ABSTRACT
Apart from the actual bearing and suckling of children, there is probably no act which better epitomizes the maternal role than the preparation and serving of food. In performing the familiar rites of chopping and peeling, mixing and tending, and in setting before an anticipant family the pleasing results of her efforts, the mother can feel herself at one with a tradition that extends back into prehistory and that links mothers of families in every comer of the world, whether they cook in leaves, clay pots or toughened glass, by means of open fires, brick ovens or electric grills. From its very universality in time and space, the offering of food thus comes to symbolize the nurturing function of motherhood in a way which is not true of other household duties such as bed-making, dusting or washing-up; indeed, if we may accept the findings of motivational research carried out for the purpose of more effective advertising, the woman who lays upon the table a home-baked cake symbolically presents the family with a new baby. 1
