KNOWLEDGE IN TRANSFORMATION: TRADITIONAL CULINARY PRACTICES AND INTERGENERATIONAL CHANGES IN FOOD CULTURE ON THE COAST OF PARANÁ

Abstract

Food constitutes a privileged field for analyzing the sociocultural transformations that shape contemporary agri-food systems. More than a biological necessity, eating involves practices, knowledge, symbolic classifications, and historical processes transmitted across generations and deeply rooted in territories. This article aims to analyze intergenerational transformations of traditional culinary practices, discussing continuities, losses, and reinventions within Brazilian food culture, with particular attention to the coast of Paraná. The study is justified by the need to understand how social, economic, and cultural changes affect the transmission of food-related knowledge in specific territorial contexts. A qualitative, theoretical-analytical approach was adopted, based on a bibliographic review and thematic analysis of works from the anthropology of food, ethnographic studies on traditional communities, literature on Brazilian food culture, and critical reflections on food globalization. The results indicate that the weakening of intergenerational transmission of culinary knowledge is associated with changes in domestic routines, the standardization of eating habits, and the reorganization of social relations. At the same time, traditional practices do not disappear in a linear manner and are often re-signified in new sociocultural contexts. It is concluded that understanding these transformations is essential for strengthening territorial strategies that value traditional food knowledge and recognize food as a central dimension of social life.