Naming, eating, sharing: Food classifications and life in common among the shipibo-konibo (western amazon); [Nommer, manger, partager: Classifications alimentaires et vie communautaire chez les Shipibo-Konibo (Amazonie occidentale)]; [Nomear, comer, compartilhar: Classificações alimentares e vida em comum entre os Shipibo-Konibo (Amazônia ocidental)]

Favaron P.; Bensho C.; Gonzales P. · Lengua y Sociedad (2026) · DOI: 10.15381/lengsoc.v25i1.32763

Resumen

Shipibo-Konibo food practices constitute a central domain in the articulation of kinship, ethics, and territory, yet one that has been insufficiently explored from situated perspectives grounded in Indigenous rationalities themselves. This article aims to analyze Shipibo foodways as a relational practice that produces personhood, sustains kinship ties, and organizes relations between humans and other beings of the territory. The study is based on qualitative research developed through prolonged conversations with elders from a single Shipibo family, conducted in contexts of everyday coexistence and commensality, as well as on the analysis of Indigenous taxonomies drawing on oral and lexicographic sources. The results show that food practices are structured through a relational ontology and classificatory systems based on life forms, rather than abstract hypernyms such as “animal” or “plant,” with shared eating fulfilling a fundamental ethical, cognitive, and social function. Taken together, the article argues that food operates as an organizing principle of personhood and collective life, contributing to a situated understanding of Indigenous sciences and challenging extractive models of knowledge. © Los autores. All rights reserved.

Instituciones: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú; Universidad Nacional Intercultural de la Amazonia