Abstract
This chapter draws upon data from museum collections, cookbooks and visual sources to examine the changing nature of the tea ceremony in England, particularly among the urban middle class. It argues that by 1700 women had taken active control of tea-taking, using it to challenge prevailing attitudes towards the role of women and to forge social networks founded on commensality within the household environment. Furthermore, it suggests that tea became a tool for female emancipation as women took control of tea ceremonies for public audiences as well as their families. The definition of domestic reform is expanded here beyond the explicit movements of the nineteenth century (Spencer-Wood 1987, 1991b, 1994) to include more subtle pressure to change habits and attitudes. These pressures are visible in the material culture associated with the domestic sphere, and a study of the changes and continuities within such artefactual groups can inform interpretations of the acceptance of, or resistance to, domestic reform.
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Acknowledgements
Thanks to the staff at Norwich Castle Museum and York Museums Trust for aiding and abetting my foray into tea, and to my then PhD supervisor, Harold Mytum, who suggested it. Thanks also to Suzanne Spencer-Wood for becoming as excited as I on the subject, and for many helpful comments and references. This article emerged from a PhD funded by the AHRC, without whom it would not have been possible.
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Gray, A. (2013). ‘The Proud Air of an Unwilling Slave’: Tea, Women and Domesticity, c.1700–1900. In: Spencer-Wood, S. (eds) Historical and Archaeological Perspectives on Gender Transformations. Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4863-1_2
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