Visión intercultural de conocimientos, actitudes y prácticas sobre alimentación ancestral mapuche en una escuela con programa oficial

the term "interculturality" refers to the communicative interaction that takes place between two or more groups of people from different cultures. the present paper examines the interaction between the western culture and the mapuche culture; the relationship between modernity and ancestral traditions. the purpose was to describe, from an intercultural perspective, the current knowledge, attitudes and practices concerning mapuche traditional food in the educational community of the provincial school no. 89 in epuyén, chubut province, argentina. a qualitative, descriptive, transversal study was conduced. the participants were 67 fourth-fifth-sixth grade mapuche and non-mapuche children, 12 mothers, 2 managers, 3 teachers and 3 others, all intentionally selected. data on knowledge, attitudes, practices and methods of transmission concerning traditional mapuche food were obtained by combining techniques: participant observation, focus groups, semi structured interviews and educational activities. the analysis and data processing were determined by the method of constant comparison, until obtaining theoretical saturation. the main features of the school are cultural mapuche and non- mapuche heterogeneity in the same place, and a non- intercultural education system. in the education community, what is seen is a feeling of not belonging to the ethnicity, abandonment of a breeding, educational and organizational model, differences in knowledge, practices and transmission of a traditional food know-how. despite this, the identity endures and finds support in their last bastion: last names. this heterogeneous reality is homogenized by reactivating, recovering, revaluing and protecting the ancestral mapuche food as a means of reaffirmating an identity that was silenced for so many years. beyond the official program of education, the vision and institutional attitudes promote interculturalism. in this way, the school is an appropriate place to implement these actions.