Exploration of the representation of a traditional beverage among rural and urban populations through a structural approach

Mexico offers a wide variety of traditional fermented beverages. Among these is tejuino , which holds potential as a probiotic drink due to its unique composition. However, despite this and its cultural value, its social representation has not been fully addressed, i.e., how the population defines it. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the social representation in rural and urban populations by means of a structural approach. To this end, five hundred people from rural and urban regions in western Mexico were interviewed (250 participants in each zone). A Word Association Test was conducted using tejuino as a textual stimulus; words were ranked according to their significance, and the polarity index of each word was calculated. Words were classified into 14 semantic categories. However, nine were retained because they had a mention rate of more than 2%. The most frequently mentioned words were retained based on their average importance. The findings show that there were significant differences between semantic categories in each area. In addition, each area has a different representation structure. The core of the urban representation is more rigid compared to that of the rural area. Likewise, a significant correlation was observed between sociodemographic variables and consumption habits, as well as the most frequently mentioned words. The study confirms that the effect of place of residence on representation is modulated by the interaction of sociodemographic variables.