni .

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Pieroni, A., Pawera, L., Shah, G.M. (2016). Gastronomic Ethnobiology. In: Albuquerque, U., Nóbrega Alves, R. (eds) Introduction to Ethnobiology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28155-1_9

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