Rich man's food, poor man's food in "The mansions and the shanties": A narrative review of the book written by Gilberto Freyre

Comida de rico, comida de pobre em "Sobrados e mucambos": uma revisão narrativa da obra de Gilberto Freyre

Abstracts

This article aims to perform a narrative review of the book "The mansions and the shanties" written by the Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre, published for the first time in 1936. The study analyzed Gilberto Freyre's contribution to the process of interpreting the formation and modification of the eating habits and patterns of the Brazilian society. The analysis is limited to a review, from a dietician's perspective, of text clippings where Freyre seeks to reconstruct and interpret the process of formation and modification of eating habits and patterns in the context of a patriarchal society. The text will try to answer the questions: what, how much, how, when, where, and with whom were the dwellers of mansions and shanties eating? Comparison of the eating habits of the rural patriarchal society with those of the emerging urban patriarchal society has shown Freyre's clear trend of aversion to the "Europeanization" of eating habits and his affection for traditional culinary values. The new eating habits of mansions and plantation houses were portrayed with disdain, denoting an author who remained stuck to the culinary traditions of a rural patriarchal society, to taste memories, especially of the sweets, cakes, and desserts created, adapted, and savored in Pernambuco state sugar mills.

Brazilian society; Food habits; Literature; Review

O presente artigo tem por objetivo realizar uma revisão narrativa do livro "Sobrados e mucambos", escrito pelo sociólogo pernambucano Gilberto Freyre, com primeira edição publicada em 1936. Procurou-se analisar a contribuição do autor no processo de interpretação da formação e modificação dos hábitos e padrões alimentares da sociedade brasileira. A presente análise limita-se a uma revisão, sob o olhar do nutricionista, dos recortes textuais onde Freyre procura reconstituir e interpretar o processo de formação e modificação dos hábitos e padrões alimentares no contexto da sociedade patriarcal. Busca-se responder à seguinte questão: o quê, quanto, como, quando, onde e com quem comiam os habitantes dos sobrados e mucambos? Ao realizar uma contraposição entre os hábitos alimentares da sociedade patriarcal rural com aqueles da emergente sociedade patriarcal urbana, observou-se nítida tendência a aversão, por parte de Freyre, em relação à "europeização" dos hábitos alimentares e, em contrapartida, de afeição aos valores culinários tradicionais. Os novos hábitos alimentares dos sobrados e casas grandes foram retratados com estranhamento, denotando um autor preso às tradições culinárias da sociedade patriarcal rural, aos sabores de memória, sobretudo dos doces, bolos e sobremesas inventados, adaptados e degustados nos engenhos de Pernambuco.

Sociedade brasileira; Hábitos alimentares; Literatura; Revisão

INTRODUCTION

The sociologist from Pernambuco state, Gilberto Freire (1900-1987), has been one of the most studied Brazilian authors in Brazil^1-7 and abroad^8-11. His entire work, especially the books published in the 1930s, namely "The masters and the slaves"¹² and "The mansions and the shanties"¹³, assemble precious records of the formation of the eating habits and patterns of the Brazilian society, leading us to habitually include this author in the list of scholars involved in the history of the constitution of the nutrition science field in Brazil².

The classic "The masters and the slaves"¹², published for the first time in 1933, had many successive editions in Brazil and abroad², making Freyre an internationally-known author^8-11. In 2013 the 52^th edition celebrated the 80 years of the first edition¹⁴, demonstrating how updated and alluring this octogenarian book seems to remain as it continues to raise interest and debate nowadays⁶,⁹-¹¹,¹⁵.

Meanwhile, according to Freyre himself, "The mansions and the shanties"¹³, published for the first time in 1936, characterizes the ongoing attempt to reconstruct and interpret the social history of the Brazilian society that began in "The masters and the slaves"¹². Less famous and known than "The masters and the slaves"¹², this almost octogenarian book by Freyre also continues to raise interest and evoke debate^3,5,7,16,17, being considered the masterpiece of the sociologist from Pernambuco¹⁶.

In an earlier study, Vasconcelos² considered "The masters and the slaves"¹² the first and most complete sociological essay about the eating habits and patterns of the Brazilian society under the regime of the patriarchal slave economy. As Vasconcelos² analyzed "The masters and the slaves"¹², he realized that "by emphasizing the concept of culture in the discussion about improving Brazilians, Freyre became one of the main interlocutors of the debate that occurred in the 1920s and 1930s between distinct groups of erudite Brazilians about the construction of a national identity" (p.318). He also pointed out that the sociocultural approach to the miscegenation process defended by Freyre found "a close identification inside the Brazilian sanitary medical movement, which sought to affirm eugenic theses, such as the improvement of the Brazilian race (mixed race) through a rational diet" (p.319).

In "The mansions and shanties"¹³, as the book's subtitle suggests, Freyre uses a historicalsociological approach in an attempt to portray the decadence of the rural patriarchy and the development of the urban patriarchy in Brazil at the end of the 18^th century until mid-19^th century. In our interpretation "The mansions and shanties"¹³ is characterized as the second and most precious sociological analysis of the eating habits of the Brazilian patriarchal society. Although the analysis focuses on identifying the changes in the "Brazilian social landscape" as a whole, there is a clear emphasis on the description of the formation and modification of Brazilian eating habits and patterns from the beginning of colonization to mid-19^th century.

The present article aims to conduct a narrative review of "The mansions and the shanties"¹³ by analyzing the contribution of Gilberto Freyre to the process of understanding and interpreting the formation and modification of the eating habits and patterns of the Brazilian society.

Our analysis of "The mansions and the shanties"¹³ is exclusively limited to a review, from a dietician's perspective, of the text clippings where Freyre tries to reconstitute and interpret the process of formation and modification of the eating habits and patterns in a patriarchal-society context. In this review we try to answer the following questions: from Freyre's perspective, what, how much, how, when, where, and with whom did mansion and shanty dwellers eat?

In an attempt to use the freyrean method of exposing dualities, ambivalences, or antagonisms^3,16, the present article consists of four subsections that try to approach the theme by focusing on poor man's food versus rich man's food. In other words in "The masters and the slaves"¹² and "The mansions and the shanties"¹³, Freyre explicitly makes the social differentiation between the distinct social segments that composed the Brazilian society in each historical context, analyzed according to the prevailing housing arrangements. Hence, when analyzing the Brazilian slave society¹², the social differentiation between the dominant class (masters) and the subordinate class (slaves) is identified according to the contrast between the house types of these two social segments, mansions versus shanties, respectively. In turn Freyre analyzes the transition from rural patriarchal society to urban-industrial patriarchal society¹³, the social differentiation between distinct population segments, by focusing on the new types of housing arrangements: mansions (rich man's house) versus shanties and tenements (poor man's house).

In this review we will freely and flexibly use some concepts and conceptions as interpretation guides, such as: "food system" according to Hernández & Arnáiz¹⁸; "culinary" according to Diez-Garcia & Castro¹⁹; "scientific field", "habitus", and "symbolic capital" according to Bourdieu²⁰; "paradigm" according to Kuhn²¹, and "network society" according to Castells²².

Rich man's food: Food rituals in mansions and plantation houses

According to previous studies, Freyre's books published in the 1930s and 1940s are characterized by the identification of ambivalences and antagnoisms^3,16. Analysis of "The mansions and the shanties"¹³ reaffirms the observation of how the freyrean approach better identifies, or is closer to, the eating habits and patterns of the mansions than of the shanties. Put differently, there is an important and precious description of the dietary rituals of higher socioeconomic classes as opposed to a disdainful description of the dietary rituals of lower socioeconomic classes.

