Money, sex and cooking: manipulation of the paid/unpaid boundary by Asante market women

Abstract

This paper analyses how Asante women trading in the Central Market of Kumasi (Ghana’s second largest city) balance the demands of trading and domestic work upon their time and money. Matriliny and duolocal marriage define very different conflicts for childcare and cooking, because of women’s authority as mothers and deference as wives. The evening meal has strong associations with sexual fidelity and financial support, leaving less flexibility for married women in its timing, quality and personal performance. The discussion of life cycle strategies of compromise draws on ethnographic fieldwork 1978-84.