„Nicely served food“: The Housewife as Hostess in Icelandic Cookbooks, 1800-1975.

Cookbooks represent interesting sources on lifestyles. While they have hitherto mostly been utilised for studies of food culture and consumption, they are increasingly being investigated to study the role of the housewife and how it has developed historically and geographically. The idea has been voiced that whereas society allowed women to write and publish cookbooks, other writings by them met with disapproval. The reason for the exception was that cookbooks were felt to belong above all to the private sphere, i.e. the home. Furthermore, they were usually compiled by women who were connected to home economics schools or schools for women, and were aimed at housewives. Cookbook authors in Iceland generally had some connection to Denmark, came from the higher echelons of society and emphasised bourgeois customs, so that their cookbooks now serve as intriguing research material on the social and cultural shaping of the role of housewife. This article concentrates on the housewife’s functions as a hostess, including serving, table manners, decorations and, last but not least, her social duties. The materials studied were Icelandic cookbooks published between 1800 and 1975, with Pierre Bourdieu’s theories on the four types of capital serving as a basis for analysis. The purpose was to reveal how a housewife could increase her capital, i.e. raise the value of her work, by utilising cookbook instructions. As Bourdieu notes, capital only has value if it is socially accepted, and the role of hostess gave the housewife an ideal opportunity to demonstrate her capital. The first Icelandic cookbook was published in 1800 and was intended for upper-class housewives; in contrast, the last one studied, published in 1975, focused on everyday circumstances and family togetherness at mealtimes. The job of the hostess – to show good taste and etiquette — had yielded to the role of mother. In this way, the cookbooks of the period reflect trends in the social status of women. It is maintained that women who were versed in the latest bourgeois manners, as well as traditional Icelandic dishes and customs, were supported by their cultural and social capital in writing books which instructed other women on proper behaviour. Cookbook authors thereby established and maintained their own position in society, as well as managing to a large degree to control what was considered good taste for Icelandic housewives. The housewife reader, on the other hand, was able to follow these instructions in order to augment her own capital and even the reputation of her household.