A’uwẽ (Xavante) Sacred Food Plants: Maize and Wild Root Vegetables

Summary

Maize and wild root vegetables hold sacred status among the A’uwẽ (Xavante) people of Central Brazil, serving as ceremonial gifts that express gratitude and reinforce social bonds. Unlike psychotropic plants, these food plants are central to mythology, healing, and spiritual well-being. The article describes how these plants are uniquely appropriate during certain rituals and how research on sacred ethnobotanical topics must navigate privileged knowledge within the society. Both plants remain integral to contemporary social life through their continued use in popular ceremonial occasions.

Study at a glance

Abstract

In lowland South America, sacred food plants have taken an ethnographic back seat to psychotropic plants. Yet, such foods are often central to local understandings of mythology, healing, ceremony, and spiritual well-being. In this article, I elucidate the sacred nature of two kinds of food plants that occupy special sociocultural spaces among the A’uwẽ (Xavante) in Central Brazil: cultivated maize and collected wild root vegetables. Although these are not the only sacred food plants in A’uwẽ society, they are iconic because they are considered uniquely appropriate gifts during certain ceremonial and ritual events. I also explore how I conducted research about ceremonial ethnobotanical topics in a society that considers most sacred and spiritual knowledge privileged. Both sacred plant foods highlighted here continue to be commonly given as presents expressing gratitude to others during popular ceremonial occasions, thereby maintaining them in the collective consciousness as integral components of contemporary social life.

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