Defining relationships through foodways: the Corbit household of Cantwell's Bridge, Delaware, 1802-1810
Date
2000
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Early American material culture studies have tended to focus on objects related to food production and consumption, rather than on food itself. But unlike objects that were owned or used by some people and not others, food was and is part of everyone’s daily lives. As such, it is a key to the intricate daily operations and relationships that were necessary to keep early American households running. The primary goal of this thesis is to demonstrate how the unique properties of food enable it to provide a broader window into early American culture than other, less ubiquitous objects. More specifically, this project illustrates food’s powerful access to daily life by examining how the Corbit household of Cantwell’s Bridge, Delaware, used their food to communicate and reaffirm household roles and relationships between 1802 and 1810. ☐ During this time their household, as defined here, included members of the Corbit family, both parents and children, as well as their many servants. Section two, after the introduction, identifies the identity of each household member and the most significant aspects o f his or her role in the household’s foodways. Sections three and four trace how Corbit household members manipulated the ingredients of a mincemeat pie through their social and spatial systems from the moment they entered Corbit hands to the moment they appeared on the table as a singe prepared dish. By documenting who obtained and processed these ingredients, where he or she went, and who he or she contacted in doing so, it is possible to document specific patterns in the Corbits’ food-related behavior. As the product o f this meaningful process, the mincemeat pie becomes a symbolic object: each Corbit embedded the meaning behind his or her food-related actions into the pie itself, and as the embodiment of this meaning, the pie communicated it back to other household members. ☐ This thesis finds that the mincemeat pie symbolically embodies and communicates information about four main aspects of the Corbit household: division of labor, use of space, relationships with other households, and members’ differing social and spatial spheres based on gender and position in the household’s hierarchy.