The precious records spread throughout the chapters of "The mansions and the shanties"¹³ can be clipped to reconstitute the "food system" (according to the conception proposed by Hernández & Arnáiz¹⁸) of the plantation houses and mansions of the Brazilian patriarchal society until mid-19^th century.

In many passages Freyre¹³ hints the process of males dominating the aspects of table manners and choosing the individuals with who masters from mansions and plantation houses ate:

The table was patriarchal. The head of the household, sitting at the head of the table, sometimes served the others. When women were present for dinner, husband and wife were always together. This only occurred when more sophisticated habits were acquired through greater contact with Europe. Before, during the Moorish times, a woman was rarely seen at the main table, at least when guests were present. Only men were at the main table.

The women and boys disappeared. In intimate dinners, the patriarch helped himself first to the best items available: if there were only one pineapple, for example, the noble, imperial part, the far edges, was his; the other parts were for the wife, the children, and the relatives" (p.246)² (My translation).

If, on the one hand, the table was dominated by males, the kitchen was one of the few spaces in a patriarchal society where women exercised power. However, in "The mansions and the shanties"^{1 3}, this conservative approach to the traditional role of women - the act of cooking considered a female attribute, is not so evident in other books by Freyre, such as "The masters and the slaves"¹² and "Rethinking regionalism"²³. However, in "The mansions and the shanties", Freyre¹³ only emphasizes the role of female masters in creating new dishes, especially cakes, sweets, and desserts:

Many invented dishes, sweets, preserves with the land's fruits and roots. Cinnamon fried cassava-flour dough ... was invented by Portuguese women ... . And not only cassava; also cashew apple was Europeanized by female masters into a sweet, wine, liqueur, or medicine ... . The genipapo, strawberry guava, papaya, guava, passion fruit, and quince had the same fate as the cashew apple, banana, and yam; later these fruits were followed by mango, jackfruit, breadfruit, coconut -

fruits that when mixed with molasses, sugar, cinnamon, clove, and chestnut became a conserve, sabongo (sweet made from coconut flour or green papaya and molasses), marmalade, jam, enriching with a variety of new and tropical flavors the desserts served at plantation houses and bourgeois mansions (p.67)³ (My translation).

The book does not describe explicitly the number and times of meals served in plantation houses and mansions. However, many passages hint to at least five types of meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper, and snack. Lunch and dinner are reported more often. Freyre¹³ described the times, menus, and other characteristics of some of these meals, such as the following description of dinner:

In ostentatious homes that did not exaggerate their hospitality, dinner was served at a specific time, which was usually between two and four o'clock in the afternoon. It generally consisted of consommé, roast or stew, pirão (soft dish containing fish, fish broth, cassava flour, and chili), and chili sauce (p.246)⁴ (My translation).

The menu of the meals or foods consumed by masters from plantation houses and mansions was monotonous because of the small variety of foods listed by Freyre. In this book by Freyre¹³, beans appear as a food consumed frequently, while feijoada is reported as occasional:

Sometimes there were great feijoadas. The orthodox ones were made with black beans. Beans were eaten daily. Beans were always present in dinners containing fish - in Pernambuco and Bahia - namely, coconut beans (mashed beans mixed with coconut milk). In feijoadas, beans were accompanied by loin, salt-cured meat, bacon, pig's head, sausage. These items were mixed with flour until they became a purée, which was then sprinkled with chili sauce (p.247)⁵ (My translation).

According to Freyre¹³, the habit of eating beans with rice in Brazil, a dish that would eventually become a symbol of the national culinary identity^19,24-27, only began after the second half of the 18^th century:

Instead of bread - rare in Brazil until the beginning of the 19^th century - lunch included cassava or wheat flour pancake, and dinner included pirão or cassava dough boiled in beef or fish broth. Also rice. Rice was another substitute for bread at the patriarchal table of the old mansions, before the greatest Europeanization of the Brazilian cuisine (p.247)⁶ (My translation).

Regarding the consumption of wheat-flour bread, Freyre¹³ adds in a bibliographical note:

Wheat-flour bread was knowingly, and for a long time, a rare luxury or refinement in Brazil, given the widespread use of cassava flour, either as flour or as pancake, steamed pudding, or tapioca. This practice was followed by the very Brazilian habit of accompanying a variety of meats with rice, thereby forgoing the need of accompanying these items with wheatflour bread (p.93)⁷ (My translation).

Freyre¹³ complements the information about rice intake in another passage:

Rice cooked with shrimp; or with fish head. Rice with meat. Rice with sardines. Sweet rice. Rice became as Brazilian as it is Indian. Rice was introduced in the colony by Marquis of Lavradio, who administrated Brazil from 1967 to 1779; in the opinion of the French, taste masters, Brazilian rice surpassed the Indian rice, but without due protection, at the end of the imperial era, it was replaced by the inferior product of English possessions (p.247)⁸ (My translation).

With respect to meat intake, most of Freyre's¹³ reports regard meat scarcity, high price, and difficult access by the great majority of the population:

Dr. Pereira Júnior advances that fresh meat 'was not supplied in sufficient quantity to meet the demand; so the use of salt-cured meat from the North was very common, and of pork loin, which was abundantly supplied by the state of Minas Gerais'. This information confirms that provided by French travelers with respect to Bahia: meat is very scarce, not only beef, but also chicken and lamb (p.247)⁹ (My translation).

According to Freyre¹³, because of the scarcity, price, and other sociocultural influences, consumption of fresh meat was characterized as a food habit of dwellers of plantation houses and mansions, while the more abundant and cheap plant-based foods were characterized as the food habit of dwellers of shanties and tenements:

Generally, we have admitted the fact that fresh meat was a fine food, consumed by dwellers of plantation houses or mansions, and vegetables or 'grass', with one or another exception, were cheap and worthless, and consumed by dwellers of shanties and tenements, those who were more bound to African vegetarian traditions - cassava, okra, palm fruit, rice - we have to admit the outcome: blacks living in shanties of plantation houses or mansions or blacks living in tenements, with less de-Africanized eating habits or style, had better nutrition than whites living in plantation houses, with their partly spoiled fresh meat, their conserves, their pickles, and their dried foods imported from Europe. Include here biscuits, which for many people, served as a replacement for wheat bread: for a long time biscuits were a bourgeois luxury, almost exclusive of those who patriarchally made them at home (p.311)¹⁰ (My translation).

Complementing the menu of the two main meals of dwellers of plantation houses and mansions (lunch and dinner), Freyre^12,23,28,29frequently mentions desserts, such as in the following clipping, where he portrays types of dessert preparations consumed during dinner¹³:

Dessert: sweet rice with cinnamon, cinnamon fried cassava-flour dough, canjica (porridge made with white de-germed whole maize kernels cooked with milk) with sugar and butter, sweets accompanied by Minas cheese, molasses with flour or cheese. Fruits - pineapple, custard apple, Surinam cherry - of which sweets and puddings were also made (p.247)¹¹ (My translation).

In "The mansions and the shanties"¹³ we have not found references to the intake of milk and eggs. However, the following passages mentioned the intake of butter and other dairy products: "Butter was little consumed. It was hard to find in markets. On the other hand, there was a wide supply of Minas cheese" (p.248)¹² (My translation).

Indeed, based on other clippings from "The mansions and the shanties"¹³ and other books^12,23,28 written by Freyre, it is possible to conclude that butter was usually one of the imported products consumed by the masters of mansions and plantation houses:

In the first years of the 19^th century, foods were imported from Europe: dry fish, ham, sausage, cheese, butter, biscuits, olive oil, vinegar, pasta, nuts, plums, olives, onions, garlic, etc., for mansion dwellers. For the masters of the more opulent homes (p.311)¹³ (My translation).

