This thesis addresses the relationship between the identity of Mormon women and the performance of domesticity through the analysis of recipes published in four magazines between 1870 and 1970. Through the quantitative and qualitative analysis of recipes published in the Woman’s Exponent, Young Woman’s Journal, Relief Society Magazine, and The Improvement Era, patterns in recipe type, ingredients, language, and publication emerged to prompt questions about the roles of specific themes and recipe types.
Beginning with the Retrenchment period in 1870, this thesis examines how Mormonism protected itself culturally through economic isolation by encouraging the preservation of food instead of purchasing similar products. In the 1890s the Young Woman’s Journal used bread recipes to teach young women and girls about the importance of self-sufficiency and simplicity in a time of great cultural change and turmoil within the Mormon community.
Twentieth-century Mormon women continued to use recipes as a method of identity expression and cultural change as they sought to gain respectability by assimilating into mainstream American culture. The domestic science movement heavily influenced the recipes written by Mormon women at this time as they sought to retain the domestic practices of their past by becoming model homemakers. During both World Wars, Mormon women proved themselves champions of American causes through strict adherence to rationing efforts. Mid-century Mormon women continued to use recipes to prove their belonging not only to American womanhood but also to Mormon womanhood as they focused their energy on homemaking and mothering both as a patriotic duty and a religious experience.
The study and analysis of the recipes published by and for Mormon women during this time shows that Mormon women used their performance of domesticity to express their identity as belonging to Mormon womanhood through the specific requirements of Table Retrenchment, even as those requirements changed over time.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/47987 |
| Date | January 2023 |
| Creators | McFadden, Haley |
| Publisher | Boston University |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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