Substances and Persons: on the Culinary Space of the People of the Centre

This paper refers to a cultural ensemble of groups of northwest Amazonia who selfdesignate as the People of the Centre (Witoto, Ocaina, Nonuya, Bora-Miraña, Muinane, Andoque). The production of food and the production of ‘true people’, in People of the Centre’s discourse, are referred to with a same set of terms; and the instruments and technical transformations of cooking (heating, pounding, filtering, combining and separating) are conceived of as bodily processes. The first section presents the main substances that constitute such a culinary space, both ritual and everyday. The second section, addresses the main technical processes that they undergo to transform them into foods. The third section discusses the meaning of the combination of different processed foodstuffs. It addresses these substances, processes and combinations—this alchemy—as the culinary and technical expression of the formation of true persons.