Based on the observed food intake, in some passages Freyre¹³ makes interesting analyses about the dietary pattern and/or diet quality of plantation house and mansion dwellers inferring that, in terms of nutritional value and other values, the diet of mansion dwellers was better than that of plantation house dwellers. However, he also inferred that blacks in shanties and tenements also had more varied and healthier diets:

Many people think that the food in plantation houses was always better than that in mansions. But we have already suggested otherwise. Many mansions received from Europe a variety of fine foods that were not present on the patriarchal table of less opulent plantations and farms. And people could add to these fine foods the fruits and vegetables produced in their own backyards or farms, also consumed by blacks in shanties and semi-urban tenements (p.206)¹⁴ (My translation).

In this perspective, according to Freyre¹³, two important determinants were associated with the worse dietary pattern of plantation house and mansion dwellers - an excess of imported preserves and pickles and contempt for fresh vegetables:

Regarding the table of the wealthy, most opulent mansion and plantation house dwellers, we must not forget that it was nearly always hurt by excessive amounts of preserves and pickles imported from Europe, transported in ways which are hardly comparable to the dominant ones of today in terms of hygiene or food conservation technique. Thus, many deteriorated or rancid foods were consumed by noble mansion dwellers who disdained the fresh vegetables or grasses consumed by blacks or slaves (p.309)¹⁵ (My translation).

According to Freyre's approach in "The mansions and the shanties"¹³, from mid-19^thcentury, as the coffee-based economy prevailed over the sugar cane-based economy, and as the urbanization of the country increased, the decadence of the Brazilian patriarchal society based on the sugarcane-based economy became evident, testifying the food pattern changes in plantation houses (planters):

On their table one could regularly find salt-cured beef or cod for dinner ... and on Sundays, a small amount of meat ... . Lunch consisted of a cup of coffee with cinnamon fried cassava-flour dough, tapioca, yam, cassava ... . Same thing for supper. Bread and cookies were only seen on the tables of the more opulent plantation houses; in other plantation houses, they were a rare luxury (p.78)¹⁶(My translation).

In "The mansions and the shanties"¹³ and in other books^13,23,28, Freyre called this process the Europeanization of the costumes or lifestyle of the Brazilian society, in the specific case of the study object of this article, the Europeanization of eating habits. According to Freyre's¹³ approach, this process emerged when the Portuguese royal family moved to Brazil in 1808:

With greater Europeanization and large lifestyle urbanization, Brazil went through a period of many falsified and old items passing as good, new, imported directly from Paris to the stores of Rio de Janeiro, Recife, Salvador, São Paulo, São Luis do Maranhão, Porto Alegre. ... The kitchens of the plantation houses and mansions were certainly filthy; but the foods prepared in them were healthier than most of the preserves and pickles imported from

Europe. Healthier than the food sometimes served in French hotels or by Italian cooks. Therefore, it became chic to eat as did the French, Italian, English. The English tea and beer spread quickly among mansion dwellers. Also the Italian doughs and pastries. The Flemish or Swiss cheese. The abundance of sweets from the plantation houses, from the single missies of the mansions, from the nuns in convents, from black hawkers, slowly disappeared, losing its magic even for boys. And the elegant sweets and confectioners became the French and Italian, as newspaper ads indicated (p.366)¹⁷ (Highlighted by Freyre and my translation).

Poor man's food: Food in shanties, tenements, and shacks

Continuing the thesis that began in "The masters and the slaves"¹², namely that the best fed population segments in the Brazilian patriarchal slave society were the slaves and planters, in "The mansions and the shanties"¹³ Freyre tries to gather important pieces of evidence to support his arguments and to rebate the criticism he endured^2,24,26.

A previous study² found that this thesis, defended by Freyre, was considered one of the elements that made explicit his political and academic disagreement with Josué de Castro (1908-1973), which became characterized as the fuse of the symbolic battle between these two authors from Pernambuco for the hegemony of the new fields of scientific knowledge (in the conception of Bourdieu²⁰) that emerged in Pernambuco and Brazil: the social sciences and nutrition.

In this perspective, in "The mansions and the shanties"¹³ Freyre bases his thesis on the facts and arguments he took from studies conducted by physicians and other scientists. One of these studies was conducted by a physician from Pará called Manuel da Gama Lobo (1835-1883), considered the pioneer of the epidemiology of vitamin A deficiency in Brazil³⁰:

In 1865, the physician Manuel da Gama Lobo noticed that the diet of slaves - and could add that that of the masters too, although to a smaller degree - varied not only between towns and plantations, but between the regions with coffee and sugarcane plantations and those that produced multiple foods: Rio Grande do Sul, Mato Grosso, Pará, Amazonas. In monoculture provinces, whose population - especially of slaves - rarely ate meat and fish, abortions were more frequent; and chronic ulcers and night blindness were common. In provinces with varied production, where even fruits were consumed by the slaves in significant amounts, diseases seemed to be rarer, reproduction abundant, and life expectancy longer (p.206)¹⁸ (My translation)¹³.

Hence, in "The mansions and the shanties"¹³, he states that the slaves in shanties were better fed than the population of "free men" (poor) living in tenements, shacks, plantations, and farms:

Regarding these blacks from shanties, the pieces of evidence, or at least the signs are that, as in plantations and ranches, they were benefitted by a more regular diet and by more abundant daily food intake than the free men living in tenements, shacks, and single-story houses in towns; and than the apparently free dwellers of farms and plantations (p.207)¹⁹ (My translation).

On the other hand, Freyre¹³ also draws attention to the existence of predatory relationships of exploitation of the slave labor force, where diet was very precarious. Hence, he points out the existence of farms where slaves had a very distinct diet:

In some farms masters fed the slaves only cooked beans with angu (dough made by boiling cornmeal, cassava flour, or rice flour with water and salt), a bit of bacon, cooked pumpkin, or squash; and this thin food was given to men who had to get up at three in the morning in regions where coffee was cultivated to work until nine or ten o'clock at night" (p.207)²⁰ (My translation).

However, for Freyre¹³, these situations were exceptional in the patriarchal slave system; in the sugarcane plantations of the Northeast, and especially in Pernambuco, the slaves were the best fed social segment of society:

What we learned from other information sources about the diet of the typical, and not the atypical, slaves of our patriarchal system allows us to generalize that slaves of plantation houses or large mansions were the best nourished of all social groups in the Brazilian patriarchal society. Nourished with beans and bacon; with corn or angu; with cassava pirão; with manioc; with rice (p.308)²¹ (My translation).

Continuing his thesis, in addition to the foods that composed the energy basis of the slave diet, Freyre¹³ identifies the intake of vegetables that diversified the eating habits of the slave population:

Also okra, palm fruit, taioba (Xanthosoma sagittifolium), and other 'leaves', other 'greens' or 'grasses' that were cheap and easy to cultivate and were disdained by the masters, were in the diet of the typical slave. These are 'grasses' whose introduction to the Brazilian cuisine - in general indifferent or hostile to leaf vegetables is due to Africans: as snack makers or cooks, they contributed - especially through what is called the 'cuisine from Bahia - to the enrichment of the Brazilian diet in the sense of using more oils, vegetables, 'green leafs'. And even the introduction of milk and honey by the Malês (Islamic slaves) (p.308)²² (My translation).

