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

Abstract

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.