Gastrosophy: a philosophical approach to food as a situated practice
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https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6391-9143
Dewi Carrillo Basto
Martha Albina De la Rosa Aguiar
Abstract
This article examines food through gastrosophy, understood as an interpretive tool for analyzing eating as a situated practice in which sensory experience, practical knowledge, bodily regulation, cultural power, and territorial relations are articulated. Drawing on a selective review of contributions from the philosophy of taste, sociology of culture, and food systems studies, the article proposes a framework aimed at connecting dimensions that are often addressed separately in food studies. The analysis is organized around five axes: embodied knowledge, pleasure and bodily regulation, cultural power, marginalized knowledges, and food, territory, and food justice. In addition, the article incorporates an illustrative empirical approach based on materials from previous research on contemporary gastronomic practices in Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico. The discussion shows that gastrosophy makes it possible to understand food beyond its nutritional or economic dimensions, as a material, symbolic, and political practice through which knowledges are produced, social relations are organized, and meanings of sustainability are disputed. The article concludes that this approach offers a useful way to address food sustainability from its cultural, bodily, epistemic, and territorial dimensions.
How to Cite
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gastrosophy, food sustainability, food justice, situated food practices, territory
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