1st Edition

Food and Gender Identity and Power

Edited By Carole M. Counihan, Steven L. Kaplan Copyright 1998
    178 Pages
    by Routledge

    178 Pages
    by Routledge

    This volume examines, among other things, the significance of food-centered activities to gender relations and the construction of gendered identities across cultures. It considers how each gender's relationship to food may facilitate mutual respect or produce gender hierarchy. This relationship is considered through two central questions: How does control of food production, distribution, and consumption contribute to men's and women's power and social position? and How does food symbolically connote maleness and femaleness and establish the social value of men and women? Other issues discussed include men's and women's attitudes towards their bodies and the legitimacy of their appetites.

    Introduction to the Series, Acknowledgments, 1 Introduction—Food and Gender: Identity and Power, 2 Food and Sexual Identity Among the Culina Donald K.Pollock, 3 “Men Are Taro” (They Cannot Be Rice): Political Aspects of Food Choices in Wamira, Papua New Guinea Miriam Kahn, 4 Hospitality, Women, and the Efficacy of Beer Kathryn S.March, 5 Feeding Their Faith: Recipe Knowledge Among Thai Buddhist Women Penny Van Esterik, 6 An Anthropological View of Western Women’s Prodigious Fasting Carole M.Counihan, 7 Women as Gatekeepers Alex McIntosh and Mary Zey, 8 What Does It Mean To Be Fat, Thin, and Female in the United States? Carole M.Counihan, About the Contributors, Index

    Biography

    Millersville University, Millersville, Pennsylvania, USA. Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA.