<論文>栄養をめぐる知とジェンダー : 栄養学の誕生と〈母〉の創出

Abstract

This paper offers a feminist critique of nutritional sciences in the early twentieth century Japan, by focusing upon its constructive force of creating a new gender image, that is, the 'nurturing mother'. At the turn of the century, when Japan was experiencing a radical social transformation into a centralized government, a new way of representing people's dietary practices emerged. It was the nutritional approach towards food, which was first adopted by the Meiji government in 1882. This approach became institutionalized and popularized during the Taisho era. What characterized this new science were discourses upon women. I have examined some of these discourses and pointed out the ways in which this new gender image of women was articulated. Firstly, women's role became clearly distinguished from that of male nutritionists, who were positioned to give advice to these women. Women were asked to be attentive to what nutritionists teach and to contrive a more efficient way of preparing foods. Secondly, women were supposed to show certain toughness within the household. It was said that Japanese women's traditional gender role (to be always obedient and faithful to the 'head' of the family under the patriarchal system) was no longer appropriate to the coming new age and that women have to be more active and responsible in the household management And thirdly, further moral value was attributed to women's everyday practices of cooking within the household. Importantly, this feminized form of toughness and attentiveness has played a majour role in the above-stated centralization process during the Taisho era. With this attentive and active mother(s) at the center, people gathered around the table. It therefore enhanced the privatization process of the family and satisfied the political requirement of the time. In addition to that, languages used to describe the body of a mother were very similar to that of 'nutrition'. Her body was depicted as a material, nutritional, altruistic and self-sacrificing one, whose main concern was not the maintenance of her own life but of the others. Without the materiality of this body, without this 'place' of construction, any construction would not have been possible. In this sense, the body of the mother was indeed a matrix from which the whole social relations emerged.