The Ritual of the Rosquete

An Anthropological Study of the Socio-Gastronomic Transformation in a Family from La Palma

Abstract

This article analyzes the Ritual del Rosquete, a family pastry-making practice celebrated during Holy Week in Los Llanos de Aridane (La Palma Island), with the aim of understanding its symbolic dimension. The study is based on the hypothesis that the preparation of rosquetes, far from being a mere culinary activity, constitutes a domestic ritual in which memory, gender, past and present intertwine, with transformation, negotiation, and conflict serving as sources of dynamic contribution. The research is grounded in an ethnographic approach based on two field visits (2021 and 2022) that combined participant observation, open interviews,
and symbolic analysis. The results reveal intergenerational tensions between preservation and innovation, demonstrating that domestic rituals persist as spaces of cultural resistance and affective memory within insular family dynamics.