In rare passages, also reinforcing his thesis of the "superiority" of the food pattern of the slave population, Freyre¹³ mentions some characteristics of the diet of the poor population living in shacks, huts, and tenements, identifying salt-cured beef or cod with cassava flour as the basis of the diet of these social segments:

"The African slaves were generally a better nourished social group than free blacks or individuals of mixed race, and than poor whites living in shacks or huts in the interior or cities, whose diet was ordinarily limited to salt-cured beef or cod with flour. Better nourished than middle-income planters or farmers or the owner of mines - and the farmers and planters of this type were, between us, the majority - whose diets were also characterized by the excessive use of salt-cured beef and cod brought from cities, along with cookies, dried fish, and cassava flour ... While the table of ranchers, with plenty of fresh or bloody meat, seems always to have lacked vegetables, and for a long time, rice, which was also absent from the table of inhabitants of the Northern wilderness, which only had plenty of cheese or sun-dried meat or wind-dried meat; and as lacking of vegetables as the other patriarchal tables" (p.308)²³ (My translation).

Other passages of the "The mantions and the shanties"¹³ describe the contribution of the African slaves to the constitution of the Bahian cuisine and the beneficial consequences of their dietary pattern. Using the results of studies conducted by physicians who specialized in nutrition, such as Thales de Azevedo, Josué de Castro, Ruy Coutinho, and Manuel da Gama Lobo^30-32, Freyre tries to reaffirm his thesis of the supremacy of slaves' food pattern in relation to other population segments. In this perspective he mentions the benefits of consuming cashew nuts and peanuts (whose nutritional composition is similar to that of meat), of bredo and caruru (plants of the genus Amaranthus rich in calcium), of different chilies (sources of vitamin C), of coconut milk and palm oil (sources of carotenes or vitamin A precursors), yam and manioc (rich in vitamins from the B complex), characteristic foods of the Bahian cuisine analyzed in the studies conducted by Thales de Azevedo¹³:

Hence, researchers from Bahia recognize the superiority of the diet of shanty dwellers and of the Africanoid commoners of the shacks - maintaining African eating habits whenever possible, respected in most shanties by plantation house and mansion masters, also because these were economically advantageous eating habits for the masters - about the diet of the whites or of master-like people living in noble houses or mansions. People who the whites or mixed-race individuals from single-story houses tried to follow or imitate whenever possible (p.317)²⁴ (My translation).

Rich man's fish and poor man's fish: Hierarchy and stratification of access and consumption

In the description of the eating habits made in "The mansions and the shanties"¹³, it is interesting to note how Freyre emphasizes the consumption of fish and other seafood. In some passages such emphasis seems to indicate a habitual intake, in others an occasional intake limited to festivities and/or holy days, in others to geographic conditions (coastal or riparian cities). However, in Freyre's¹³ reports, the hierarchy or differentiation in fish and other seafood intake by the distinct social segments that composed the Brazilian patriarchal society also become evident:

Maybe what was eaten most in coastal or riparian cities, like Salvador, Olinda, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, São Luís, Desterro, was fish and shrimp, since many small farms had their own cultivation, which met the demands of the house and market, the rich selling the more commoner fish to the poor (p.248)²⁵ (My translation).

In this direction, Freyre¹³ presents the following list of "fine fish" consumed by mansion dwellers:

In the North the fish destined to the table of the large mansions were the mackerel - preferably king mackerel - red snapper, fat snook, Diapterus rhombeus, Prochilodus lineatus, osseous fish, which also accepted grouper, mullet, Florida pompano, anchovy, freshwater garfish, black grouper, cobia, and even tarpon, permit, Zeiform fish; from here down, came and comes junk (p.247)²⁶ (My translation).

On the other hand, the list of "poor fish" consumed by shanty dwellers according to Freyre¹³ included:

Fish of shanty and turmoil: swordfish, black margate, Atlantic bumper, rockfish, catfish. The only exception is the Beloniformes, a shanty fish, sold in street barbecues, which was also eaten at the noble tables, with olive oil and toasted cassava flour. But almost as an extravagance or carelessness (p.248)²⁷ (My translation).

In the then capital of the country (Rio de Janeiro), Freyre¹³ also mentions the socially stratified fish intake: "In Rio de Janeiro, the noble fish were the sea bass, grouper, and cobia; and the commoners, sold at low prices, were the mullet, sardine, blue runner" (p.248)²⁸ (My translation).

In relation to other seafood (shrimp, oyster, shellfish), Freyre¹³ makes an interesting report of the eating habits at mansions:

Shrimp, oyster, and shellfish were prepared in the kitchens of large mansions generally more sophisticated than those of plantation houses, more in contact with Far East and African condiments - many hot snacks: 'stews that excelled for the excessive amounts of exciting condiments, especially chili, and which were frequently consumed during dinner or supper (p.247)²⁹ (My translation).

In other passages of "The mansions and the shanties"¹³, when describing the episodes of food scarcity that occurred in mid-19^th century, Freyre mentions the intake of cod imported from Europe, according to him, destined for the poor population:

Cod was imported from Europe for the poor; and from Montevideu and Buenos Aires, salt-cured meat. Salt-cured meat like cod and wheat flour continued to be expensive for the consumers, no matter how much the right to consume them was reduced (p.206)³⁰ (My translation).

In turn the means of access to fish and other seafood by the poor population were recorded in various passages. In one of them, as Freyre described the difficult access conditions that the poor, and generally the entire population, had to fresh beef, Freyre¹³ also mentions the difficult access to fish:

Almost the same occurred in relation to fish, where at first sight one would suppose that it was an easy-to-get food for the poorer city inhabitants; for the population of single-story houses, shanties, and tenements at the end of the 18^th century and the first decades of the 19^th century. But also the supply of fish became a commerce dominated by large land owners in the Northeast, of fish traps between the beaches and the reefs, or aquacultures in farms; by the middlemen and also the bourgeoisie of the mansions (p.202)³¹ (My translation).

In another passage Freyre¹³ depicts a possible habitual intake of fish by the poor population of the state of Bahia:

However, one can generalize that the food of the inhabitants of Bahia - that is, of the free population who could not afford fresh meat, despite the bad quality, and the conserves imported from Europe consisted mainly of fish and cassava flour (p.204)³² (My translation).

However, we emphasize the omission of references about the consumption of crabs, swimming crabs, mussels, and other seafood, like seafood stew with coconut oil, fish stew, fish with pirão, deep fried swimming crab, etc., as well as the Portuguese-African adaptations of the Amerindian fish cuisine. Freyre also reported these references in other books^12,23,28.

Rich man's beverages, poor man's beverages: Wine versus cachaça (Brazilian rum)

In many passages of "The mansions and the shanties"¹³, precious Freyre's reports about the consumption of alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages make clear the economic and cultural differentiation between the rich and the poor. Regarding the consumption of alcoholic beverages, the first contrast that we identified was between the consumption of wine (noble's beverage) and cachaça (poor man's beverage). A second contrast regarded the consumption of non-alcoholic beverages (fresh water, refreshments, or sugarcane juice), a habit attributed to the PortugueseBrazilian population, and the consumption of alcoholic beverages (hard liquors), a habit attributed to the Nordic-Dutch population. In this direction, in one of the passages where Freyre¹³ approaches the issue of alcoholism in the patriarchal society, attributing it partly to the habits of Dutch invaders (note that the Dutch occupation of Pernambuco occurred between 1630 and 1654), these two types of contrast was evident:

Alcohol addiction was another that assumed an alarming development in the city of Recife during the Dutch occupation - maybe because of the Nordic population's greater predisposition to alcohol - and in the 18^th century in the area of mining. In 1667, as the Capuchinho missionaries (religious individuals belonging to a Franciscan division) passed by Recife ... they were surprised to see the inhabitants having aversion to wine: almost everyone drank pure water. The blacks and mestizos were the ones who liked to drink their cachaça. On the other hand, the Dutch Recife was a district of drunkards. People of better social position were found drunk throughout the streets. Even the Dutch observers of the time were astonished by the contrast between their people and the Portuguese-Brazilians. Portuguese-Brazilians almost only drank fresh water, sometimes with sugar and fruit juice: refreshment or sugarcane juice. The Nordics preferred the hard liquors (p.193)³³ (My translation).

