Female Identity, Food, and Power in Contemporary Florence Author(S): Carole M

Home , Food power, Vanna

Female Identity, Food, and Power in Contemporary Florence Author(s): Carole M. Counihan Source: Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 61, No. 2 (Apr., 1988), pp. 51-62 Published by: The George Washington University Institute for Ethnographic Research Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3317156 . Accessed: 03/05/2011 04:26

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http://www.jstor.org FEMALE IDENTITY, FOOD, AND POWER IN CONTEMPORARY FLORENCE

CAROLE M. COUNIHAN Millersville University

Life histories from contemporary Florentine women reveal that their identity andpower have traditionally been attained and manifested through control overfood provisioning. Further- more, theirability to manipulate the symbolic content offood has enabled them to influence the behavior and values of theirfamilies. Recent changes in Italian society and economy have brought new role expectationsfor women. They now try to remain theprincipal administrators of home andfamily at the same time they holdfull-time wage-laborjobs. Because oftime and identity conflicts, they can perform neither well. While they are glimpsing the possibility of publicpolitical and economicpower, they are losing their traditional domestic influence over family and children. [women, food, power, Italy, identity]

Introduction and Zanuso 1980), statistics show that women suffer significantlyhigher unemployment than men--17.1% This article examines how the vast changes in Italian vs. 6.8% (ISTAT 1985: 228). In addition, women society since World War II have affected the identity earn less than men (Saraceno 1984: 15) and wield far and power of urban women. Modern Italy has wit- less political power (Anzalone 1982). Women at the nessed an exodus fromthe countrysideand an increase same time suffer a strong and debilitating identity in urban living. There has been a concomitant decline conflict because of the unresolved contradiction be- in subsistence peasant farming and small-scale artis- tween their public and domestic roles. They consider anry, and a rise of capitalist economic activity relying both roles essential to their self-esteem and self- on wage labor in industry, commerce, construction, fulfillment today, and yet cannot materially perform and tourism. The standardof living has risen, marked both roles effectively. Hence they suffer frustration by increasing wealth and consumerism. Material and self-doubt I will describe here their changing well-being has extended across the populationthrough economic and social position by focusing on altera- the rise of the welfare state with vast sums of money tions in their relationshipto food-provisioningand on pumped into free national health care, retirementand their own words that express the resulting identity disability pensions, unemployment compensation, conflict and civil service (Sgritta 1983). These economic I analyze the position of women from the point of processes have brought about social and cultural view of power because in stratifiedsocieties positions changes in men's and women's personal lives-in of dominance and subordination affect every aspect their values, goals, sex roles, self-definition, and of life chances--physical health, mental health, life relationships to each other (Balbo 1976). expectancy, marital happiness, wealth, political in- Urban Italian women, like many others in the fluence, criminaljustice, and so on (Eitzen 1985). A urban industrial West, are undergoing a transition in central concern in contemporary anthropology is to their status and power relative to men. They are chal- explain the universal asymmetry of power between lenging the dominance of men over women inherentin men and women (Rosaldo 1974; Sacks 1979; Hrdy the traditionaldivision of labor where men control the 1981; Sanday 1981; Atkinson 1982). While most public, political, wage-labor sphere and women the anthropologists acknowledge that in no societies do domestic sphere of reproduction and nurturance. women dominate men, there is considerable debate Today women are increasingly participating in wage over the differentpowers wielded by men and women, work and gaining access to exchange values so impor- their extent, the conditions under which they flourish tant to status and self-definitionin modem consumerist or change, and their impact on the quality of social Italy (Barrile and Zanuso 1980; Saraceno 1984). At life. Furthermore, in modern industrial democracies the same time they are gradually exerting political like Italy there is growing agitation that women be influence and altering the organization of society to guaranteed social equality with men (Chiavola Birn- facilitate male and female equality (Veauvy 1983; baum 1986). There is concern over whether recent Saraceno Yet 1984). they are still subordinate in the changes in Italian society like the rise of the wage- public political and economic sphere. Although offi- labor economy, the increased tutelage by the state of cial data are blind to much of women's employment traditionally domestic concerns like health and child- due to its semi-legal status (Balbo 1976: 66; Barrile care, and changes in residence and family structure 51 52 ANTHROPOLOGICAL QUARTERL Y

