Technology for Anthropological Research. Feedelio: An Application for Food and Nutrition Studies

Abstract

Food has a social and cultural sense that surpasses dietary rationality and visions focused exclusively on caloric values. Anthropology has developed an entire field of study focused on analyzing all that underlies the forms of eating and food in different cultures and societies. This space has not escaped, in recent years, the use of technology to facilitate the work of anthropological fieldwork. The aim of this text is to set the context and lines of development in which we have designed an application in order to provide fundamental support when making ethnographies of food. It is an application for smartphone developed on the Android platform and optimized to work in versions equal or superior to API 22, with a compatibility with 80.2% of Android devices. It compiles different tools, such as the recording of interviews or the collection of surveys 24 h Menu Recall, which try to facilitate the collection and organization of materials in the field. The application can be adapted to different scenarios and research contexts.