IT\u27S REALLY TOMATO SAUCE BUT WE CALL IT GRAVY : A STUDY OF FOOD AND WOMEN\u27S WORK AMONG ITALIAN-AMERICAN FAMILIES

The purpose of this study was to understand how members of a culture create and express meaning through the manipulation of their food system, and further to understand the significance of these particular meanings in the context of an entire sociocultural system. In this case, the study focused on food and eating among families in two Italian-American communities: a large, northeastern urban community and suburban Maryton, Pennsylvania. In this cultural context the problems posed by studies of ethnicity, food, and boundaries were probed and analyzed. In the literature the relationship between food and ethnicity has been assumed. Food is viewed as a cultural trait which reflects the acculturation process, and is one of the last to be shed in the process of cultural change. In their own terms, though, Italian-Americans use food as an eloquent form for marking among their multiple social identities, Italian and American. Since food and cooking are, in this culture, a woman\u27s domain, this study is also an account of women\u27s work. For them, food is a powerful mode of expression. The research strategy combined interviewing and participant observation in a two-part ethnographic study. Over two hundred fifty families were interviewed and four families contributed to the participant observation phase of the fieldwork. Several theoretical perspectives were used in the analysis of the data which resulted in narrative descriptions of daily life based on the women\u27s own accounts of their activities, a description of the social organization of domestic labor, the presentation of native categories of food and events, the structure and timing of social life which precipitates the transformation of mundane events into celebrations, and an interpretation of two sets of occasions which show how meaning is created in particular situations. The results of the study show that though food may and indeed does point to ethnic identification, it is simply one of several identities and relationships which are marked through the use of food. Further, this study suggests that women\u27s work, which has been overlooked and trivialized, is the essence of the composition of everyday life

IT\u27S REALLY TOMATO SAUCE BUT WE CALL IT GRAVY : A STUDY OF FOOD AND WOMEN\u27S WORK AMONG ITALIAN-AMERICAN FAMILIES

The purpose of this study was to understand how members of a culture create and express meaning through the manipulation of their food system, and further to understand the significance of these particular meanings in the context of an entire sociocultural system. In this case, the study focused on food and eating among families in two Italian-American communities: a large, northeastern urban community and suburban Maryton, Pennsylvania. In this cultural context the problems posed by studies of ethnicity, food, and boundaries were probed and analyzed. In the literature the relationship between food and ethnicity has been assumed. Food is viewed as a cultural trait which reflects the acculturation process, and is one of the last to be shed in the process of cultural change. In their own terms, though, Italian-Americans use food as an eloquent form for marking among their multiple social identities, Italian and American. Since food and cooking are, in this culture, a woman\u27s domain, this study is also an account of women\u27s work. For them, food is a powerful mode of expression. The research strategy combined interviewing and participant observation in a two-part ethnographic study. Over two hundred fifty families were interviewed and four families contributed to the participant observation phase of the fieldwork. Several theoretical perspectives were used in the analysis of the data which resulted in narrative descriptions of daily life based on the women\u27s own accounts of their activities, a description of the social organization of domestic labor, the presentation of native categories of food and events, the structure and timing of social life which precipitates the transformation of mundane events into celebrations, and an interpretation of two sets of occasions which show how meaning is created in particular situations. The results of the study show that though food may and indeed does point to ethnic identification, it is simply one of several identities and relationships which are marked through the use of food. Further, this study suggests that women\u27s work, which has been overlooked and trivialized, is the essence of the composition of everyday life