have improved the position of women. describe their experiences and present their own interpretation of the meaning and effect of those The Florentine Women experiences, thus enrichingour understandingof how statistical trends are played out in people's daily lives. My data came from 15 Florentine women of one Then I will draw conclusions about the general signifi- extended family whom I have known for 15 years and cance of changes in Florentine women's identity and with whom I conducted directed life history inter- power. views during the summers of 1982 and 1984 (see I selected my informants through personal ties. Figure 1). My informants have lived through the They vary in age, occupation, residence, and family socioeconomic changes described above. I will composition.I Older informants were born into in the Fig. 1, Life Synopsis of Informants in 1984 peasant and artisan families, some countryside Name Age Residence Situation around Florence. They moved to the city in later Marta 22 Florence temporarilyemployed in cer- years and participatedin wage-laborjobs in industry, amics factory,engaged and civil service. All have achieved a (marriedMarch 1986) commerce, Cinzia 26 Scandicci sales clerk in COOP super- much higher level of material well-being than they (Florence) market,recently marriedto knew as girls. Women of the younger generationhave technician(had baby dental1986) grown up in urban areas with more education than Vanna 50 Florence marriedhousewife, runs house- their parents, aspiring to paid jobs and suffering the - holdwith her parents, chronic- disappointments of Italy's high unemployment rate, allyill husbandand son in public housingin Florence, gar- especially for youth in search of their firstjobs (Balbo mentworker before marriage 1976). Many informantstoday benefitfrom the welfare Bruna 76 Florence married,living with married state; some live in have had civil daughter,retired, moved from public housing, countryside to Florence at service jobs, or have earned disability and retirement middleage andwith husband pensions or maternityleave. I believe that my inform- had flower shop near Ponte Vecchio(died 1985) ants are representativeof modern urbanmiddle-class t Loretta 48 Empoli garmentworker, married, lives Italian women, both in the characteristics and ideas (Florence) withhusband and two children in the of them. intown 35 kmsfrom Florence they share, and range diversity among Paola 20 Empoli secretaryin plasticsfirm, en- The lives of the older women differ significantly from (Florence) gaged,lives withparents and those of their daughters and granddaughters; the brother changesand their reflections on them are a commentary Gloria 17 U.S.A. highschool student, lives with suburbparentsand sister in Boston on the alterations in Italian society. Sandy 14 U.S.A. juniorhigh school student, Women, Food, and Power lives with parentsand sister in Bostonsuburb In all kinds of societies- foragingbands, horticultural and emigratedto U.S. at age 21, U.S. citizen,just received tribes, peasant villages, and industrialcities-women M.A.in internationalrelations, have always had primaryresponsibility for preparing school teacher formerlyhigh food and giving it to others (D'Andrade 1974: 18). L Elda 66 Florence housewife,recently widowed, workedin family bakeryin Particularly in preindustrial societies, women con- Florenceuntil age 46 tributeheavily to producing,processing, and distribu- Tina 64 Florence housewife,lives with retired food as well. The predominantrole of women in husband, worked in family ting bakeryin Florence before feeding is a cultural universal, a major component of marriage female identity, and an important source of female Sandra 41 Monte Oriolo housewife,lives with factory connections to and influence over others. (Florence) owner husbandand two Hence, daughters,worked as gym althoughthere are other componentsof female identity teacherbefore marriage and other sources of their authority, the power of Elena - 14 Monte Oriolo student in middle school in [ jFlorence suburb women is to a great extent the power of food. Olivia 12 Monte Oriolo studentin privatemiddle I am concerned here with two kinds of power. The school in Florence first, coercion, is attained through control of might Maria Luisa 61 Florence retired clerk for city of Flor- and essential resources which can be denied to others. ence, recently married for time at age 57 This is the power of provincial Italian prefects who r• - = sisters mothers& daughters S. sfirst can raise the price of bread and of the U. govern- (Florence) meansn= in the provinceof Florence ment that sends food to the Nicaraguan contras but FEMALEIDENTITY, FOOD, AND POWER 53 deniedit to Chileansafter Allende's election (Burbach torians,psychologists, and sociologists.The people and Flynn 1980: 70). The second formof poweris of Kalaunacall it "theworst disease" (Young 1986) influence.It accruesnot through force and the ability and enact ritualsto curbappetite so food will rot in to deny but throughgiving, through the obligations abundancerather than lack when needed. The volun- createdby giving,and through the influencewielded tarily self-starvedvictims of anorexianervosa see in the act of giving.This is the powerMauss (1967) hungeras a "dictator"and manifest an obsession with describedin his masterpieceThe gift. It is the power foodsimilar to the behaviorof starvingWorld War II of thetribal big man who distributes enormous piles of prisoners(Bruch 1978: 8). Culturesacross the globe yamsat feastsand "leads because the peoplewish to enactrituals to wardoff hungerby propitiatingfertil- be led";and it is the powerof womenwho feed, who ity and limitingappetites (Malinowski 1961: 169; satisfy hunger,who are viscerallyneeded, and who Holmberg1969: 240; Young 1986). Over and over influenceothers through manipulation of the symbolic againpeople in thegrip of hungerhave broken normal languageof food. rulesof socialorganization as witnessedin theanomie Truecoercion is typicalof class societieswhere of the famine-struckIk (Turnbull1972) and the resourcesare concentratedin the handsof the few popularriots for food endemic in history.The screams who are usuallymale. The powerof the gift, on the of the hungryinfant appear to expressboth terror and other hand, predominatesin egalitariansocieties pain; they are passionateand disturbing,designed where women's relativelyhigh status comes from throughmillennia of evolutionto bringfood immedi- theirfull participation in the givingthat createsobli- ately.The lactatingmother has thepower to feed and gationsand their controlof a particularlypowerful' calm her infant,and this is the powerof life itself. channel,food (see Brown 1975). Interestingly,al- Becausefood is such a grippingneed day in and thoughcontrol of foodcan be the strongestweapon of day out, it takes on additionalsocial and symbolic coercion, for women it is not. In no cultureis it significance(Counihan 1981, 1984). It is a powerful acceptablefor women to deny foodto theirfamilies, channelfor communication and a meansto establish whereas it is acceptable for politicians--mostly connection,create obligations, and exert influence. male-to denyfood to entirepopulations for political Sardiniansand manyother peoples give food to the ends(Lappe and Collins 1978). Likewomen in strati- dead in returnfor peacefulcoexistence in separate fiedsocieties, individuals and groups in tribalsocieties spheres(Counihan 1981: 276-79). The Maorireturn do not permitgroups to starveothers as a path to a portionof huntedbirds to theforest spirits to extract power,rather they achievepower by shamingother futureabundance (Sahlins 1972: 158). Florentines, groupswith their magnanimity (Young 197 1); foodis Sardinians,and many other peoples welcome strangers a specialsubstance that follows exceptionally strong withfood anddrink, thereby obliging amity in return rulesof sharingand generosity(Sahlins 1972: 215- (Counihan1981: 292; Mauss 1967). Womenevery- 19). Similarly,it would be unthinkablefor Italian where, like my Florentine informants,feed their womento starvehusbands and children to forcethem husbandsand children in returnfor love, favors,good to do certain things. Rather, individualsin tribal behavior,and the power that comes from being needed. societies and womenin stratifiedsocieties have the Because food is so essential and so frequently culturallysanctioned ability to manipulatethe giving used to affirmconnection, it takes on rich symbolic of food and thus to attaininfluence rather than co- meaning.In addition,the particularcharacteristics of ercion.Women in stratified,market-oriented, agro- food give it semantic wealth, something noted industrialsocieties like Italy and the United States famouslyby Levi-Strauss (1966, 1969),Mary Douglas are often defined as subordinateto men because, (1966, 1974), RolandBarthes (1975), andothers. In althoughthey control feeding, as a groupthey lack the transformingfood from raw nature to edibleproduct, coerciveability to withholdgrain shipments or control humans convey messages by manipulatingfood cornfutures. Gender equality involves, then, an effort combinations,cooking mode, color, texture,taste, by womento gainpublic political and economic power, and form(Verdier 1969), as the unleavenedbread, and with it the ability not just to influencebut to bitter herbs, eggs, and wine in the Passovermeal coerce as well. convey"the miraculous deliverance of theJews from Control of alimentationis a source of power bondagein Egypt"(Feeley-Harnik 1981: 124). The becausefood is a very specialsubstance. It satisfies symbolic power of food enables prohibitionsand themost basic, compelling, continuous, and agonizing taboosto signifysocial boundaries(Douglas 1974), humanneed. It satisfieshunger. The terrorof hunger religiousintegrity (Douglas 1966), status(Bennett et has been well documentedby anthropologists,his- al 1942: 655), andgender differences (Meigs 1985). 54 ANTHROPOLOGICALQUARTERL Y

