This essay draws from my ethnographic fieldwork in Northeast India and examines how identities are mediated through fermented food like bamboo shoot. These shoots come in different textures and forms: wet chunky pieces, sun-dried and stringy threads, smoked and curly strands. Our relationship with fermented food, as this essay highlights, determine how we organize, move, and order our lives, contributing to the creation of differences and alliances. At a time when we witness a global movement on fermenting cultures and the microbial world, this essay locates small-scale nonindustrial fermentation practices among communities across Northeast India. Exploring the significant role of food in shaping taste, practices, and politics on the ground, I show how fermenting cultures shape citizenship practices and identities. By highlighting narratives and representations of fermented food, this essay brings the extraordinarily varied and dense worlds of fermenting cultures and highlights the associative relationship between fermented food and communities.

中文翻译：

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我们血液中的竹笋

这篇文章取材于我在印度东北部的民族志田野调查，并考察了身份是如何通过竹笋等发酵食品来调节的。这些芽有不同的质地和形式：湿的粗块、晒干的细丝、烟熏和卷曲的线。正如本文所强调的，我们与发酵食品的关系决定了我们如何组织、移动和安排我们的生活，从而促成差异和联盟的产生。在我们目睹发酵文化和微生物世界的全球运动之际，本文定位了印度东北部社区中的小规模非工业发酵实践。探索食物在塑造品味、实践和实地政治方面的重要作用，我展示了发酵的文化如何塑造公民实践和身份。