A microethnographic and ethnobotanical approach to Llayta 1 consumption among the Andes feeding practices 2 3

Llayta is a dietary supplement used by rural communities in Perú and northern Chile 11 since pre-Columbian days. Llayta is the biomass of colonies of a Nostoc cyanobacterium grown in 12 wetlands of the Andean highlands, harvested, sun-dried and sold as an ingredient for human 13 consumption. The biomass has a substantial content of essential amino acids (58% of total amino 14 acids) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (33% total fatty acids). This ancestral practice is being loss 15 and the causes were investigated by an ethnographic approach to register the social representations 16 of Llayta, to document how this Andean feeding practice is perceived and how much the 17 community knows about Llayta. Only 37% of the participants (mostly adults) have had a direct 18 experience with Llayta; other participants (mostly children) did not have any knowledge about it. 19 These social responses reflect anthropological and cultural tensions associated to lack of 20 knowledge on Andean algae, sites where to find Llayta, where it is commercialized, how it is 21 cooked and on its nutritional benefits. The loss of this ancestral feeding practice, mostly on 22 northern Chile, is probably associated to cultural changes, migration of the rural communities, and 23 a very limited access to the available information. We propose that Llayta consumption can be 24 revitalized by developing appropriate educational strategies and investigating potential new food 25 derivatives based on the biomass from the isolated Llayta cyanobacterium. 26


Introduction
Members of microalgae and cyanobacteria genera (i.e., Chlorella, Dunaliella, Arthrospira and Nostoc) have been part of the human diet in North and South America, Asia and Africa, based on their nutritional and digestive benefits.Also, some of them are natural resources from which a variety of organic molecules can obtained, with high interest to the biotechnological industry (proteins, amino acids, vitamins, poliinsaturated fatty acids, pigments [1][2][3][4]. The high levels of desiccation and ultraviolet light irradiation severely limit the abundance and diversity of organisms at the Atacama Desert [5,6].In contrast, biodiversity increases near and at the Andes Mountains highlands, from where Andean plants have been obtained and used historically by local communities for feeding, foraging and ethnomedicine [7][8][9][10].In this context, Llayta is an indigenous foodstuff consumed by rural Andean communities in a practice that can be traced back to pre-Columbian times and still used today as a food additive at Arica y Parinacota and Tarapacá Regions in northern Chile, and at Tacna City in southern Peru (Figure 1) [7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Llayta is the dry biomass of colonies of a cyanobacterium of the genus Nostoc, and information on its isolation, taxonomy and biochemical composition is available (Figure 2) [4,13].
The Nostoc colonies are harvested manually, sun-dried, and sold at food markets in Tacna, Peru, and Arica and Iquique, Chile (Figure 1) and used as an ingredient in local dishes [4,13].Our preliminary information indicated that this ancient culinary legacy is disappearing or it is already unknown by the urban communities from other areas of the region, especially among children; for example, at Antofagasta, the major coastal city in northern Chile, nearly 400 km south of Iquique (Figure 1).This apparent loss may be explained by considering the impact of new technologies on rural life, cultural changes and migration of young Atacameños people from rural regions into urban centers, as described for the Aymara people in northern Chile [14,15].Thus, efforts to recover such old and nutritional food resource is in line with the worldwide need and search of new foodstuff, considering the increased demand for health foods, hunger in the underdeveloped world, low food production and the anthropogenic impact on environmental changes (global climatology, desertification, loss in biodiversity and degradation of ecosystems); in this context, FAO has projected an increase of 5% on the prevalence of undernourishment on South America [16].
Considering the biochemical information available on Llayta, we have conducted a complementary microethnographic study in order to learn how much people know about Llayta and about their perception on this ancestral Andean ingredient.
Ethnographic registries allow the collection of evidence and social representations from people on a particular subject; in turn, social representations can be considered appropriate approaches to discover what people think, believes, and know about their surroundings [17].They also provide the opportunity to understand the interactions between how people see and fit in their particular interpretations of realities [18].Thus, the knowledge people may have on a particular natural situation is a good example where social representations can be collected and interpreted from social and cultural perspectives [19].Also, descriptions and references from participants are essential on the fields of representation for an event of ethnographic interest [20].
The ethnographic registry for the Llayta feeding practice can be supported by anthropological, socio-cultural and nutritional referents [21].The first two referents would provide information on the meaning(s) of the term Llayta, the identification of sites where Llayta grows naturally, and where it is commercialized and consumed.This information should provide descriptions of their representations and evidence of direct or indirect knowledge about Llayta.The ethnographic goal for this study was to document the anthropological and cultural tensions found in these social representations and relate them to the knowledge the communities have of Andean algae and how they are valued.We propose that this approach will help us to begin to understand why Llayta has been consumed for centuries without untoward effects on human health, to suggest explanations for an apparent decrease in Llayta consumption, and to provide arguments and suggestions for the revitalization of this feeding practice.

