Abstract

This project ethnographically investigates the impact of changing food production and consumption practices on the health, social relationships, and environmental interactions of the Ngäbe indigenous people. Specifically, it examines how globalisation, capitalism, environmental and health crisis, territorial pressures, extractivism, land scarcity and soil exhaustion, education, labor mobility, infrastructure, and state assistance transform Ngäbe production and consumption and how these forces compromise their nutritional health, food security and sovereignty. The study goes beyond biological stability to examine the ontological dimension of change: how these shifts reconfigure the Ngäbe’s way of being, existing, and maintaining social and spiritual integrity?
The project employs qualitative methods of social anthropology in Ratón, a community of the Comarca Ngäbe-Buglé where locals have recently begun producing coffee for commercialization. The ethnographic approach ensures the inclusion of a diverse range of community voices, including women, youth, teachers, and traditional healers, thereby capturing local experiences from their own perspectives.
Ultimately, the research bridges local logic with global debates, broadening our understanding of how communities redefine the vital relationships between food, the body, and territory amid globalization, conflicts and inequality.