Summary of Introduction: Feeding an Identity - Gender, Food, and Survival

Norma Baumel Joseph’s piece: Feeding an Identity - Gender, Food, and Survival, focuses on exposing the relationship between Jewish food, religion, and the identity of women throughout history. Joseph argues that food holds anthropologic value because we as humans have to eat; therefore, the changing of foods can reveal historical and identity-related importance. He explains how “food is a preservation of tradition” (8) and how “eating enables simultaneous participation in the past and present” (8), to set up his challenge about why “kitchen Judaism” (8) is frowned upon if food is so central to the human experience. By portraying the importance of food and kitchen life, Joseph argues that the lives of women in the kitchen, commonly unnoticed, deserves recognition, not just through their work but also through their identities. He says that in the “Jewish realm,” women were thought of in small roles, “barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen” (11). Now, their roles are beginning to be unearthed. He cites evidence from different researchers about the cultural, ethnic, and religious ties between food and women, ultimately claiming that “ethnic identity is intimately tied to food habits - and this it he realm of women’s control, productivity and creativity” (12). In other words, Joseph claims “the power of women has often derived from the power of food” (11). He concludes that food is indeed a connecting piece between “all aspects of the human existence” and that the power of women, who are involved with “preparing and serving” food is an important topic for future discussion.