Who Owns Bogurar Doi? An Ethnography of Placemaking and Craftsmanship in Bangladesh

Abstract

Through an ethnography of Bogurar doi, a sweetened fermented milk dessert distinctive to the northern region of Bangladesh, I propose to explore the politics of naming of a food item linked to a place, especially in a geography that has witnessed three historic redrawings of borders, forced migration, and the changing form of labor involved in doi-making. Instead of the narratives of continuity of craft traditions, I trace three significant “movements” (West 2022) that are integral to Bogurar doi: (1) a history of “local” breeds of cows is produced by confluences (Banerjee-Dube 2016), thereby challenging notions of territoriality and taste-making (Leong-Salobir, Ray, and Rohel 2016); (2) a history of labor integral to doi-making, that of Goalas/Ghoshs, evident in the fictional representation of undivided Bengal and legends associated with Bogurar doi; and (3) everyday narratives of “repetition” (Sennett 2008) that is inherent to bodily labor performed on milk to create this microbial product. These three movements show how placemaking evolves at the cusp of ecology and changing forms of caste and labor associated with the milk trade. Taken together, these three movements challenge the mythic notion of continuity and provide a much-needed reading of ruptures and a processual reading of decolonization of placemaking in food traditions.