Networks that cure: the biological and symbolic conversion of artisanal chesses in Minas Gerais, Brazil

Abstract This article analyzes the way of the artisanal cheese from Canastra, Minas Gerais state, Brazil, emphasizing its passage by to a center of maturation. This process is taken as a ritual process and as a food performance. That passage will be examined as a particular mechanism for the organic and symbolic transition of the food from one state to another. This process encompasses a wide network of different actors and moments that make up the ‘social life’ of the cheese. In this text, I try to recover moments of its path describing how the artisanal food occupies a privileged place in the creation of social and cosmological ties. I also seek to demonstrate how the cheese artisanal characteristics line off differences not only in its own identity, but also in the social agents involved in its making.摘要 本文分析巴西米纳斯吉拉斯州卡纳斯特拉产区手工奶酪（artisanal cheese）的制作路径，重点关注其进入熟成管控中心的环节。该过程兼具仪式性与食物展演属性，本文将其作为特殊机制展开分析，用以阐释该食物从一种状态向另一种状态转变时，在有机层面与符号层面所经历的双重变迁。该过程涵盖了构成这款奶酪"社会生命"的多元行动者与关键环节所组成的庞大网络。在本文中，笔者旨在还原其发展历程中的若干关键节点，阐释这款手工食物如何在社会纽带与宇宙观联结的构建中占据特殊地位。同时，本文亦试图阐明，手工奶酪的独特属性不仅为其自身塑造了专属身份，更厘清了参与其制作过程的各类社会主体之间的差异。