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Book chapter | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Food and differential roles in the Fetiehab household |
Author: | Bedri, Balghis Yousif |
Book title: | The Sudanese woman |
Year: | 1987 |
Pages: | 67-91 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Sudan |
Subjects: | gender relations women food |
Abstract: | Fetiehab is a suburb to the south of Omdurman town (Sudan), officially known as Diem Abu Seed, popularly called after the Fetiehab tribe which is numerically dominant. Based on fieldwork amongst the Fetiehab in 1972, the author looks at how food, raw and cooked, symbolizes social relationships between Fetiehab household members. Emphasis is on the husband/wife relationship and the part played by food in expressing, defining and moulding it. In a society which sees man mainly as the earner-provider and woman as the cook-nurturer, food preparation and consumption are symbolic of expressing the expectations and fulfilment of these role obligations. Food is also a means of expressing contrasting styles of behaviour classified as masculine and feminine and of creating opposing associations of mainly men or women. While outwardly subordinate, women in fact have a range of strategies which they can operate to their advantage. Thus a wife manipulates certain social situations (pregnancy, delivery, mourning) to gain money, food, cloth, perfumes, prestige or simply better treatment from her husband, and these strategies are used by women in most aspects of their social communication with men. Notes, ref. |