Autism spectrum disorder identification using machine learning models on MRI data.

Food practices provide an important lens through which relationships between human societies and their environments can be understood. In many indigenous communities, food is not only a source of subsistence but also a medium through which cultural identity, ecological knowledge, and ritual beliefs are expressed. Festivals centred on food play a particularly significant role in this process because they bring together ritual, agriculture, and community participation. Through these events, food becomes more than nourishment; it acquires symbolic meanings that reflect social values, environmental ethics, and collective memory. With this backdrop, in the present ethnographic work, we explore the celebratory aspect of foodways, shedding light on how festivals attribute meanings and on how foods not only feed humans but also shape their cultural settings, identities, and moments of leisure. Scholars have noted that these practices express a deep sense of environmental interdependence and reinforce communal ties to land and resources []. Food-centred festivals therefore function as cultural spaces where ecological knowledge is transmitted across generations and where communities reaffirm their connections with the natural world. In central India, groups like Baiga, Gond, Bhil, and others maintain strong relationships with their surrounding landscapes, which include forests, rivers, and mountains. These landscapes are not perceived merely as physical environments but as culturally meaningful spaces inhabited by ancestral spirits and protective deities. Ritual practices, myths, and oral traditions of these tribal groups frequently reflect this close relationship with nature [, , , ]. Agricultural activities, forest gathering, and seasonal celebrations are therefore embedded within broader systems of ecological knowledge and spiritual belief. Here, the festivals that largely deal with foodways are particularly important as they all include social connectedness, ancestral honouring and environmental sustainability. These celebrations typically involve ritual offerings of locally cultivated grains, forest produce, and seasonal foods. They mark important agricultural transitions while simultaneously reinforcing community solidarity and ancestral remembrance [, , , ]. Through these practices, food becomes a symbolic medium through which relationships between humans, nature, and the spiritual realm are expressed.