Feeding can symbolize fosterage, adoption, father- and values deemed right andjust by society-at-large. hood (Young 1971: 40), and family (Mead 1935). She controls the symbolic language of food, deter- Voraciousness symbolizes the untamed or untamable mining what her dishes and meals will say about animality struggling against social control which herself, her family, and the world (Quaggiotto 1987). parents enforce by teaching table manners (Freud Through her role in food provisioning, a woman can 1946). Food refusal connotes rejection of social administera significantportion of the budget, particu- mores and control as exemplifiedin anorexianervosa, larly in Italy where an average of over one-third of in political hunger strikes, and in obstinate children family income goes for food (L'industria alimentare everywhere (Bruch 1973). 1978: 59). Although the anthropologicalliterature on Thus women's daily control of food preparation Italy regularly describes women's food production and presentation gives them much influence. To be and provisioning activities, no studies focus directly sure in many societies men dominate ceremonial food on food habits to reveal the full extent of women's offerings, as male priests consecrate the host and offer position, power, and identity, nor do they examine the it to communicants, as fathers orchestrate the Seder conflict between women's domestic and public roles meal, and as male chefs abound in haute cuisine, but in the urban setting (see Cornelisen 1969; Chapman day afterday the predominantagent of food provision- 1971; Davis 1973; Silverman 1975; Schneider and ing is female. Caroline Bynum (1986) has shown how Schneider 1976; Teti 1976; Belmonte 1979; Coppi medieval female saints, often in a lay context, used and Fineschi 1980; Falassi 1980; Feletti and Pasi food to express their piety, convert others, work 1981; Pitkin 1985). miracles, and challenge institutionalizedmale clerical I document in detail here my informants'descrip- authority. Giving food to a great extent defines the tions of the significance of food in their self-concept nature and extent of female power. and relationships. It is I, not they, who conclude that It is a power largely exercised over family mem- feeding brings them influence, for I believe that this bers and only occasionally beyond to members of the fact is so fundamentalas to go unrecognizedby them. wider society. Giving food connects women to close They cling to their food provisioning as part of their relatives through an extremely intense emotional very selves, but at the same time seekjobs and salaries channel; women become identified with the food they which grantthe power of economic autonomy and an offer. Anna Freud (1946) has discussed the psycho- additional component of identity, that of remunerated logical significance of the feeding relationship be- worker in the public world. tween mother and child. A common theme in the enormous literature on eating disorders (Counihan Florentine Female Identity and Power 1985) is how a girl's voluntary self-starvation is a reflection of her ambivalent relationship with her The Florentine woman is born into a world which mother (see, for example, Bruch 1973, 1978)2. defines the traditional constituents of femininity as Scholars of Italy (for example, Belmonte 1979; family, nurturance, and altruism. Through providing Parsons 1969; Saunders 1981; Silverman 1975) have food, Florentine women sustain life in others and give describedthe importanceof mothers and the influence their own lives meaning. Perhaps the quintessential they gain through nurturance. Belmonte (1979: 89) form of nurturingfor these women is breastfeeding. defines the poor Neapolitan family as "mother- The child is absolutely dependent and the mother is centered" and argues that the mother "is at the center totally nurturingwith food she produces in her own because she controls and distributes the twin sources body. Vanna said that while nursing,"It seemed as if I of human vitality, food and love." Donald Pitkin was giving life again to my children." Elda said, (1985: 214) has written about Southern Italians: It seemed such a beautiful thing to me that I never would have First from breast and then from and stove has come fireplace stopped. .. because in that moment my baby belonged com- an often but flow of food. . . -a constant meager increasing pletely to me. In that moment she was really all mine. And I reminder that it is the mother alone who the most gratifies reflected, I said to myself, "Look, the baby is growingbecause need. Oral is but one aspect of a much primitive dependency I'm giving her my milk, because I'm giving her life, I'm giving but its in survival and larger configuration, primacy psychic her nourishment." And it seemed such a beautiful thing that I ensures to she who satisfies it, for in fed well-being power being never would have stopped. both husband and children are subordinate to her. The mother determines when, what, and how much All the women approve of breastfeeding in general, family members will eat. She controls the social and the younger ones intend to practice it when they mores of the table, which are a microcosmof behaviors have children. All my informants felt that a woman FEMALEIDENTITY, FOOD, AND POWER 55 should breastfeed if she could, and sharply criticized and Elda did. The latter's husband "at the end of the women who decided not to breastfeedso as to preserve month brought me his paycheck and then I adminis- their figures.3 They implied that a woman should tered the whole thing myself. All of it." Overseers and sacrifice herself-her looks, her physical well-being, administratorsof the home, women have rarely been her time, or her convenience-for the benefit of nur- primary producers. turing her child. My informants share the employment patterns Preparingfood is a principalway in which Floren- discovered by Barile and Zanuso (1980) in their tine women relate to others and define themselves. As research on 2000 women in the Lombardy region. my informant Sandra said, "I'm a housewife. If I Subjects worked at low-paying jobs, interrupted don't know how to cook, what's left?" Their skill as employment for marriageand child-rearing,and often good cooks is acclaimed and appreciated by family worked at home or in the unofficial "black economy" and friends. Vanna said how much she enjoyed "the withoutrights to pensions andunemployment compen- satisfaction of seeing that you make something that sation. All of my female informants worked before the others like, something that turns out well." And marriageat wage-earningjobs. All of the older women Elda explained that before her husband died and her except Elda quittheirjobs at marriage;she continued, daughter left for America, but worked in her parents' bakery attached to her home so she was able to watch over her baby daughter. Cooking was the greatest satisfaction that I had, because I And since her parents never paid her wages nor con- of loved to invent new dishes, to rework all the recipes the tributed in her