Introduction

Abstract

This chapter introduces the relationship between food exchange and women’s governance through an examination of the early modern concepts of providence and physiology, and through a discussion of historical and theoretical concepts of gift-giving. In drawing our attention to food-related practices such as hospitality, gift-giving, nursing, and charity, early modern women’s writing establishes these practices as contributing not only to the traditional and informal arts of local administration, but also to the establishment of national and transnational religious and political networks.