Domésticas : cotidianos na comensalidade

Abstract

Aiming to unravel why food represents a dispute scenario between employers and housekeepers at Chapada dos Guimarães, I used semi-structured interviews, informal talks, and observation with dozens of housekeepers and employers selected through a convenience methodology based on theoretical references of Everyday Sociology, Food Anthropology, and Consumption Studies. Taking into account the collected stories, I noticed that the way of doing things and knowledge exchange between employers and housekeepers represent and act on social constructions of taste, which are reflected in these women's ever-changing consumption choices. In spite of the asymmetry in the employer/housekeeper relationship, it was possible to observe that, if consumption acts as a border marker, it can also erase those borders, acting as a space of truce and building countervailing power areas for the housekeepers.