Historical overview of spiritual discourses in home economics: From big history to the late Twentieth Century

This paper weaves together an insider home economist perspective of spiritual knowledges through two historical phases – the early years of home economics (1901-1915); and the middle years of home economics (1923-1992). There is a taken-for-granted assumption that spirituality is, and was always intended to be, a part of home economics and in this study we set out to investigate this assumption. The research brings together data in the form of digital texts available through the publically accessible Internet database – HEARTH. Texts incorporating relevant terms were identified using direct word searches and analysed using thematic content analysis. The study reveals four key ideas: the word ‘spiritual’ was scarcely used and when it appeared meanings were varied; home and family were identified as the most significant sites for development of spiritual ideals; spiritual concepts were considered to be a ‘highest ideal’ of home economics; and there were conflicts between material and spiritual aspects of home economics. These insights confirm that the effects of production, recontextualisation and reproduction of spiritual discourse are enmeshed into these chronological phases of home economics history, yet meaning is generally assumed and often the last mentioned of the ideals of the field, as evident through the artefacts investigated.