name to a retirement fund, her work I knew how to and to make new I found things make, things. was like domestic oriented towards satisfaction for myself and for the family. Because I saw how labor, clearly much they appreciated me and all that I did. helping her family ratherthan to attaining economic independencefor herself. Vanna and Lorettadid piece Dedication to home and family has always been a work at home after marriage and Loretta returnedto fundamentalpart of Florentine womanhood. Gigliola, full time factory work when her children were grown the Florentine woman who emigrated to the U. S. at up. Gigliola worked full-time as a tour guide in Italy age 22, described the Italian woman thus, "I think but quit when she married and left for the U. S. She that all told the Italian woman wants to sistemarsi. attended college nights while her daughters were She wants to have a house to take care of; to have a young but only began teaching high school after her husband, and to have children, even while having children entered school. Maria Luisa is the only certain freedoms." The Italian woman is "dedicated woman who worked full-time for her entire adult life, to her family" and "without personal ambition... to at a civil service job for the city of Florence, but she reach an important position," said Gigliola. This didn't marry until she was 57 and retired soon there- picture is corroboratedby the statements and experi- after. The point is that for the married women born ences of my older informants, as well as by other before 1950 work was seen as an economic necessity sociological studies (Areni, Manetti and Tanucci and a contribution to the family budget, but not as a 1982; Pagliari 1982). personal necessity, not as essential to their identity as Like Barile and Zanuso's (1980) subjects, all of women (see also Balbo 1976). my mature female informants have run the house- Their identity has traditionallybeen based not on holds in which they have lived. Their duties are diverse satisfaction of their own needs, but on altruism and and many. Most importantly,they bear, give birthto, self-sacrifice (v. Pitkin 1985: 7). They believe that nurture, and raise children. As the primary social- they should struggleto prevent pain for others, even at izers, women develop strong emotional ties with and the cost of absorbing it themselves. So Vanna has profoundinfluence over their offspringlargely through withheld from her husband Bruno for years the news feeding. They gain a personal sense of worth that is that he has cancer, bearing the burden of constantly confirmed by the value Italian society places on cheering him up, caringfor him physically, and hiding children. In additionto raising children, women shop, her anxiety from him to spare him additional pain. cook, and clean up after meals. They dust, vacuum, She also said that having children involved "many, wash windows, wash floors, sweep, and straightenup many responsibilities. There are sacrifices. I do with- the house. They pick up, iron, fold, and put away the out a dress for myself, I do without eating a steak for family laundry.They mediate between diverse family myself, so as to be able to do something for my members, smoothing over quarrels, finding compro- children." Gigliola, not long after her mother was mises, and making peace. They administerpart of the widowed, defined the Italian woman's identity as household budget, and sometimes all of it, as Vanna being completely other-directed: "The woman who 56 ANTHROPOLOGICALQUAR TERL Y doesn't have anything to do for another person finds because she can not find employment in her field, herself dead and lost because she has nothingto do for doing ajob she loves. She chafes against the boredom anotherperson. And for herself she does nothing. For of ringingup prices and stocking shelves all day, but her whole life she does things for her husband." would ratherdo that than be without work (see Dalla Yet while not without sacrifice, the life of the Costa and Schenkel 1983). traditional woman who married and bore children The younger women clearly express their desire also has had rewards. She has felt secure in the knowl- for equality with men in both public and private edge of what her role was and in the certainty that she spheres, an equality that goes beyond the traditional could fulfill it. She has gained psychological affirma- complementarity of the sexes where women were tion and influence from the neediness and devotion of socially, politically, and economically subordinateto her dependent children and husband. She has had men (see Falassi 1980 and Silverman1975 fordescrip- power over how her children felt, thought, and acted, tions of male-female power relations in pre-modern for she has been theirprimary caretaker and socializer. Tuscany). Sandra, at age 40, manifests the conflict in In giving them food, she has given them her mores, evolving expectations. In describing the husband she values, and worldview. would like for her teen-age daughters,she said, "not a man who commands, but a man who converses with Contemporary Conflict his wife, asks her advice, and makes decisions together with her." For a woman "should be independent and Yet the women of today are living in a differentworld, should speak as an equal with a man, and also she and are subject to differentexpectations from society should be considered equal as well." Although in one and from themselves. Paola, Marta, and Cinzia, all in breath she says she is content to be exclusively a their 20s, are no longer content with a life of altruistic housewife, in the next she expresses her regret at not devotion to family cloistered in their homes. They having been able, due to her parents' objections, to want and need to work at paid jobs outside the home. follow her desired career in biology, and at having to They gain satisfaction from working, from the inde- ask her husbandfor money when she runsout. "Doing pendence, the money, the social contacts, and the this means I have to demean myself, and I don't like it. personal gratification. Paola, a secretary in a small So often I do without asking, I make do with what I plastics firm, expressed clearly her pleasure and ful- have." For her daughtersshe wants a differentmodel fillment at having a job. She also enjoyed having her of woman, own income and not having to ask her parents for money, and was pleased to be able to save so that a woman who has a certain intelligence, including a mental and also culture, so that she can live tranquilly some she and her fiance could a house, for independence, day buy and work tranquilly without having to subordinate herself to "without two salaries today, you just can't make it." her family. I'd really like my daughters to be women who Marta, sporadically employed in factory work and work. looking for a permanentjob, said, "A woman has to realize herself through work and family, but not only Yet the women who are strugglingto make it in the throughher family, also with her husband." Cinzia, a public world of work, to reconcile