Indeed, in Freyre's approach there is a recurrence of some resistance or aversion to Dutch influences and a greater assimilation of or affection for the Portuguese influences. In another passage of "The mansions and the shanties"¹³, Freyre defends the masters of the patriarchal plantation houses and mansions, evidencing a "moderate" intake of alcoholic beverages (so called social drinking) and giving clues of a possible cultural mix that was already announcing itself in the eating habits of the patriarchal Brazilian society (Port wine, cashew apple liqueur, and "immaculate"= cachaça):

But evidently limiting his observation to the nobility or bourgeoisie of the plantation houses. Nearly everyone savored their Port wine, their homemade cashew apple liqueur, their "immaculate" early in the morning to "make the body invulnerable" before taking a river bath or as an appetizer before having feijoada or mocotó (cow's feet stewed with beans and vegetables). But they rarely abused it. Abuse only occurred very occasionally, when they broke cups between toast songs: the famous toast songs of the dinners at the patriarchal plantation houses and mansions (p.194)³³ (My translation).

However, to be faithful to the historical records of the eating and drinking habits of the Brazilian patriarchal society, Freyre¹³ also identified

the excessive intake of alcoholic beverages by planters:

In the banquets of the wealthiest or most flamboyant planters - that since the 16^thcentury scandalized the Europeans with their overabundance of foods and drinks - wine was unlimited. There was so much food that it spoiled; at the end, those toast songs. Much wine was spilled, on tablecloths, floor, just for luxury (p.194)³⁴ (My translation).

Complementing his approach of alcoholism in the patriarchal society, it is important to emphasize the report made by an English observer in mid-19^thcentury about the intake of alcohol by Brazilian rural populations, where Freyre¹³ tries to "reduce" the blame attributed to the Dutch:

But at this point, one should not suppose that alcoholism would never develop in rural areas and among Portuguese-Brazilians free from any Nordic influence. Rural areas ... are where Burton found evidence of such great alcohol abuse in mid-19^th century - of cachaça, of cane, of the white one (cachaça synonyms) - that he did not hesitate to compare people from the interior of Brazil with people from Scotland (p.193)³⁵ (My translation).

In another passage, portraying the ritual dinner of the masters of plantation houses and mansions, Freyre¹³ identifies the habit of consuming other alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages:

Water was pretty much the only beverage, which remained cooling below the windows in large clay jugs or pitchers. Alcohol, only a small amount of Port wine with dessert; a few sips of cachaça before having feijoada, as an appetizer. And Indian tea, as other teas, was for some time considered almost a medicine. Teas were sold in pharmacies. Their use only became elegant in areas under greater influence of the English culture at the beginning of the 19^thcentury (p.246)³⁶ (My translation).

In the sequence, with the process of "Europeanization" of eating habits, a phenomenon that began in the 19^th century, Freyre¹³ reports the introduction of the habit of consuming other drinks, like tea and beer: "The English tea and beer propagated quickly among the nobles of the mansions" (p.366)³⁷ (My translation).

As the coffee economy emerged in the 19^thcentury, Freyre¹³ also identifies the introduction of the habit of consuming coffee by the Brazilian population: "Coffee only became popular in mid-19^thcentury" (p.247)³⁹ (My translation).

In our clippings of "The mansions and the shanties"¹³, there is no mention of milk intake, of the still contemporary habit of mixing milk and coffee. Freyre also omits or underestimates the influences of the Amerindian culture, and also of the African culture, on the intake habits of alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages. However, other Brazilian researchers, such as Câmara Cascudo in "História da alimentação no Brasil" ("The history of food in Brazil")²⁵, published for the first time in 1967, identified with much emphasis the important contribution of Brazilian Amerindians and African slaves to the local drinking habits.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

Rereading "The mansions and the shanties"¹³ make us validate the importance of Freyre's pioneering sociological approach, as he chooses aspects of daily life, of the interactions of distinct social and ethnical-cultural segments that composed the scenario of transition between the rural and urban patriarchal systems as the object of his study to understand and interpret the history of the Brazilian society. We find amazing Freyre's pioneering approach to the importance of reconstituting and analyzing the daily acts of eating and drinking; of the process of access to and culinary preparation of foods and beverages; of the forms of organizing and constituting the kitchen and table; and of the social interactions and antagonisms associated with sharing foods and beverages as a research method to understand and interpret Brazil.

As Freyre "contrasts" the eating habits and patterns of distinct social segments, he clearly tends to overvalue the food pattern of the slaves, pointing it out as the ideal pattern of healthy eating. To ground this thesis, it is important to emphasize the wealth of methodological resources the author used, standing out among them the results of pioneering Brazilian nutrition studies, which seems to confer internal and external consistency to Freyre's arguments. In fact, the way Freyre reconstituted and interpreted the eating pattern of the slaves suggested that their eating pattern was the most balanced from the nutritional, cultural, and symbolic viewpoints. Thus, for Freyre, based on the book "The mansions and the shanties"¹³, the ideal food pattern that the Brazilian kitchen would express would be the eating pattern of the slaves, since it preserved the "harmonious balance" of the ethnical-cultural Portuguese/African/Amerindian triad and seemed to be the most resistant or immune to the phenomenon of "Europeanization".

By "contrasting" the eating habits of the rural patriarchal society with those of the emerging urban patriarchal society, Freyre clearly tends to resist or shows aversion to the "Europeanization" (modernization) of eating habits, and simultaneously, shows affection to traditional/ regional culinary values. The emergence of new eating habits and the changes that occurred in the kitchens and tables of plantation houses and mansions were portrayed with disdain in Freyre's approach. In turn, such disdain seems to denote an author stuck to the culinary traditions of the rural patriarchal society, the taste memories, especially the taste of sweets, cakes, and desserts invented, adapted, and savored in the plantations of Pernambuco, very well portrayed in the book "Açúcar" (Sugar)²⁹.

References to the influences of the eating habits and practices of Brazilian Amerindians in "The mansions and the shanties"¹³ were almost inexistent. Indeed, the scenario or historic and geographic territory of the homes portrayed by Freyre was very far from Amerindian villages. In this sense, the omission of reports about Amerindian homes (wigwams and longhouses), foods, and beverages is understandable. As we pointed out earlier, we also identified that Freyre did not make much of an effort to reconstitute the eating habits and practices of the poor population living in shanties, hovels, and tenements. This fact may be associated with the distance kept by Freyre of the daily life of the social segments that lived in these types of dwellings.

This reading of "The mansions and the shanties"¹³ occurred at a historic and time distance of almost eighty years of its first edition. Profound technological, economic, social, and cultural transformations, as well as an intense movement of paradigms, occurred during this period. Yet it is possible to observe a certain proximity between the eating habits and patterns identified by Freyre in "The mansions and the shanties"¹³ and those identified in the second edition of the Brazilian Food Guide²⁷. According to analyses conducted by the Guide²⁷, two-thirds of the Brazilian diet still corresponds to rice, beans, red meats, chicken, fish, milk, eggs, roots, tubers (especially cassava and potato), fruits, and vegetables. In the perspective of the contemporary paradigm of promoting a healthy diet, this food pattern is characterized by the appreciation/ preservation of consuming fresh or minimally processed foods, in detriment of the strong pressure exerted by the phenomenon of globalization of eating habits centered on processed and ultra-processed foods.

