ABSTRACT
Today’s Andean food style 1 is a prominent example of the responses Andean societies have developed toward changes imposed upon them by successive dominant societies (Herrera 1987; Sánchez 1987). Thus, in recent years one could observe a food behavior in Peru that keeps the Andean matrix but is, at the same time, modified by the influence of both the urban social classes and the food industries linked to transnational companies. Since the 1940s the policies of successive Peruvian governments relied on imports of foodstuffs to the detriment of Andean production, which enabled this “urban-industrial” food style to spread throughout the country. This led to “national food dependence” and to the deterioration of the food situation of the petty food producers, particularly in the Andes. These petty producers are now considered the sector of the Peruvian population most disadvantaged by the changes occurring on a national scale in the patterns of consumption (Lajo 1986).
