Traditional Fermentation Practices in Bodo Cuisine: Indigenous Knowledge, Health, and Cultural Identity

Abstract

Fermentation is a longstanding component of traditional Bodo cooking practices, and is characterized by the deep ecological knowledge, seasonal contexts, and health-conscious food systems of a community. This paper will examine the various methods of fermenting among the Bodo people of Assam with a concentration on a select few fermented foods, including napham (fermented fish), ondla (a rice flour based curry usually with fermented bamboo shoot), jou (rice beer), gundru (dried radish), and various other preserved meats and vegetables. These practices highlight indigenous knowledge systems to store food, while food systems contributed to food preservation imaginable without today’s refrigeration and provide nutrition and health contributions to gut health. Fermented foods have traditionally incorporated bamboo vessels or clay pots in natural (slow) fermentation techniques, to represent a sustainable, community-based learning career with respect to intergenerational voicing of knowledge. Though fermented foods nutritionally provide utility, each aspect of traditional Bodo culture retains a key facet of identity developed through fermentation foods in every day meal consumption e.g., festivals, community, spiritual and cultural behaviour. As the world continues to demonstrate increasing interest in nutritional value, probiotics, sustainable diets, the culinary heritage of Bodo culture may represent a meaningful example of traditional knowledge categories and in cultural sustainability.