A sociabilidade da panelada como demarcadora Identitária e sociocultural em Imperatriz-MA

Abstract

Food and urban space are interconnected themes, revealing important characteristics about the customs, culture and identity of cities and their people. Based on this, this research elects the panelada, which is a dish, prepared with bovine viscera, sold in various places in the city of Imperatriz, and its sociability, as objects of study. This dissertation aims to analyze how the sociability of the panelada becomes a sociocultural identity mark in Imperatriz-MA, to do that, I will focus on identifying the sociability devices that revolve around the panelada; studying the sociability devices of the panelada according to its various dimensions, understanding how sociability produces sociocultural identity marks in the city, and demonstrating the social representations of the panelada for panelada cookers and consumers. For that, I use the ethnographic method, which includes direct and participant observation, informal conversations and interviews with panelada cookers and panelada consumers from Quatro Bocas and mainly from the “Panelódromo”, a space created especially for the commercialization of that dish. In addition, I prepared a literature review, for a better understanding of this theme, based on the theories of Poulain (2004), Montanari (2008), Woortman and Cavignac (2016), Hall (2016) and Azevedo (2020), among other authors. The results found showed that there is a sociability around the panelada that marks Imperatriz identity by the specific ways of preparing that food by the panelada cookers that involves family knowledge and the ways consumers eat the panelada, which reflects on how citizens recognize themselves as belonging to the city of Imperatriz.