Summary

Food is a bridge between all the crucial aspects of human development.  From life to death, to politics and society, our eating habits, food preferences, and preparations, provide more insight into our human existence and evolution than any other artifact. In “Introduction: Feeding an Identity-Gender, Food, and Survival.",  Norma Baumel Joseph presents these basic ideas about food and its importance. She accomplishes an efficient argument by discussing the role of food in Judaism as her primary example, while also studying and comparing its impact on women’s role in society.

Many scholars have investigated the role of food in social, political, and religious interactions. In many of the written historical content regarding gastronomy, most is directed toward the way people ate, and what they ate, but not so much on the community formed around these meals, and the hands that prepared them.

In Judaism, food plays a central role in their rituals and Holidays. Their religious text specifies laws and instructions regarding the preparation of these special meals, and their ceremonies, but never in the silent protagonists of all these dishes: the women. By studying the Jewish tradition, scholars can create a pretty accurate picture of a woman’s role in this community.

Women’s domestic role has always been a very controversial topic and was neither mentioned by the general public nor the feminist crowd in the past. However, the most recent studies in this field are focused on showing all aspects of woman’s lives. Food is so much more than a simple means for driving our bodies; it is part of our most sophisticated interactions, as Norma Baumel Joseph said "we meet food as the vehicle of memory, of commonality and difference, and of women central contributions.”, it is an essential part of who we are as a society.

Works Cited

Joseph, Norma Baumel. "Introduction: Feeding an Identity-Gender, Food, and Survival." Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues 5 (2002): 7-13. Web.

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