Construindo uma tradição: a circulação do queijo “minas” artesanal na cidade de Silveirânia, na Zona da Mata mineira

Abstract

This study addressed the importance of consumption of homemade minas cheese produced in Silveirânia (in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil), taking into account the perspective of the cheese manufacturers. This research was prompted by the framework of the locally produced cheese and the criminalization of its production, which restricts its circulation to the local and clandestine sphere. At first, in order to investigate such persistent practice, each cheesemaker got visited, and two of them had their daily routine closely monitored by participant observation, specially paying attention to their practices and approaches to make the product concerned. The first chapter of this proposition presents the barriers regarding the flow and distribution of homemade minas cheese, followed by a description of the region and city where the production was studied. In addition, it also brings a description of milk production. The second chapter presents the homemade methods to produce this kind of cheese, highlighting its diversity and evolution for the production in the rural milieu. As to contextualize the homemade production of cheese, the third chapter promotes a brief reflection on the food in the contemporary society, the tendency for industrialization and standardization of food production. Lastly, the fourth chapter provides some reflection on the dynamics for building cultural tradition and also on the mediation between traditional and technical-scientific knowledge and its influence on homemade production so as to identify the driving forces that promote changes in habits and ways of manufacturing. The study came to some considerations regarding the importance of consumption of homemade minas cheese in Silveirânia, for instance, the way in which its consumption reflects the tendency to homogenization and differentiation, that is, the standardization of food consumption as well as the search for differentiation and the claims for local identities. Those trends interfere on the flow and production of cheese, which adapts to sanitary and trade barriers, showing the lack of communication between technicians and producers since distinct motivations move them, and mediation between them generates instability in cultural practices. It was observed the change in the way of producing them, which meet the daily demands for cheese, whose consumption is set up as an unconscious habit, integrating local food patterns and the way of living itself. All of this shows the inventiveness of the culture itself, in touch with different worldviews.