The ethnographic study
The Theory of Social Representations and the construction of social worlds was the framework for the collected information, using heuristic criteria that support the subjectivity of participants [22], with respect to the type of knowledge and the social representations they have about Llayta.

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The microethnographic study on Llayta collected social representations from interviewing participants and also drawings prepared by children.The main expressions about Llayta provided by participants were ethnographically registered and analyzed in order to explain the social worlds built by persons about their understanding of the surrounding natural, social and cultural environment [23].Llayta pertinence and context were described, Llayta social representations were documented and direct or indirect knowledge on Llayta was analyzed from the social representations.

The sample for the ethnographic study
Observations were carried out during the first half of 2014, with participants from Putre (Chile) and Tacna City (Peru) (Figure 1).Putre is a rural village in northern Chile and near sites where Llayta grows and it is harvested.The participants selected were active members of their community, they were previously informed about our study and invited to participate anonymously in the interviews.The participants were 12 children (seven boys and 5 girls) and 7 middle age adults (four males and three females).In addition to an adult woman and a professional cook, twelve fourth-grade students (9-10 years old) and three teachers (two males and one female) were interviewed at a school in Putre.In Tacna, Peru, two salespersons at the food market were also included as participants in this study.The interviews and observations were conducted at sites normally used by the participants (street, market place, school, and hotel).

The vocable Llayta: alternative names and their meaning.
Llayta is the Aymara name that refers to colonies of a cyanobacterium that grows in the Andes highlands and is consumed by rural and urban communities in South America (Figure 2).
Alternative names for Llayta can be found in several languages: Spanish, Quechua, Kunza and Mapudungun (Table 1).The variety of names for the vocable Llayta stresses the cultural and anthropological diversity of representations associated with this feeding practice.(Name given in Ollagüe to the cyanobacterium Nostoc, possibly due to its edibility). [9]

How much people know about Llayta?
All participants were interviewed to assess the type and level of knowledge they have on Llayta.Table 2 provides extracts of the answers given by 10 participants (7 adults and 3 students).
Only 8 of the 19 participants had some perception about Llayta; the others (58%) lack any knowledge about it.The extracts in Table 2 corroborate that 7 participants have had personal experience of Llayta, i.e., direct knowledge with the colonies.Only one teacher expressed indirect knowledge about Llayta since the information was second-hand (Table 2).Compared with adult participants, the oral expression of knowledge used by the fourth-grade students from Putre to refer to Llayta were few or absent.When asked to draw an image of Llayta, 11 out of 12 students were willing to participate and their drawings were far from a correct depiction of the colonies (Figure 3).As an exception, one student emphasized that his mother used to cook Llayta and her drawing was the closest image to it (drawing K in Figure 3).Another student said: "no, yo no" (No, I do not [know Llayta]).A third student asked: "¿Esa es la Llayta?(Is this Llayta?),referring to a drawing made by another student.Table 2 and Figure 3 are compilations of the representations of Llayta obtained.
(Llayta is from up there; Llayta is at Parinacota; Llayta is eaten…, nice as a second dish…, it is cooked…, it is like meat…, it is prepared as meat…, I cook it here as picante. I do not know what it is used for over there; in Parinacota there is a river where it grows).
(Llayta is from here too.Llayta is used in picante.I have only eaten it; I do not know the effects on me; people right here prepares a lot of picante with meat and Llayta.There are some ponds, in Casqueña, in Tacna and up here in Caquena).
(No! Llayta is added at the picante dishes…, it is a moss brought from Caquena; it is a moss similar to cochayuyo -marine macroalga, it is the same one that is sold at the food market).
(Mm! I do, since my mother cooks it.At Caquena…).

