Cooking Across Generations: Food, Respectability and Shared Housing in Sylhet

Narayanan, P., Tan, M. L., Siddiqui, I., & Islam, M. (2025). Cooking Across Generations: Food, Respectability and Shared Housing in Sylhet. Journal of Social Science DIU. https://jssdiu.org/articles/cooking-across-generations-food-respectability-and-shared-housing-in-sylhet-ceeecc07

Narayanan, Priya, et al. “Cooking Across Generations: Food, Respectability and Shared Housing in Sylhet.” Journal of Social Science DIU, 2025, https://jssdiu.org/articles/cooking-across-generations-food-respectability-and-shared-housing-in-sylhet-ceeecc07.

Narayanan, Priya, Mei Lin Tan, Imran Siddiqui, and Maliha Islam. 2025. “Cooking Across Generations: Food, Respectability and Shared Housing in Sylhet.” Journal of Social Science DIU. https://jssdiu.org/articles/cooking-across-generations-food-respectability-and-shared-housing-in-sylhet-ceeecc07.

Narayanan, Priya, Mei Lin Tan, Imran Siddiqui, and Maliha Islam. “Cooking Across Generations: Food, Respectability and Shared Housing in Sylhet.” Journal of Social Science DIU (2025). https://jssdiu.org/articles/cooking-across-generations-food-respectability-and-shared-housing-in-sylhet-ceeecc07.

Narayanan, P. et al. (2025) ‘Cooking Across Generations: Food, Respectability and Shared Housing in Sylhet’, Journal of Social Science DIU. Available at: https://jssdiu.org/articles/cooking-across-generations-food-respectability-and-shared-housing-in-sylhet-ceeecc07 (Accessed: 4 November 2026).

P. Narayanan, M. L. Tan, I. Siddiqui, and M. Islam, “Cooking Across Generations: Food, Respectability and Shared Housing in Sylhet,” Journal of Social Science DIU, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://jssdiu.org/articles/cooking-across-generations-food-respectability-and-shared-housing-in-sylhet-ceeecc07

Narayanan P, Tan ML, Siddiqui I, Islam M. Cooking Across Generations: Food, Respectability and Shared Housing in Sylhet. Journal of Social Science DIU [Internet]. 2025 Dec 3 [cited 2026 Nov 4]. Available from: https://jssdiu.org/articles/cooking-across-generations-food-respectability-and-shared-housing-in-sylhet-ceeecc07

@article{narayanan2025cooking,
  author = {Narayanan, Priya and Tan, Mei Lin and Siddiqui, Imran and Islam, Maliha},
  title = {{Cooking Across Generations: Food, Respectability and Shared Housing in Sylhet}},
  journal = {Journal of Social Science DIU},
  year = {2025},
  month = {dec},
  publisher = {Dhaka International University},
  url = {https://jssdiu.org/articles/cooking-across-generations-food-respectability-and-shared-housing-in-sylhet-ceeecc07},
  keywords = {food practices, intergenerational relations, domestic labour, shared housing, Sylhet},
  abstract = {Shared kitchens are important sites where changing household arrangements become visible in everyday life. This ethnographic study explores how three generations negotiate food preparation and respectability in shared houses in Sylhet. Fieldwork involved repeated visits to 18 households over eleven months, 47 life-history interviews, and participant observation during shopping, cooking, and religious celebrations. Thematic analysis traced disagreements over meal timing, purchased ingredients, and the allocation of kitchen labour. Younger women used paid work schedules to negotiate shorter cooking routines, while older relatives treated some collective meals as evidence of household continuity. Men increasingly purchased prepared food but rarely assumed responsibility for planning daily meals. These negotiations produced partial changes in authority without a uniform decline in intergenerational dependence. The analysis shows how domestic cooperation can accommodate contested expectations of appropriate behaviour. Access through women household members made some private disagreements among men less visible. Housing and care research should therefore attend to the kitchen as a shared space in which time, recognition, and obligations are continually renegotiated.}
}

TY  - JOUR
AU  - Narayanan, Priya
AU  - Tan, Mei Lin
AU  - Siddiqui, Imran
AU  - Islam, Maliha
TI  - Cooking Across Generations: Food, Respectability and Shared Housing in Sylhet
JO  - Journal of Social Science DIU
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/03
PB  - Dhaka International University
UR  - https://jssdiu.org/articles/cooking-across-generations-food-respectability-and-shared-housing-in-sylhet-ceeecc07
KW  - food practices
KW  - intergenerational relations
KW  - domestic labour
KW  - shared housing
KW  - Sylhet
AB  - Shared kitchens are important sites where changing household arrangements become visible in everyday life. This ethnographic study explores how three generations negotiate food preparation and respectability in shared houses in Sylhet. Fieldwork involved repeated visits to 18 households over eleven months, 47 life-history interviews, and participant observation during shopping, cooking, and religious celebrations. Thematic analysis traced disagreements over meal timing, purchased ingredients, and the allocation of kitchen labour. Younger women used paid work schedules to negotiate shorter cooking routines, while older relatives treated some collective meals as evidence of household continuity. Men increasingly purchased prepared food but rarely assumed responsibility for planning daily meals. These negotiations produced partial changes in authority without a uniform decline in intergenerational dependence. The analysis shows how domestic cooperation can accommodate contested expectations of appropriate behaviour. Access through women household members made some private disagreements among men less visible. Housing and care research should therefore attend to the kitchen as a shared space in which time, recognition, and obligations are continually renegotiated.
ER  -