REFERENCES

• ¹
  Teixeira LA. Da raça à doença em Casa-Grande esenzala. Hist Ciênc Saúde. 1997; 4(2):231-43.
• ²
  Vasconcelos FAG. Fome, eugenia e constituição docampo da nutrição em saúde pública em Pernambuco: uma análise de Gilberto Freyre, Josué de Castro e Nelson Chaves. Hist Ciênc Saúde. 2001; 8(2):315-39.
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  Tempass MC. Os grupos indígenas e os doces brasileiros. Espaço Ameríndio. 2008; 2(2):98-114.
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  Oliveira EC. Os subterrâneos de sobrados e mucambos: análise historiográfica das notas de rodapé. Rev Hist. 2013; 2(2):46-68.
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  Braudel F. A través de un continente de história: Brasil y la obra de Gilberto Freyre. Rev Mex Sociol. 1999; 61(2):167-87.
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  Lehmann D. Gilberto Freyre: The reassessmentcontinues. Lat Am Res Rev. 2008; 43(1):208-18.
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  Celarent B. The masters and the slaves by Gilberto Freyre. Am J Sociol. 2010; 116(1):334-9.
• ¹¹
  Brochier C. Le Concept de "démocratie raciale" dans L'Histoire Intellectuelle Brésilienne. Rev Synth. 2014; 135(1):123-50.
• ¹²
  Freyre G. Casa-grande e senzala. 34ª ed. Rio de Janeiro: Record; 1998.
• ¹³
  Freyre G. Sobrados e mucambos. 12ª ed. Rio de Janeiro: Record; 2000.
• ¹⁴
  Freyre G. Casa-grande e senzala: edição comemorativa - 80 anos. São Paulo: Global; 2013.
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  Nitschack H. Gilberto Freyre y Sérgio Buarque de Holanda: mestiçagem y cordialidade como estrategias de convivencia. Rev Chil Lit. 2014; (88):173-98.
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  Souza J. Gilberto Freyre e a singularidade cultural brasileira. Tempo Social Rev Sociol. 2000; 12(1):69-100.
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  Tavolaro SBF. Gilberto Freyre e nossa "modernidade tropical": entre a originalidade e o desvio. Sociologias. 2013; 15(33):282-317.
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  Hernández JC, Arnáiz MG. Alimentación y cultura: perspectivas antropológicas. Barcelona: Editorial Ariel; 2005.
• ¹⁹
  Diez-Garcia RW, Castro IRR. A culinária como objeto de estudo e de intervenção no campo da Alimentação e Nutrição. Ciênc Saúde Colet. 2011; 16(1):91-8.
• ²⁰
  Bourdieu P. Para uma sociologia da ciência. Lisboa: Biblioteca 70; 2008.
• ²¹
  Kuhn TS. O caminho desde a estrutura. São Paulo: Unesp; 2006.
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  Castells M. A sociedade em rede: a era da informação: economia, sociedade e cultura. São Paulo: Paz e Terra; 1999.
• ²³
  Freyre G. Manifesto regionalista de 1926. Rio de Janeiro: Ministério da Educação e Cultura; 1955. [acesso 2014 dez 18]. Disponível em: http:// icaadocs.mfah.org/icaadocs/THEARCHIVE/Full Record/tabid/88/doc/1074787/language/en-US/ Default.aspx
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  Castro J. Geografia da fome (o dilema brasileiro: pão ou aço). 10ª ed. Rio de Janeiro: Antares Achiamé; 1980.
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  Cascudo LC. História da alimentação no Brasil. 4ª ed. São Paulo: Global; 2011.
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  Brasil. Ministério da Saúde. Secretaria de Atenção à Saúde. Guia alimentar para a população brasileira. 2ª ed. Brasília: Ministério da Saúde; 2014 [acesso 2015 5 fev]. Disponível em: http://portalsaude. saude.gov.br/images/pdf/2014/novembro/05/GuiaAlimentar-para-a-pop-brasiliera-Miolo-PDFInternet.pdf
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  Freyre G. Açúcar: uma sociologia do doce, com receitas de bolos e doces do Nordeste do Brasil. 5ª ed. São Paulo: Global; 2007.
• ³⁰
  Vasconcelos FAG, Santos LMP. Tributo a Manoel da Gama Lobo (1835-1883), pioneiro na epidemiologia da deficiência de vitamina A no Brasil. Hist Ciênc Saúde. 2007; 14(4):1341-56.
• ³¹
  Vasconcelos FAG, Batista Filho M. História do campo da alimentação e nutrição em saúde coletiva no Brasil. Ciênc Saúde Colet. 2011; 16(1):81-90.
• ³²
  Vasconcelos FAG. Tendências históricas dos estudos dietéticos no Brasil. Hist Ciênc Saúde. 2007; 14(1):197-219.