home, jobs, and clerk in a supermarketand marriedwithout children, family, are bitter that their desired equality does not expressed poignantly her desire to work, "A woman exist. Paola said, "Men just won't lower themselves has to have her independence, her own activity." She to do certain things. People talk about equality and continued: other things, but in my opinion, we have not even achieved a tiny bit." Cinzia, overburdened by long I work in part for economic satisfaction, in part also because I hours at work and the demands of running a house- I at it's can't stand to stay home. tried staying home; depressing, holdwith no fromher husband,a dentaltechnician, believe me. It's to cause a nervous breakdown. It's help enough laments that men no even in depressing for a young person to stay at home. What can you longer help ways they do, you always have to ask others for money.... I work for my used to, like moving heavy boxes at work. Nor do they independence, and also to round out our economic situation help at home. because, you know, expenses are many today. And I also do it the because it gives me more satisfaction. That is, work is only Women wanted equality between the sexes and they have lost recompense that there is to give you satisfaction; without it, out. Because, listen, equality of the sexes just does not exist. you'd shoot yourself. What is equality of the sexes? We see it at home, the men sitting arounddoing nothing as if they have too much else to do. Yet she also expresses bitterness at having ajob she finds hardly rewarding,with long hours and poor pay. Working women, like Cinzia, Marta, and Paola, Trained as a nursery school teacher, she is frustrated are torn by the demands of work and home on them. It FEMALEIDENTITY, FOOD, AND POWER 57 is worst for Cinzia, because she is also married.Paola separate, complementary competencies rather than and Marta are still living at home with their parents, overlapping ones. Hence women themselves actively and thus do not have responsibility for running an perpetuatemale domestic incompetence, both in their entire household. None of them yet has the children husbands and in their sons, to solidify their own she eventually desires. Having children can only importance and indispensability. Elda, over 60, ex- increasethe strainson them. Yet even withoutchildren plained how she would not let her husband help her they suffer the conflicts of trying to do it all, and bring wash in from her terrace in a rainstorm once, lament openly the fact that their fiances and brothers because do nothing at home and hence are much freer-both materially and psychologically-than they. They they could have seen him fromthe otherwindows, and I thought that it would look bad to have him that So as complain that the men do not see the dirt or the mess doing thing. you can understand,the bias against men doing these chores begins and that they just are not taught to pick things up. with women as well. They resent this psychological freedom of men from domestic duties and even the role of women recognize Youngerwomen may lament male domestic incompe- in male cannot perpetuating nonchalance, yet escape tence more vociferously than their elders, but they too their own domestic obsession. For their identity recognize the role of women in perpetuating that on care of the and depends taking good house; they incompetence. Paola laments, others judge them badly if they are slack in these chores. As Cinzia said, My brotherdoesn't lift a finger. He's worse than the majorityof men. He's been badly raised, perhaps by us [her mother and If the bed is unmade at 9 p.m.... be sure that it isn't a man who her] who are always picking up after him. Mom is always will notice it. The woman notices it, like my mother, or my ready, always behind him doing the smallest tasks that he could husband's mother. They criticize it to you, it's you who looks easily do himself. bad. Not him. That's why it bothers me, understand?And also, I sincerely don't like having the bed unmade, and after all, it's Cinzia, who works full-time and tries to run a house- nothing-it only takes five minutes. hold, most explicitly of all my informantsrecognizes her difficult situation but also appears most ambi- Here Cinzia expresses the dilemma. As a woman, she valent. Speaking of her husband, she says, has an image of herself as the perfect housewife. she knows it is to be that and a Although impossible He works all day. He arrives home. Honestly, what am I going working woman too, she cannot free herself of the to say to him, "Help me fry a minute steak?" No, if I were ideal she has grown up believing in. The same is true cooking great meals, I would say, "Give me a hand," but to ask of Gigliola, in spite of her 20 years' residence in the someone to help you make a minutesteak, well it seems absurd. It's the absurd. So I don't ask him to me United States, where definitions of women are more approaching help fry the steak. And then I'm the type who nobody satisfies the way I open and of housewife less demanding. "It's really I satisfy myself in doing the household chores. In fact, one time myself who have to overcome this traditionthat I have he washed the dishes, and afterwardsI went to check on what behind me, tryingto reconcile the role of mother, wife, he did, and he said, "That's it, I won't wash dishes for you any and woman who wants to live a life." And even when more." Because he said, "There's no way to satisfy you." I'm and he knows it. And he did a That a woman to some assistance from her very precise really good job. manages gain is, knowing me he tried to do his best, but he is just more husband in the home, she is not without ambivalence. imprecise by nature .... You understand, it's also habit for Loretta has a grueling full-time job sewing pieces men. They have been raised in a certain way. together in a factory, and her husband is retired. He shops for food and cooks their meals, though never The complicity of women in isolating men from washes dishes nor does any of the other household domestic chores is clear in Cinzia's remarks,yet so is chores. She is glad for the help, but at the same time her frustration.She clings to the chores herselfbecause says, doing them well is importantto her sense of self, and yet she cannot do them really well because she just You feel a little excluded, you know, not doing the shopping does not have time. and home and dinner. It's for convenience coming making only Thus contemporaryFlorentine women are caught that he does it. But for other reasons, I'd feel better doing it. .. Going shopping, doing it all yourself, you feel like more of a in a bind. They want to hold jobs and earn money, yet woman. they feel incomplete and incompetent unless they are also perfect housewives, brave massaie. Yet once Feeling like women also involves ensuring that married,it is just not possible to carryout both respon- their men act like men, and that women and men have sibilities well, especially given the perfectionism of 58 ANTHROPOLOGICAL QUAR TERL Y

