A Study of Tamil Nadu’s Tribal Communities: Indigenous Foods as Foundations of Governance, Spirituality and Ecological Harmony

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-583-6_39How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Tamil Nadu tribes; sustainability; food; ecology; spirituality

Abstract

The paper examines the food cultures of Tamil Nadu’s tribal communities where ecological sustainability, cultural identity, and resistance intersect. Studying beyond conventional studies frames tribal diets as a subsistence practice. This research is examined based on the aspects such as the symbolic role of food in oral narratives, gendered transmission of the culinary knowledge and the relationship between their sacred food taboos and ecological conservations. The practices of the Irulas, Kurumbas, Todas, and Malayali tribes, demonstrating how indigenous food systems ranges from millet-based agriculture and forest stocking to domesticated animal rituals and collective feasting functions not only as nutritional strategies but also as archives of memory, community governance and spirituality.

The paper further argues about the tribal modes of food preparation which are rooted in seasonal rhythms and principles constituting a remark on industrial agriculture and capitalist modes of production. In doing so, the paper emphasizes how these indigenous frameworks of food are not static traditions but dynamic responses to ecological shifts and cultural pressures. These adaptive strategies explain a sustainable resilience of these communities to preserve biodiversity while also resisting homogenization by their mainstream agricultural practices. By placing food as material of practice and text of cultural, the study will reveal how these communities are enacting a sustainable life style where consumption is not separated from reciprocity and mother earth’s law.

The paper also highlights the role of ritual feasts and communal dining in shaping their communities bonds, where eating together reinforces the important values of equality and shared responsibility among their clans. These cultural habits are often neglected in mainstream research, revealing how food practices serves both as ecological strategies and ethical frameworks to live in harmony with the environment. These areas highlights the necessity of integration of tribal epistemologies with contemporary debates on food security, biodiversity, and environmental justice, placing Tamil Nadu’s tribal food heritage as a critical resource for reimagining sustainable production in the Anthropocene.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - R. Shivani
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/06/30
TI  - A Study of Tamil Nadu’s Tribal Communities: Indigenous Foods as Foundations of Governance, Spirituality and Ecological Harmony
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Emerging Food Studies: Intersections of Culture, Science and Sustainability (ICEFS 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 473
EP  - 492
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-583-6_39
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-583-6_39
ID  - Shivani2026
ER  -