• 2
  "A mesa era patriarcal. O dono da casa, à cabeceira, às vezes servia. Quando era jantar com senhoras, ficavam sempre marido e mulher juntos. Mas isto já foi depois da sofisticação dos hábitos, ao contato maior com a Europa. Antes, nos tempos mouros, era raro mulher na primeira mesa: pelo menos quando havia visita. Era só homem. As mulheres e os meninos sumiam-se. Nos jantares íntimos, o patriarca servia-se primeiro e do melhor; do abacaxi, por exemplo, havendo um só, a parte nobre, imperial, a coroa, era a sua; e a outra, da mulher, dos filhos, da parentela" (p.246)¹³.
• 3
  "Várias inventaram comidas, doces, conservas com os frutos e as raízes da terra. Os filhós de mandioca ... quem os inventou foi a mulher portuguesa ... . E não só a mandioca; também o caju foi europeizado pela senhora de engenho em doce, em vinho, em licor, em remédio ... . O mesmo que com o caju, a banana e o cará se terá dado com o jenipapo, com o araçá, com o mamão, com a goiaba, com o maracujá, com o marmelo; mais tarde com a manga, com a jaca, a fruta-pão, o coco-da-índica - frutas que misturadas com mel de engenho, com açúcar, com canela, com cravo, com castanha, tornaram-se doce de calda, conserva, sabongo, marmelada, geleia, enriquecendo de uma variedade de sabores novos e tropicais a sobremesa das casas-grandes de engenho e dos sobrados burgueses" (p.67)¹³.
• 4
  "Nas casas lordes menos exageradas na hospitalidade, o jantar tinha suas horas, que variavam entre as duas e as quatro da tarde. Consistia geralmente no caldo de substância, na carne assada ou cozida, no pirão escaldado, no molho de malagueta" (p.246)¹³.
• 5
  "Às vezes, havia grandes feijoadas. As ortodoxas eram as de feijão preto. O feijão se comia todos os dias. Era de rigor no jantar de peixe - em Pernambuco e na Bahia preparando-se o feijão de coco. Nas feijoadas o feijão aparecia com lombo, carne salgada, toucinho, cabeça de porco, linguiça. Misturava-se com farinha até formar uma papa que se regava com molho de pimenta" (p.247)¹³.
• 6
  "Em vez de pão - raro entre nós até os começos do século XIX - usava-se ao almoço beiju de tapioca, ou de massa, e no jantar, pirão ou massa de farinha de mandioca feita no caldo de carne ou de peixe. Também arroz. Foi outro substituto do pão, à mesa patriarcal dos sobrados velhos, anterior à maior europeização da cozinha brasileira" (p.247)¹³.
• 7
  "Sabe-se que o pão de trigo foi, por longo tempo, luxo ou requinte de raros, no Brasil, tal a generalização do uso da farinha de mandioca, solta ou sob a forma de beiju, cuscuz ou tapioca. Uso a que se juntou o hábito, muito brasileiro, de acompanhar de arroz uma variedade de carnes, dispensando-se, assim, o acompanhamento do pão de trigo" (p.93)¹³.
• 8
  "Arroz cozido com camarões; ou então com cabeça de peixe. Arroz com carne. Arroz com sardinha. Arroz-doce. O arroz tornou-se tão do Brasil quanto da Índia. Introduzido na colônia pelo Marquês de Lavradio que administrou o Brasil de 1769 a 1779, tornou-se, na opinião dos franceses, mestres do paladar, superior ao arroz da Índia, não se compreen-dendo que, à falta da justa proteção, chegasse ao fim da era imperial vencido pelo produto inferior de possessões inglesas" (p.247)¹³.
• 9
  "A carne verde, adianta o Dr. Pereira Júnior, 'não era fornecida em quantidade suficiente para abastecer o mercado; usava-se então muito de carne salgada, que vinha do Norte, e do lombo de porco que com abundância era fornecido por Minas'. Informação que confirma a de viajantes franceses com relação à Bahia: carne muito escassa, não só a de boi, como a de galinha e de carneiro" (p.247)¹³.
• 10
  "Admitido, de modo geral, o fato de que a carne fresca era alimento nobre, da gente de sobrado ou casa-grande, e o vegetal, ou o 'mato', com uma exceção ou outra, alimento barato e desprezível, da gente de senzala e da de mucambo mais presa às tradições africanas de alimentação vegetal - inhame, quiabo, dendê, arroz - temos que admitir a decorrência: o negro de senzala de casa grande ou sobrado ou o próprio negro de mucambo menos desafricanizado nos seus hábitos ou estilos de alimentação era, de modo geral, melhor nutrido que o branco de casa senhorial, com a sua carne fresca má, suas conservas e seus alimentos secos importados da Europa. Inclusive o biscoito que, para muitos, fazia às vezes de pão de trigo: por muito tempo luxo burguês quase exclusivo dos que o faziam patriarcalmente em casa" (p.311)¹³.
• 11
  "Sobremesa: arroz-doce com canela, filhós, canjica temperada com açúcar e manteiga, o doce com queijo de Minas, o melado ou mel de engenho com farinha ou queijo. Fruta - abacaxi, pinha, manga, pitanga - das quais também se faziam doces ou pudins" (p.247)¹³.
• 12
  "Manteiga se comia pouco. Quase não se encontrava no mercado. Em compensação, havia fartura de queijo de Minas" (p.248)¹³.
• 13
  "Nos primeiros anos do século XIX, a importação de alimentos da Europa: peixe seco, presunto, linguiça, queijo, manteiga, biscoitos, azeite, vinagre, macarrão, nozes, ameixas, azeitonas, cebolas, alho etc. Alimento para habitantes de sobrados. Para senhores das casas mais opulentas" (p.311)¹³.
• 14
  "Muita gente imagina que a alimentação nas casas-grandes de engenho era sempre superior à dos sobrados da cidade. Mas já sugerimos que não. Muito sobrado recebia da Europa uma variedade de alimentos finos que faltavam à mesa patriarcal dos engenhos e das fazendas menos opulentas. E a esses alimentos finos podiam juntar frutas e legumes dos seus próprios sítios ou quintais, consumidos também pelos negros das senzalas urbanas e suburbanas" (p.206)¹³.
• 15
  "Quanto à mesa dos ricos senhores de casas grandes e dos sobrados mais opulentos, não nos esqueçamos de que foi ela quase sempre prejudicada pelo excesso de conservas importadas da Europa, em condições de transporte que estavam longe de comparar-se, do ponto de vista da higiene ou da técnica de conservação de alimentos, com as dominantes no século atual. Donde muito alimento deteriorado ou rançoso consumido pela gente nobre dos sobrados que desdenhava das verduras ou matos frescos, comidos pelos negros ou pelos escravos" (p.309)¹³.
• 16
  "Na sua mesa, regulava para o jantar o charque ou o bacalhau ... ; e nos domingos um pesinho de carne ... . O almoço, uma xícara de café com beiju, tapioca, cará, macaxeira ... . A ceia, a mesma coisa. E o pão e a bolacha só apareciam à mesa nas casas-grandes mais opulentas; nas outras era luxo raro" (p.78)¹³.
• 17
  "Com a maior europeização e a mais larga urbanização dos estilos de vida, o Brasil atravessou um período de muito artigo falsificado e velho a fazer às vezes do bom, do novo, do vindo direto de Paris para as lojas do Rio de Janeiro, do Recife, de Salvador, de São Paulo, de São Luís do Maranhão, de Porto Alegre. ... As cozinhas das casas grandes e dos sobrados eram decerto umas imundices; mas a comida preparada nelas mais sã que a maior parte da vinda em conserva da Europa. Que a servida às vezes nos hotéis franceses ou pelos cozinheiros italianos. Foi, entretanto, tornando-se chic (grifo de Freyre) comer à francesa, à italiana, à inglesa. O chá e a cerveja dos ingleses se propagaram rapidamente entre a fidalguia dos sobrados. Também as massas e os pastéis italianos. O queijo flamengo ou suíço. A própria doçaria das casas grandes, das iaiás solteironas dos sobrados, das freiras dos conventos, dos negros de tabuleiro, foi desaparecendo, perdendo o encanto até para os meninos. E os doces e os doceiros elegantes tornando-se os franceses e italianos, como indicam os anúncios de jornais" (p.366)¹³.
• 18
  "Em 1865, o médico Manuel da Gama Lobo observava que a alimentação dos escravos - e podia acrescentar que a dos senhores também, embora em menor escala - variava não só das cidades para as fazendas, como das regiões do açúcar e do café para as de relativa variedade de produção: Rio Grande do Sul, Mato Grosso, Pará, Amazonas. Nas províncias de monocultura, cuja população principalmente a dos mucambos - raramente comia carne e peixe, eram mais frequentes abortos; comuns as úlceras crônicas e a cegueira noturna. Naquelas de produção mais variada onde até fruta entrava na dieta dos negros em quantidade apreciável, as moléstias pareciam mais raras, a reprodução abundante, a duração de vida mais longa" (p.206)¹³.
• 19
  "Quanto a esses negros das senzalas, as evidências, ou pelo menos os indícios são de que, como nos engenhos e fazendas, eles foram beneficiados por uma alimentação mais regular e por um passadio mais farto que o da gente livre dos cortiços, dos mucambos e das casas térreas das cidades; e que os moradores aparentemente livres das próprias fazendas e engenhos" (p.207)¹³.
