My mother-in-law used to tell me that during her early married years, living in an extended family in Springfield, Massachusetts, [and having recently arrived from Marash where they had narrowly escaped death at the hands of the Ottoman Empire's carrying out a planned genocide of the Armenian people,] the women would prepare dinner in the kitchen for the men who sat in the dining room, and after serving the men, if there was no food left, there was no food left. In other words, the women often went hungry. This occurred, of course, during the depression, she said. But even so, it was hard to believe, because I had grown up well after the depression in a house where, granted, my mother prepared the meal, but we all sat and ate together, men and women, and there was always more than enough food for everyone.
|Lions at Springfield's Science Museum. Aline & Raffi in foreground. Photo Credit: Marash Girl|
Recently, WBUR reported on malnourishment in Africa. In the villages where there is often not enough food for all, it is the custom to feed men first and only if any food is left do women have the opportunity to eat, even when the women are pregnant or lactating.
I never learned whether this custom existed in Marash. I hope not. When I asked a friend from Turkey whether or not he had ever heard of such a custom existing in the villages there, he commented that such a custom would make sense (and mind you, this was male reasoning) in a society where hunting rather than agriculture was the main source of food. But in Springfield, Massachusetts?