Italian house-cleaning standards and eating habits, over food content and meaning (Counihan 1981, with a large multi-course meal at midday and an 1984; L'industria alimentare 1978). Prepared and almost equally large one in the evening. processed foods are increasingly available in super- In fact, young women in contemporaryFlorence mercati as well as in neighborhood stores. People are far less competent in food provisioning and have occasionally eat frozen and canned foods and dinners, far less control over the foods they eat than their like lasagne, fish sticks (bastoncini di pesce), and mothers. Cinzia's mother and Paola's paternalgrand- vegetable turnovers (sofficini). "Fast foods" are mother (and later her father) prepared all meals for increasinglyprevalent in urbancenters. Lunch breaks their families. The girls were totally freed of food- are shrinking to an hour from the traditional two or provisioningduties, something that was only possible three hours. People lack time to go home to complex due to their middle-class status, shared by an increas- meals and thus eat inpizzerie, spaghetterie,rosticcerie, ing number of Italian families during the 1960s and "snack bars," and "self-service" cafeterias, as well as '70s due to the Italian "economic miracle" (Balbo in more traditional ristoranti and trattorie. 1976: 66). Cinzia and Paola continued their studies Thus although most people still eat most of their past middle school to achieve vocational diplomas, meals cooked at home by close female relatives,eating Paola as a business secretary, Cinzia as a nursery is increasingly part of the money economy.4 It is thus school teacher. Right after graduatingthey began to less underthe strict control of women and of declining work. Hence neither has spent time around the home importance in constituting female identity. A roast or received any training in shopping and cooking. chicken bought from the corner rosticceria, a pizza at Paola said that she does not know one cut of meat the neighborhoodpizzeria, or cannelloni preparedby from another and would be helpless if she had to go the multinationalKraft corporation are neithershaped shopping. "I am the desperation of my father," she by women, nor representative of their creativity. said, when I asked her if she knew how to cook. "If I Women are not in charge of their symbolic content or were home alone, I would cook, but if I had to put meaning. Foods increasingly representnot the values myself to cooking out of pure desire, I'd never do it." of home, family, and women, but the values of And Cinzia said that she learned consumerism Women clearly feel ambivalence and conflict little about cooking in my mother's house, because when she about their declining role in food provisioning. They was I didn't like to watch she was to teach cooking, her; willing want to control their family's foods, but do not have me but I just wasn't interested. Anyways, I said I'd always have time to learn. time because they also want to work. Cooking is still essential to femininity, but today's working women can not achieve the standards of their mothers. But that time slipped away and today she admits that They end dissatisfiedand at war with insecure she does not even know how to make a pomarola up themselves, about this of their suffer sauce, the most basic tomato sauce for pasta and part femininity. They identity conflict and lack the of their more stews (see Appendix for recipe). "If my mother security mothers, able to fulfill the roles have internalized as doesn't give me some, I buy it ready made .... It's too they for themselves 1985: Yet on much work to make sauce for two people It's necessary (Pitkin 15). .... the other the definitive into the work easier to eat pasta with cream and ham." Here she hand, entry place of modem Florentine women introduces them to an indicates not only her lack of cooking knowledge, but economic their mothers never had. her lack of time, and the changes in diet that obtain as power Their new role Floren- a result-pasta with cream and ham is an entirely new expectations bringyoung tine women into conflict with their mothers. dish in the Tuscan food repertory(Cf. Codacci 1981 potential For to share the and Costantini 1976). example, daughtersappear unwilling total altruism of their mothers. As Cinzia Both Paola and Cinzia feel that they should know said, "It's not that life is like of how to cook; both admit that it is their responsibility just right this, sacrifice, always .. . You can't do because don't and know they can not expect their husbands to do it. working. anything, you have time to to that or eat Yet they just can not fit cooking into their lives. They permit yourself enjoy thing the other their mothers' lives are caught in a conflictto which, as Paola said, "It will thing." Simultaneously be difficult to find a solution." Furthermore, the call into question their own choices. Vanna thinks it industrial food economy has taken over many of the wonderful that her daughter Cinzia works full time, and meals for Cinzia and her food-processing chores that traditionally belonged to willingly prepares daily out to her the women, reducing the time necessary to put meals on husband, but she still points daughter unironed Cinzia the table but simultaneously limitingwomen's control unmade bed, or the piles of laundry. FEMALEIDENTITY, FOOD, AND POWER 59 feels her mother's disapproval at the same time as she and the difficulty of findinghousing). Thus the mother is proud to be able to give her mother groceries and who works outside the home has less influence on her occasionally money, something made possible by the children's lives, and they are less dependent on her. fact that she works. Although the money in this case is Cinzia expressedthe dismay of women in this situation part of a reciprocal exchange, use of money in this by referring to her sister-in-law whose only child way is still rare among Florentines. They regularly spent weekdays from 7 a. m. to 7 p. m. with his exchange gifts, but rarely use money in exchanges grandmother. When asked if she was going to have other than market transactions, recognizing that it anotherchild, the sister-in-law responded," Chi