Transformations of food systems, related food consumption patterns and nutritional diversity and its impact on the food security in the rural area Pays Bedik (south-east Senegal)

This project is part of the SNF funded Foodways project in West Africa. Food as a social, economic and cultural trademark is treated with an interdisciplinary perspective:An integrative approach to ceramics, plants and animals through close collaboration between anthropologists, archaeologists, an epidemiologist, botanists, an archaeozoologist, a historian and a prehisotorist. The project uses a multi-proxy approach, compares ethnographic and archaeological evidence and aims to reconstruct the history of agricultural practices and foodways over two millennia. The focus of my dissertation is on changes in traditional agriculatural systems, hunting behaviour, related food consumption patterns and nutritional diversity in the rural area of Pays Bedik.The aim of the research is to illustrate the impact of colonialisation, globalisation and climate change on the food security of members of the Bedik ethnnic group living in the highlands. To investigate the transformation and its origin I will use different qualitative methods like participatory observation, semi-structured in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and household questionnaires. In addition literature research will be conducted before, during and after fieldwork and a dail diary will be kept. The data will be analaysed with a Grounded Theroy approach and content analysis.