Women eat, mothers cook: motherhood and cooking practices in Western Brazilian Amazon

Abstract

This paper describes and discusses how motherhood is practiced and represented in women’s domestic cooking practices in Western Brazilian Amazon. A descriptive and qualitative study was conducted with 16 women cooks using in-depth interviews. Data were analyzed by identifying the regular, expressive and significant units of significance. These women, when childless, cooked to meet their individual needs and out-of-home work schedules. During pregnancy, but specially after birth, women modify their cooking practices, appropriating the preconceived hegemonic ideas on what it means to be a mother, focused on homemaking and greater investment of time and effort. Such changes reinforce the belief that mother-child relations should involve intensive motherhood.