• 20
  "Daí fazendas onde os senhores davam apenas aos escravos feijão cozido com angu, um bocado de toucinho, jerimum ou abóbora cozida; e esta comida rala, a homens que na região cafeeira tinham de levantar-se às três da madrugada para trabalharem até nove ou dez da noite" (p.207)¹³.
• 21
  "O que conhecemos, por outras fontes de informação, do regime alimentar daqueles escravos que foram os típicos - e não os atípicos - do nosso sistema patriarcal, autoriza-nos a generalizar ter sido o escravo de casa-grande ou sobrado grande, de todos os elementos da sociedade patriarcal brasileira, o mais bem nutrido. Nutrido com feijão e toucinho; com milho ou angu; com pirão de mandioca; com inhame; com arroz" (p.308)¹³.
• 22
  "Também o quiabo, o dendê, a taioba e outras 'folhas', outros 'verdes' ou 'matos' de fácil e barato cultivo, e desprezados pelos senhores, entravam na alimentação do escravo típico. São 'matos' cuja introdução na cozinha brasileira - em geral indiferente ou hostil à verdura - se deve ao africano: como quituteiro ou cozinheiro, contribuiu ele - principalmente através da chamada 'cozinha baiana' - para o enriquecimento da alimentação brasileira no sentido do maior uso de óleos, de vegetais, de 'folhas verdes'. E até - com os Malês - de leite e de mel de abelha" (p.308)¹³.
• 23
  "Escravo, o africano foi, de modo geral, elemento melhor nutrido que o negro ou o mestiço livre e que o branco pobre de mucambo ou palhoça do interior ou das cidades, cuja alimentação teve que limitar-se, de ordinário, ao charque ou ao bacalhau com farinha. Melhor nutrido que o próprio senhor de engenho ou o fazendeiro ou o dono de minas quando meão ou médio nos seus recursos - e os fazendeiros ou senhores de engenho desse tipo foram, entre nós, a maioria - de alimentação também caracterizada pelo uso excessivo de charque e de bacalhau mandados vir das cidades, junto com a bolacha, o peixe seco e a farinha de mandioca... . Enquanto à mesa do estancieiro, farta de carne fresca ou sangrenta, parecem ter sempre faltado o legume, e, por muito tempo, o arroz, ausente também na mesa do sertanejo do Norte, farta apenas de queijo e de carne chamada de sol ou de vento; e tão pobre de legume quanto as outras mesas de patriarcas" (p.308)¹³.
• 24
  "Reconhece, assim, o pesquisador baiano a superioridade da alimentação da gente das senzalas e da própria plebe africanóide dos mucambos - continuadora, sempre que possível, de hábitos alimentares africanos, respeitados, na maioria das senzalas, pelos senhores de casas grandes e sobrados mesmo porque eram hábitos vantajosamente econômicos para os mesmos senhores - sobre a alimentação dos brancos ou da gente senhoril das casas ou sobrados nobres. Gente que os brancos ou mestiços das casas térreas procuravam, quando possível, seguir ou imitar" (p.317)¹³.
• 25
  "Talvez o que mais se comesse nas cidades marítimas ou de rio, como Salvador, Olinda, o Recife, o Rio de Janeiro, São Luís, Desterro, fosse peixe e camarão, pois muita chácara tinha seu viveiro próprio, que dava para o gasto da casa e para o comércio, os ricos vendendo aos pobres dos peixes considerados mais plebeus" (p.248)¹³.
• 26
  "Os peixes para a mesa dos sobrados grandes tornaram-se, no Norte, a cavala - de preferência a cavala-perna-de moça - a cioba, o camorim, a carapeba, a curimã, a pescada, também se admitindo a garoupa, a tainha, o pampo-da-cabeça-mole, a enchova, a bicuda, o serigado, o beijupirá, até mesmo o camarupim, o aribebéu, o galo; daí para baixo, vinha e vem o rebotalho" (p.247)¹³.
• 27
  "O peixe de mucambo e de frege: espada, pirambu, palombeta, bodeão, bagre. Exceção só de agulha, que sendo um peixe de mucambo, de fogareiro de rua, também se comia - e se come - nas mesas fidalgas, com azeite e farofa. Mas quase por extravagância ou boemia" (p.248)¹³.
• 28
  "No Rio de Janeiro, os peixes nobres eram o badejo, a garoupa, o beijupirá e os plebeus e vendidos a preços baixos a tainha, a sardinha, o xarelete" (p.248)¹³.
• 29
  "De camarão, ostras e marisco se fazia nas cozinhas dos sobrados grandes - mais sofisticadas em geral que as das casas de engenho, mais em contato com os temperos do Oriente e da África - muito quitute picante: 'guisados que primavam pelo excesso de condimentos excitantes, sobretudo a pimenta e que eram de uso frequente ou ao jantar ou à ceia'" (p.247)¹³.
• 30
  "Para os pobres importava-se da Europa o bacalhau; e de Montevidéu e Buenos Aires, a carne seca. A carne seca como o bacalhau e a farinha de trigo, por maiores reduções de direitos de consumo que sofressem, continuaram a custar caro aos consumidores" (p.206)¹³.
• 31
  "Quase o mesmo sucedia em relação ao peixe, que à primeira vista se supõe fosse um alimento fácil para a gente mais pobre das cidades; para a população das casas térreas, dos mucambos e dos cortiços dos fins do século XVIII e dos primeiros decênios do XIX. Mas também o suprimento de peixe tornou-se um comércio dominado por grandes proprietários de terras, no Nordeste, de currais entre as praias e os arrecifes ou com viveiro dentro do sítio; pelos atravessadores e pela própria burguesia dos sobrados" (p.202)¹³.
• 32
  "Entretanto, podia-se generalizar que o alimento dos habitantes da Bahia - isto é, da população livre que não podia dar-se ao luxo da carne fresca, embora má, e das conservas importadas da Europa - consistia principalmente em peixe e farinha de mandioca" (p.204)¹³.
• 33
  "O vício do álcool foi outro que tomou um desenvolvimento alarmante na cidade do Recife durante a ocupação dos holandeses - talvez por maior predisposição dos nórdicos ao álcool - e no século XVIII na área de mineração. Em 1667, passando pelo Recife os missionários capuchinhos ... ficaram admirados de ver os habitantes avessos ao uso do vinho: quase todo mundo bebia água pura. Os negros e caboclos é que gostavam de beber sua cachaça. O Recife holandês, ao contrário, foi um burgo de beberrões. Pessoas da melhor posição social eram encontradas bêbadas pelas ruas. Os próprios observadores holandeses da época se espantavam do contraste entre sua gente e a luso-brasileira. A luso-brasileira quase só bebia água fresca, às vezes com açúcar e suco de fruto: refresco ou garapa. Os nórdicos preferiam as bebidas fortes" (p.193)¹³.
• 34
  "Mas evidentemente limitando seu reparo à nobreza ou à burguesia das casas grandes. Que quase todos bebericavam seu vinhozinho do porto, seu licor de caju feito em casa, sua 'imaculada' de manhã cedo para fechar o corpo antes do banho de rio ou para abrir o apetite antes da feijoada ou da mão de vaca. Mas raramente entregavam-se a excessos. Isso de excesso era só uma ou outra vez na vida, quando se quebravam as taças entre saúdes cantadas: as famosas saúdes cantadas dos jantares das casas grandes e dos sobrados patriarcais" (p.194)¹³.
• 35
  "Nos banquetes de senhores de engenho mais ricos ou mais espetaculosos - que desde o século XVI escandalizavam os europeus pela sua fartura de comida e bebida - o vinho corria livre. Era tanta comida, que se estragava; no fim, aquelas saúdes cantadas. Muito vinho corria à toa, pela toalha, pelo chão, só por luxo" (p.194)¹³.
• 36
  "Mas não se deve supor, a essa altura, que nas zonas rurais e entre os luso-brasileiros virgens de qualquer influência nórdica, nunca se desenvolvesse o alcoolismo. Em zonas rurais ... é que Burton encontrou, no meado do século XIX, evidências de um abuso tão grande do álcool - da cachaça, da cana, da branquinha - que não hesitou em comparar a gente do interior do Brasil com a da Escócia" (p.193)¹³.
• 37
  "Bebida, quase que era só água, que se deixava nos vãos das janelas esfriando dentro das gordas quartinhas ou moringas de barro. Álcool, só um vinhozinho-do-porto à sobremesa; uns goles de aguardente de cana antes de feijoada, para abrir o apetite. E o chá-daíndia, como os outros chás, foi por algum tempo considerado quase um remédio. Vendido nas boticas. Seu uso só se tronou elegante nas zonas mais influenciadas pela cultura inglesa nos começos do século XIX" (p.246)¹³.
• 38
  "O chá e a cerveja dos ingleses se propagaram rapidamente entre a fidalguia dos sobrados" (p.366)¹³.
• 39
  "O café só veio a popularizar-se no meado do século XIX" (247)¹³.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  Mar-Apr 2016

History

• Received
  14 Apr 2015
• Reviewed
  14 Oct 2015
• Accepted
  03 Nov 2015