Reclaiming the Sacred Plate : Fermentation Practices and Othering of Culinary Identity of Northeast India

Abstract

The study investigates the concepts of ethnicity and othering within the context of Indigenous food and foodways in Northeast India. It reviews how food, particularly in terms of its olfactory and gustatory attributes, functions as a vital medium for racialization, cultural marginalization, and an instrument of othering in urban Indian settings. Central to this inquiry is the exploration of Indigenous fermented food traditions as embodiments of multisensory heritage, ecological knowledge, and gendered labour dynamics. Utilizing an interdisciplinary methodology, which combines sociological analysis and ethnographic methods, the study aims to link discourses of food with cultural identity and sites of othering, while also probing into the embodied practices of fermented foods, their visibility, agency, conformity or divergence within both mainstream and alternative culinary narratives. By applying Spivak’s subaltern perspective, the study critiques the marginalization of Northeast Indian foodways in mainstream Indian media and government initiatives, and assesses the innovative, counter-hegemonic strategies adopted by Indigenous digital content creators who operate outside elite narratives to reclaim and reshape culinary discourses. The study contends that in a globalized food marketplace that often celebrates fusion and innovation, the obscurity of ethnic Indigenous foods is less a matter of flavor than one of recognition. It concludes that the struggle for food sovereignty of Northeast India is intrinsically linked to broader actions advocating for recognition, justice, and decolonization.