Japanese Mothers and Obentōs
The Lunch-Box as Ideological State Apparatus
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20055026 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Anne Allison (0000-0001-8626-9550, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Pages | 48-66 |
| Publication date | 2018-12-07 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | CHAPTER |
| Venue | Food and Culture (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.4324/9781315680347-5 |
| OpenAlex | W4255112330 |
| ISBN | 9781315680347 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
Japanese nursery school children, going off to school for the first time, carry with them a boxed lunch prepared by their mothers at home. Food in an obento is an everyday practice of Japanese life. This chapter argues that the obento is invested with a gendered state ideology. It describes how food is coded as a cultural and aesthetic apparatus in Japan, and what authority the state holds over schools in Japanese society. The chapter examines the practice both of making and eating obento within the context of one nursery school in Tokyo. As anthropologists have long understood, not only are the worlds we inhabit symbolically constructed, but also the constructions of our cultural symbols are endowed with, or have the potential for, power. The obento message is that the world is constructed very precisely and that the role of any single Japanese in that world must be carried out with the same degree of precision
Algorithm · Ideology · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Computer Science · Japanese History and Culture · Law
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,31 |
| Citation span | 2013 - 2024 (12) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |