‘Mɔn’ (to marry/to cook): negotiating becoming a wife and woman in the kitchens of a northern Ghanaian Konkomba community

dc.contributor.authorHanrahan, Kelsey B.
dc.contributor.departmentTowson University. Department of Geography & Environmental Planningen_US
dc.date.accessioned2024-05-03T21:12:32Z
dc.date.available2024-05-03T21:12:32Z
dc.date.issued2015-01
dc.description.abstractIn this article, I consider the kitchen as domestic space that is at once gendered and gendering in its construction and use by women as they negotiate their social position across the life course. Deeply rooted patriarchal values structure Konkomba society in northern Ghana, and a woman’s role is to be a wife, to prepare food in support of her husband’s family and community. Although the normative definition of woman’s role in society stems from a clear-cut division of labor between women and men, a woman must negotiate her social position and ability to fulfill these labor obligations; she becomes a woman and wife by working to gain access to and control over resources and labor. I explore the shifting dynamics of women’s work and social position across the life course, emphasizing the transition from young woman to woman-as-wife-as-cook in her husband’s community. These negotiations take place in the kitchen – a fiercely feminine space in which a woman becomes a wife when she earns the right to place hearth stones and prepare a ceremonial ‘first meal’ for her husband and his community.en_US
dc.description.urihttps://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2014.993360en_US
dc.format.extent17 pagesen_US
dc.genrejournal articlesen_US
dc.identifierdoi:10.13016/m299va-2fqh
dc.identifier.citationHanrahan, K. B. (2015). ‘Mɔn’ (To Marry/To Cook): Negotiating becoming a wife and woman in the kitchens of a northern Ghanaian Konkomba community. Gender, Place and Culture, 22(9), 1323-1339. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2014.993360en_US
dc.identifier.issn0966-369X
dc.identifier.urihttps://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2014.993360
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11603/33583
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherRoutledgeen_US
dc.relation.isAvailableAtTowson University
dc.relation.ispartofseriesGender, Place and Culture ; Volume 22; issue 9
dc.rightsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/*
dc.subjectDomestic space
dc.subjectKitchens
dc.subjectLife course and aging
dc.subjectMarriage
dc.subjectGender
dc.title‘Mɔn’ (to marry/to cook): negotiating becoming a wife and woman in the kitchens of a northern Ghanaian Konkomba communityen_US
dc.typeTexten_US
dcterms.creatorhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-7229-013Xen_US

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