Table 3 Constraints and drivers that influence snail local practices
Element | Snails as food | Hygiene | |
|---|---|---|---|
Competence | What competence influences practice? How do people get this knowledge? | What do participants know about hygiene when handling and eating snails? How do people learn? | |
Participants’ evidence | Hc: “We have been eating since we were small, so it is but normal, we just know that you want to pick you just go there” [pointing at the back of her house] Hc: It is but obvious, we are growing in a society where we eat snails, we have been eating since we were small, [..], so it is not like there is a particular skill that we have been taught, no, we just know [..]” Sv: “I think for those who have never seen how they are washing it anywhere, they don’t need any expert [..] but if you are somebody who have seen where they are washing, just follow what the people do, [..] no you don’t need any training Researcher: ‘If you are teaching your daughter to do what you do, what would you teach her?’ Sc: “I will ask her to go out, look for cold or hidden places, under the grasses where there is no or less sunlight, she will find snails” | Hc: “We don’t really pay much attention to hygienic conditions, besides when you go and pick in very rotten things, [..] people [snail collectors] go to the bush, excrete there and keep it for snails to come and they will pick in the evening, it is funny, but it is the truth” Sc: “To protect yourself from food poisoning, snails need to be washed thoroughly, [..] some people hurry [..] take your time and make something good, for yourself and family” Hc: “For many years, since they gave birth to me, my mother showed me how to wash and how to cook snails to eat in the house” Hc: “You can learn from anyone who does it. I was not trained in a school. She just needs to watch from beginning to end” | |
Summary finding | Competence is ‘inborn’, ‘from childhood’, that is, ‘the way of seeing things being done and imitate’. It is locally acquired through family and community. | Hygiene is each household ‘state of cleanliness’. It is based on ‘this is the way I was taught’. For instance, washing and cooking involve inherited visual and verbal ‘instructions’ initiated from one generation to the next. Preventing diseases or staying healthy depends on washing and cooking practices | |
Materials | How do materials influence the picking, handling, and consumption of snails? | What technologies and methods influence how people practice hygiene when handling or consuming snails? | |
Participants’ evidence | Sc: “we use very good and shining torches to pick snails; places are very dark, if you do not use a torch that the light is good, you will not see snails” Sv: “…I think it is a nasty method, imagine taking this grinding stone, [..] the one we use to grind pepper, you make crack, those shape particles [snail shells] are piercing your hand and the meat” Researcher: do you know the time and temperature you cook your snail meat? Hc: ‘I do not have a thermometer, when I see it ready, I will know by looking at it, [..] you do not need to look at the time as well, a change in colour is enough’ | Hc: “[..], in moist areas, around the pit toilet, I will send her [her daughter] there to go and pick it [snails]” Hc: “It [snails] is too slimy, so you must wash it outside because you have to throw the slime” Two street vendors mentioned they will prepare on three-stone fires because ‘firewood is cheaper than gas’, and some home consumers preferred firewood due to cultural upbringing | |
Summary finding | Materials reflect participants’ ‘inborn’ experiences, parentage and ‘state of poverty’. For example, picking at night with torches, transporting live snails in old bags and buckets, pulling snail meat with stainless-steel table forks or ‘pins’ or cracking snail shells with stones, cooking by visual observation. | Handpicking involves poor or uncontrolled hygiene. Live snails are physically dirty, ‘unhygienic’ containing soil debris, food wastes. Local practices are constrained by the very simple technologies available. For instance, selling live snails in old bags/buckets, washing in two silvery or plastic basins on the veranda, cooking on three-stone fires in front or behind the house and hawking in loosely closed plastic buckets. | |
Meaning | What meaning influences people to handle and eat snails? | What do people believe about hygiene in relation to snails? | |
Participants’ evidence | Hc: “…. yes, it is really delicious when you prepare it and if you know how to prepare it, so it is something that we love eating, so we like to pick and cook it” Se: “snails are nutritive[..]contains calcium, give us blood” | Hc: “I have never thought of that [hygiene] because even the ones that we buy from the market, hmm at times we do not even know where they pick them, so when you pick there [pointing at a pit latrine], it is not actually the excreta but the meat you are picking, so it is good” Sc: “You must pay attention to the sticky liquid, [..] you need courage to touch snails as it irritates many people” Epidemiologist: “…. once you expose yourself to a dirty environment, like picking from unhygienic conditions means they [Sc, Hc, Ms] are already exposing themselves to diseases” | |
Summary finding | Snails support family, it is a source of nutrition and a food choice. Two vendors mentioned: ‘we need money’, ‘it is a moneymaking activity’. | Although eating snail meat is delightful, snail picking to cooking are ‘unpleasant’ and ‘nasty’ activities. For instance, most participants expressed ‘hmm’ when snail picking and washing were mentioned | |