me lo belongs to a separate sphere. Similarly, while Floren- fafare?" "Why in the world would I do it?" she said, tine women are increasingly likely to buy processed "So I could leave him with my mother all day?" foods for themselves or their families, they consider Commenting on the professionalization of childcare these inappropriatefor guests, reflecting their aware- through the expansion of day-care centers in Italy, ness that these processed foods are stripped of Saraceno (1984: 18-19) says that mothers have "lost domestic value and meaning. their monopoly not only on responsibility but also on Florentine girls remain close to their mothers all control and power in defining and satisfying their their lives and identify closely with them. Yet the children'sneeds." This loss attacksthe Italianmother's inevitable identity conflict young girls suffer due to sense of self, for she believes that her children should theirdifferent choices may lead to psychological stress be dependent on her and that she should do everything on them similarto what has been observedin American for them. girls who reject their mothers' choices and opt for different lives and self-images (Chodorow 1974). Conclusion At the same time, contemporaryworking Floren- tine mothers lose input into the socialization of their Florentinewomen are respondingto changes in Italian own children. The full-time housewife has enormous society and economy by entering the work force. influence over her offspring, for she is with them They are still subordinatethere to men in pay, access constantly. She exercises her influencelargely through to jobs, and status. Yet their very position as workers food, and often she encourages them with the words, brings them some status, potential equality with men, "Mangia che l'ha fatto mamma [Eat, for Mother and the abilityto earn and dispose of theirown money, made it]." Italianmothers regularly weigh their infants something of increasing importance to their sense of before and after nursingto make sure they have eaten self and their independence. enough, somethingU. S. mothersrarely do. Silverman However, their new role with its possibility of (1975: 188) reports this practice in rural Tuscany in economic power brings them conflict and a loss of 1961 and says that "most mothers take inordinate their traditional influence. They are at odds, either pride in weight gains. .. ." The ingestion of food is in explicitly or implicitly, with their mothers over the my opinion a metaphorand vehicle for the ingestion of differentideal of female behavior that they personify. parental-particularly maternal-culture. But food They lose some control and socializing power over produced by multinational corporations much less their children. Their inability to fulfill both traditional directly embodies parentalvalues than food produced and new role expectations causes them to suffer frus- in the home. tration and self-dissatisfaction amounting to psycho- Children are supposed to accept their parents' logical confusion and insecurity. habits, opinions, values, and power along with their The difficultposition of women can only change if food. Working women who give up much of their food society changes. Alterations in the organization of provisioningresponsibilities lose this influence. Their meals and standardsof cleanliness would allow women children are largely raised by others, sometimes by more slack in the performanceof these duties. Greater day-care centers, often by grandmothers,eating their expectations for male participationin domestic chores food and internalizingtheir values. To be sure, in the would relieve women of having to bear the exclusive Tuscan extended families of the past (Silverman burden in this domain. Yet among my informants, 1975; Pitkin 1985: 10-13) mothers might share child- there is little evidence that these things are happening rearing with other adults, but all belonged to one or that either men or women are working to make family and household where the mothers' influence them happen. So far young women do not seem to be predominated. But today in urban Florence the other raising their sons in ways that are substantially diff- adults raising children generally belong to other erent from how their mothers raised their brothers. nuclear families and live far away (due to neolocality Although my young informants decry the lack of 60 ANTHROPOLOGICALQUARTERLY domestic help they attainfrom brothers and husbands, what is not an easy situation and continue to rely on they do not seem psychologically preparedto ask for the inner resources that have sustained them for more from their own sons, though this remains to be generations. seen. Florentine women and many others like them in Italians could agitate politically for more public cities around the globe are making gradual and in- assistance to reduce the burden on women. During complete inroads into the spheres of political and the 1960s and '70s there was progress in this regard, economic power traditionally controlled by men for example universalmandatory paid maternityleave, which govern the affairs of millions in the modern but the governmenteconomic crisis of the late 1970s world. But because of the demands of salaried work, has led to halts and cutbacks (Sgritta 1983; Saraceno women are contributingincreasingly less to the care 1984). Day-care centers have proliferatedthough, as and feeding of relatives and children. Thus they are Saraceno (1984) notes, the staff is always female, losing an importantsource of their traditionalprestige reflecting Italian society's continuing attribution of and influence and arejoining a world where coercion nurturingactivities to women. Women could renounce predominates as a means of getting people to act in wage workand devote themselves entirelyto the home. desired ways at the expense of the gentler means of However, the strength of the feminist movement and influence and obligation. Women are losing the the increasingly consumerist orientation of Italian manipulative power of food and perhaps the world is society mandate against the likelihood of this happen- losing it as well. ing. In the meantime, Florentine women struggle in