INDIRECT KNOWLEDGE:
Teacher 2 at school in Putre, Chile.
(Eh…, I have not seen it, but I have been told that Llayta is at the pond, but I have not seen it.At Caquena, in Tacna and up here in Caquena).

Fields of representations for Llayta
Table 2 shows the extracts from the ethnographic registries.These are the descriptions and references that sustain the field of representation of Llayta for 7 adult participants, which can be organized in the following 3 semantic fields:
"It is a moss brought from Caquena"; "it is a moss similar to cochayuyo [seaweed], it is the same that is sold at the market", "This is national"; "Llayta is a kind of marine alga; from fresh water and also from the sea".
"It is brought from Sucuro"; "from Sucuro, back there"; "from Puno, up there"; "this is from a river"; "at Parinacota, there is a river where it blooms"; "Llayta is from here too"; "it is from ponds, at Caquena, in Tacna, and up here in Caquena"; "from highlands, at Puno, Juliaca, wetlands, this is at the highlands, it grows in freshwater rivers, well, here at the border with Peru, Visviri, where it also grows; "Llayta, it is up there, up high"; "Llayta is at Parinacota, for sure"; "Llayta is from here too"; "at Caquena"; "Eh…, I have not seen it but I was told that over there at the pond, there is Llayta, but I have not seen it"; "at Caquena".
"For making picante dish"; "yes, picante dish is good, they eat it"; "Peruvian people eat Llayta and cochayuyo"; "Llayta is for consumption…, so you cook it…, it is like meat…; like meat, like picante I cook it here"; "Llayta is used for picante"; "I have eat it but I do not know how to prepare it"; "it is brought here, it is dried and it is sold dry to restaurants"; "it is soaked before cooking"; "yes I know it, my mother cooks it.

361Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Drawing prepared by 11 fourth-grade students at a school in Putre, Chile, who were asked to portray Llayta.Descriptions given by each student were A: a yellow flower; B: a rose; C: a flower; D: a red and green flower; E: a tree; F: a tree; G: a pine; H: a tree; I: a flowering cactus; J: a cactus with flower; K: a cactus.

Table 1 .
The Llayta vocable: alternative names, their ethnic origins and meaning.

preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 30 October 2018 doi:10.20944/preprints201810.0702.v1
Peer-reviewed version available at Foods 2018, 7, 202; doi:10.3390/foods7120202especial.Se lava y se seca".(Aquaticcyanobacterium from Chela wetland.It is used as food, in soups with potatoes.It was mentioned that there is an edible one which is special.It is washed and dried).

Table 2 .
Transcripts of interviews conducted to adult and students participants about their "Ahí huapé súcuros; de Súcuro se trae; de súcuro de ahí al fondo pues; ahí arriba de Puno.Otros caballeros traen y ahí compramos; para picante.Si, picante prepara rico ahí comen".(There,huapé súcuros; it is brought from Sucuro; down there; there, above Puno.Other people bring it and we buy it to make "picante" -a local dish; yes, a tasty picante is Preprints (www.

preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 30 October 2018 doi:10.20944/preprints201810.0702.v1
Esta es nacional; ésta la traen de Camaná.Esta es de río muestra -y muestra Llayta-, es más rica y esa es de mar -muestra cochayuyo; a tres soles.Esto jefe chángalo, muélelo, jugo".(This is peruvian; it is brought from Camaná.This from a river, it is better and this one is from the sea; it is worth three peruvian new sols.Cut it and grind it for juice, boss).
"(We eat it for consumption, eh!; Llayta is a kind of marine alga; it is from freshwater and also marine.They bring it, dry it and sell it dried; They soak it before cooking.Peruvians eat Llayta and cochayuyo.From the highlands, from Puno, from Juliaca, from wetlands, which are in the highlands, in fresh water rivers, it grows around; right here, at the three parties' border, it also grows at Visviri).