Splice : gendered narratives of spices as healing

Abstract

This article focuses on the uses of spice as a method of healing in selected dishes within a Durban Indian foodscape. Beyond its culinary potential (taste, flavour, seasoning), the article motivates spice as having particular utilities and meanings that have bearing upon social, cultural and gender issues pertinent to food preparation as well as consumption which ultimately influences health and well-being. Methodologically it engages conceptual insights from the critical literature on food, including its gendered parameters, and frames a description of a few pertinent dishes drawn from five interviews in a larger project on food focused on its materiality and visceral dimensions.