Food and Identity in New Zealand: the Cross-Generational Transmission of Cultural and Gender Identity through Food

Abstract

This thesis examines the previously under-explored area of the intersection of individuals’ cultural and gender identity in relation to food within the framework of New Zealand food culture. The analysis focuses upon how the cross-generational transmission of food culture has occurred within Pakeha families in New Zealand, and how the process has affected gendered identities. The study was based on analyses of in-depth interviews and reminiscences provided by 15 individual respondents from six families about their food preferences and practices. This interview data was summarised and organised into six family case histories. Also in analysing New Zealand cookbooks, the thesis considers social changes related to the changing meaning of food and cooking in association with individuals’ gender roles. Particular attention was paid to the ‘de-gendering’ of cooking. If men are cooking more nowadays than in the past, do they invest this activity with different social meanings from women? If women spend less time on food preparation than in the past, do they depend more on convenience foods? This thesis investigates how such changes interact with the cultural and social significance of food and cooking.