but a symbol of the status, wealth, and honor of the
host as well as his guest. At the height of the Islamic
empire, travelers’ accounts of the sumptuous tables,
beautiful serving girls, and lavish entertainment
provided in the palaces of various sultans and
caliphs were legendary, continuing to this day in
folklore, fables, and fairy tales such as the Thou-
sand and One Nights.
In North Africa today, the tradition of offering
guests the finest and most choice dishes, while
patiently catering to all their needs for hours, or
even days, continues to be a central matter of fam-
ily pride and honor. Indeed, after an important visit
or a special celebration such as a wedding or cir-
cumcision, the central topic of discussion in the
community is invariably the expense and quality of
the food, drink, and entertainment provided to the
guests. Given that the most highly prized dishes
typically require the most expensive ingredients
(such as meat, nuts, or honey) and demand many
hours of preparation, a special event, such as a
wedding, can pose an intense economic and practi-
cal burden, particularly upon the poorer house-
holds of the community. Few things are a more
humiliating slur to a family’s honor and prestige
than rumors that the hosts were rude, the food and
drink poorly prepared and, worst offense of all, the
guests were sent away early, hungry, tired, or mis-
treated. Hence it is not unknown for a household to
almost bankrupt itself for an important guest or
event, preferring to offer the family’s only piece of
meat or to prepare an expensive array of dishes to
an honored guest rather than be perceived as stingy
or inhospitable.
Although men will outwardly play the role of
host to male guests, the preparation and serving of
food and drink is primarily a woman’s responsibil-
ity. Thus much of the burden of hospitality and
demonstration of the family’s honor falls directly
on the women of the household. This largely unrec-
ognized form of female labor for the household is
defined by Papanek (1979) as “family status pro-
duction”: those activities that define and maintain
the status and position of the family within the
community.
Given that hospitality is primarily “women’s
work,” households without women, or lacking
adequate female labor, typically rely on an extended
network of female relatives, friends, and neighbors
to assist in social obligations. Thus single and
widowed men commonly live with or near female
relatives who can step in to serve guests when nec-
essary. Likewise women without daughters or
other females in the home will frequently call upon
nearby female kin and neighbors to assist in pro-234 hospitality
viding missing ingredients, and preparing and serv-
ing food should an unexpected or important guest
arrive. Major life cycle events such as weddings and
circumcisions typically involve numerous genera-
tions of female kin working together to create a suc-
cessful celebration.
Interestingly, despite the increasing entry of
women into the workforce in North Africa, the
time demands and expense of hospitality appear to
have increased rather than waned. Working women
often lead frantic lives in which their weekends
are devoted to visiting, not only relatives, but now
also work colleagues and former schoolmates.
Frequently, women’s added income is used to
increase their ability to be a good hostess: paying
for luxury goods (such as refrigerators, microwaves,
and expensive foods) and services (such as maids
and catering).
This conspicuous social consumption appears to
result, in part, from the North African expectation
that hospitality is a reciprocal relationship. While
the quality and expense of food served does reflect
upon the status of the host’s household, it also indi-
cates the status of the guest. To pay a visit to some-
one is to confer an honor: the higher the status of
the guest, the higher the honor bestowed upon the
host. With the exception of clearly unequal house-
holds (such as patron-client relationships), the
honor of visiting is expected to be returned within
a reasonable period of time, along with the under-
standing that an equivalent or more lavish spread
will be offered. As a result, visits are generally made
between households of similar status and wealth.
Thus an upwardly mobile family will frequently
seek to expand their visiting network by demon-
strating their wealth through more extravagant
hospitality.
Perhaps the most obvious indicator of the pres-
tige of the guest, and correspondingly, the social
importance of the visit is reflected in the North
African tea ceremony. Regardless of the occasion, a
sweet infusion of tea is expected to be offered at all
visits: the status and importance of the visitor and
host are reflected in the kinds of nuts and ingredi-
ents added to the tea, along with the quality of the
tea leaves. Typically the serving of tea with very
expensive nuts such as pine nuts indicates a very
wealthy family and important visitor. Cheaper
ingredients such as peanuts or mint indicate a less
formal event or a poorer family.
Yet regardless of the status and wealth of the fam-
ily, throughout North Africa hospitality continues
to represent an important cultural value, the imple-
mentation of which is women’s work.