NOTES

of informants Acknowledgments I am grateful to the Florentine men and women power and autonomy (Palazzoli 1963). None my who who spent long hours over the course of many years informing me showed any signs of anorexia nervosa, and few knew anyone did. about their lives. I am also grateful to Jim Taggart who has patiently Nevertheless the existence of the disorderin Italy supportsmy claims of and influence and supportivelyread and commentedon several draftsof this article, aboutwomen's loss of theirtraditional source identity other sources of to the anonymous reviewers, and to Millersville University and through feeding and its lack of replacement with Stockton State College for financial assistance. power and prestige. In such a context, some women seek the limited and self-destructive form of self-denial and 1 A lacuna in my sample is the absence of young, radical, power represented by self-control. Counihan 1985 for a discussion of issues university-educatedwomen. The political strugglesof "sessant'otto" (See general involved in disorders and a review of the literature). (1968) and beyond produced a strong streak of radical, leftist femin- eating partial it is ism in many young Italian women. However, none of my informants 3 Breastfeeding does not ruin a woman's figure although it was "coming of age" in the late 60s and early 70s, and none of the interestingthat Florentine women think it does and favor anyway. to can younger cohort attended the university where they would have been Because of the calories needed make milk, breastfeeding help breasts come not from exposed to more explicitly feminist ideals. It remains to be seen to women lose weight after pregnancy. Sagging what extent feminists are turning their ideals into changed child- nursing but from failure to wear a support bra (Boston Women's rearing practices and significantly altered social policy. Health Book Collective 1984: 400). 2 4 on the role of in Although beyond the scope of this article, anorexia nervosa See Mintz 1985, especially chapter 5, sugar marketand its effects does occur in Italy, predominately among upper-middle and upper the development of the world food consumption class urban teen-age girls who manifest some of the same issues on social life in the U. S. involved in the disorder in the U. S., including the girl's struggle for FEMALEIDENTITY, FOOD, AND POWER 61

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APPENDIX: POMAROLARECIPE

The following recipe for pomarola sauce (Tuscan tomato sauce) was given to me by Vanna Pezzatini Tozzi on July 5, 1982.

Ingredients: 4-5 fresh tomatoes few leaves basil 1 stalk celery I medium onion 1 carrot small bunch of parsley 2 T olive oil 2 cloves garlic (optional) salt pinch of hot pepper pepper (optional)

Make a battuto (finely chopped mass) using the Tuscan cooking, like all cooking, is ultimately idio- mezzaluna (the half-moon-shaped knife with two syncratic, so there is apt to be slight variation in how handles) of the onion, carrot, celery, basil and parsley different women make a pomarola sauce. But the (with the garlic and hot pepper if you desire; Vanna essential ingredients are the "odori" (the seasoning uses garlic and onion together only in a meat sauce herbs consisting of basil, parsley, carrots, celery, and and most of my informantsagreed with this practice). sometimes onion), olive oil, and tomatoes. One can Saute'them lightly in the olive oil for a few minutes then add a variety of other ingredients to this until soft Add the fresh tomatoes and cook briefly pomarola sauce to make different pasta recipes, e.g. until the whole mass forms a sauce. Pass through a garlic, hot pepper, bacon, meat, sausage, sardines, food mill. Add salt and pepper to taste. and so on.