Food and eating in 19th century São Salvador: towards a food historiography of Bahia

Abstract

This article presents an overview of food and eating in the city of São Salvador (also called Bahia) through the eyes of travelers in the course of the 19th century. Objective: To carry out a survey of descriptions and observations by travelers about the daily diet of Salvadorans during the 1800s. Methodology: A bibliographic review was carried out with content analysis supported by the travel diaries of foreign travelers – Maria Graham and Von Martius and Von Spix (primary works), using other secondary references to discuss the results. Results and discussions: The categorization of data identified the importance of the cultivation of sugarcane and cassava, and their derivatives, in addition to vegetables and edible meats for meals, proving to be essential for the construction of the sociocultural aspects of the diet of this people, identified in the reports on habits and commensality. In parallel, it was observed the influences of the open markets for the commercialization of these genres, in addition to the impacts of the state of war in the battles that culminated in the Independence of Bahia in 1823 in the supply and demand of food. Final considerations: This research, when analyzing food in the effervescent São Salvador in the 19th century, favors discussions about the cultural constructions of contemporary eating habits, analyzing the socio-historical aspects of food in Bahian culture, and thus indicates new ways to trace a food historiography from Bahia.