The Stove, the Dough Bowl, and the Samovar: Symbols of a Housewife’s Status in Traditional Karelian Culture

Abstract

Since the early twentieth century, anthropologists have been including issues related to food into their scholarly scope (B. Malinowski, E. Evans-Pritchard, C. Lévi-Strauss, etc.). Food-culture studies (or culinary culture) examine the production, distribution, consumption, and ingredients of food products and analyse elements of culture related to food. One of the directions of food-culture studies is the gender approach, which considers subordination in female communities and ethno-social factors. The article’s aim is to study the attributes of the bol’shukha’s power (Rus. большуха) in Karelian peasant culture between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which was part of everyday practices and played a symbolic role in the in-group stratification of the female community. The author studies attributes connected with the “culinary” topic, i. e. the stove, the dough bowl, and the samovar, referring to testimonies of contemporaries published in the press. She also uses archival documents, the materials of ethnographic expeditions, and linguistic data (dialectal speech and dictionaries). The Russian history of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was characterised by the preservation of certain elements of the rural population’s traditional lifestyle while it was being modernised in the course of reforms. For the purposes of the article, the author adds the samovar to the traditional symbols of a housewife (the stove and the dough bowl) as it had become widespread by the late nineteenth century and was placed on the women’s side of the table in Karelian households. Having certain household objects demonstrated a woman’s status in the in-group hierarchy. The research focus chosen by the author is relevant for cultural anthropology and women’s studies, helping us form an idea of how women organised and realised hierarchy within their communities. The gender approach adds to our knowledge about the social practices and life experience of women’s communities and takes into account factors of ethnicity.