Ethnography of the kitchen: The Women’s House, a space for feminist alliance and intercultural encounter

Abstract

In this article, we delve into a debate about whether a kitchen was to be installed in a new Women’s House in a city in the Basque Country (Hernani, Gipuzkoa). The ethnography presented here was conducted by observing the process around the creation of the House. Articulating the debate’s main points led us to examine the dominant cultural assumptions about cooking in Basque society, especially in view of the opposing feminist positions on the kitchen and the domestic sphere. To understand the changes that took place, it is essential to consider the participants’ previous experience, the shape the discussion took and the diffractions and interferences that occurred during the process, as well as the priority placed on ‘being and doing together’ and being aware of the (self-)imposed limits while also allowing, even for a short period of time, the dichotomies that characterize and delimit this intercultural encounter to be questioned.