Even as obesity rates rise, weight-related stigma remains widespread in the United States and leads to many documented social, economic, and health disparities. These include lower wages, less academic achievement, social exclusion as early as childhood, psychosocial stress, depression, and additional weight gain. Recent research documents the proliferation of antifat beliefs across the globe, but we know little about how this fat stigma varies across cultures. A clearer empirical and theoretical understanding of fat stigma in cultural context is essential to gauging its likely biocultural impacts across populations. Using data from Paraguay, Bolivia, India, and students and Muslim women in the United States (N = 414 women), we show that psychometric scales suggest high levels of stated or expressed fat stigma in all these samples, capturing globalizing anti-fat norms. However, when we assess what people think implicitly through reaction-time implicit association tests, we find marked variation across sites in the degree to which people are internalizing these stigmatized ideas around obesity. In India and among U.S. university students, women tend to internalize the idea of “fat” negatively. Paraguay women present, on average, fat-neutral internalized views. In Bolivia and among Muslim women in the United States, average assessments suggest fat-positive internalized views. This indicates fat stigmatizing norms are not always internalized, even as explicit fat stigma otherwise appears to be globalizing. Our findings indicate that the proposed biocultural relationships between fat stigma and health disparities may be complex and very context specific.
{"title":"A WORLD OF SUFFERING? BIOCULTURAL APPROACHES TO FAT STIGMA IN THE GLOBAL CONTEXTS OF THE OBESITY EPIDEMIC","authors":"A. Brewis, Amber Wutich","doi":"10.1111/NAPA.12056","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/NAPA.12056","url":null,"abstract":"Even as obesity rates rise, weight-related stigma remains widespread in the United States and leads to many documented social, economic, and health disparities. These include lower wages, less academic achievement, social exclusion as early as childhood, psychosocial stress, depression, and additional weight gain. Recent research documents the proliferation of antifat beliefs across the globe, but we know little about how this fat stigma varies across cultures. A clearer empirical and theoretical understanding of fat stigma in cultural context is essential to gauging its likely biocultural impacts across populations. Using data from Paraguay, Bolivia, India, and students and Muslim women in the United States (N = 414 women), we show that psychometric scales suggest high levels of stated or expressed fat stigma in all these samples, capturing globalizing anti-fat norms. However, when we assess what people think implicitly through reaction-time implicit association tests, we find marked variation across sites in the degree to which people are internalizing these stigmatized ideas around obesity. In India and among U.S. university students, women tend to internalize the idea of “fat” negatively. Paraguay women present, on average, fat-neutral internalized views. In Bolivia and among Muslim women in the United States, average assessments suggest fat-positive internalized views. This indicates fat stigmatizing norms are not always internalized, even as explicit fat stigma otherwise appears to be globalizing. Our findings indicate that the proposed biocultural relationships between fat stigma and health disparities may be complex and very context specific.","PeriodicalId":181348,"journal":{"name":"The Annals of Anthropological Practice","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123654296","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
E. Ruiz, D. Himmelgreen, Nancy Romero Daza, Jenny Peña
This article outlines a biocultural approach that employs a mixed-methods research design to the study of food insecurity in the context of economic transformations in the Monteverde Zone (MVZ), Costa Rica. Using structured survey data related to household (n = 200) and individual level variables as well as on anthropometric measurements, linear regression analyses were run in order to try to predict food insecurity based on biological and cultural data. Additionally, 100 in-depth, qualitative interviews were carried out with heads of households in order to situate the quantitative findings ethnographically. A multiple linear regression model accounting for 36 percent of the variation in food insecurity was constructed with two predictors: an aggregate index of reported illness symptoms and a categorical variable concerning the strategies employed for the purchase of basic grocery items. Data on reported illness frequency and purchasing strategies predict a sizeable proportion of the variation of food insecurity in the study sample. This highlights the complex, biocultural nature of food insecurity processes.
{"title":"USING A BIOCULTURAL APPROACH TO EXAMINE FOOD INSECURITY IN THE CONTEXT OF ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATIONS IN RURAL COSTA RICA","authors":"E. Ruiz, D. Himmelgreen, Nancy Romero Daza, Jenny Peña","doi":"10.1111/NAPA.12054","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/NAPA.12054","url":null,"abstract":"This article outlines a biocultural approach that employs a mixed-methods research design to the study of food insecurity in the context of economic transformations in the Monteverde Zone (MVZ), Costa Rica. Using structured survey data related to household (n = 200) and individual level variables as well as on anthropometric measurements, linear regression analyses were run in order to try to predict food insecurity based on biological and cultural data. Additionally, 100 in-depth, qualitative interviews were carried out with heads of households in order to situate the quantitative findings ethnographically. A multiple linear regression model accounting for 36 percent of the variation in food insecurity was constructed with two predictors: an aggregate index of reported illness symptoms and a categorical variable concerning the strategies employed for the purchase of basic grocery items. Data on reported illness frequency and purchasing strategies predict a sizeable proportion of the variation of food insecurity in the study sample. This highlights the complex, biocultural nature of food insecurity processes.","PeriodicalId":181348,"journal":{"name":"The Annals of Anthropological Practice","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115791524","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"INTRODUCTION: BIOCULTURAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STUDY OF HEALTH DISPARITIES","authors":"T. Leatherman, K. Jernigan","doi":"10.1111/NAPA.12051","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/NAPA.12051","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":181348,"journal":{"name":"The Annals of Anthropological Practice","volume":"36 3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125688866","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Food insecurity has traditionally been characterized as a driver of health disparities because of its potential impacts on nutritional status. Food, however, has important social and cultural valences that make it much more than a nutritional vehicle. Recent research that is sensitive to the social meanings of food has drawn attention to the complex and far-reaching mental and social health effects of food insecurity. In this article, we outline several theoretical pathways linking food insecurity to reduced physical and mental well-being, and then present results of a preliminary study in rural Brazil designed to test the relative importance of each of these pathways. Our results tentatively suggest that in this context, food insecurity is closely related to both mental and physical health disparities, but the pathways connecting food insecurity and mental health remain somewhat unclear. We present lessons learned and propose a set of research steps to further address the relationships between the social meaning of food and mental health.
{"title":"EXPLORING THE ROLE OF CULTURE IN THE LINK BETWEEN MENTAL HEALTH AND FOOD INSECURITY: A CASE STUDY FROM BRAZIL","authors":"L. Weaver, D. Meek, C. Hadley","doi":"10.1111/NAPA.12055","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/NAPA.12055","url":null,"abstract":"Food insecurity has traditionally been characterized as a driver of health disparities because of its potential impacts on nutritional status. Food, however, has important social and cultural valences that make it much more than a nutritional vehicle. Recent research that is sensitive to the social meanings of food has drawn attention to the complex and far-reaching mental and social health effects of food insecurity. In this article, we outline several theoretical pathways linking food insecurity to reduced physical and mental well-being, and then present results of a preliminary study in rural Brazil designed to test the relative importance of each of these pathways. Our results tentatively suggest that in this context, food insecurity is closely related to both mental and physical health disparities, but the pathways connecting food insecurity and mental health remain somewhat unclear. We present lessons learned and propose a set of research steps to further address the relationships between the social meaning of food and mental health.","PeriodicalId":181348,"journal":{"name":"The Annals of Anthropological Practice","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131256700","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
It is a common starting assumption for analyses of health disparities that poverty and poor health occur together and mutually influence one another. While earlier research tended to focus on how poverty leads to poor health, over the past two decades it has become more common to focus on the social and economic costs of illness and disease. Yet, the majority of this research has not employed an ethnographic lens and is limited in accounting for local level factors that shape vulnerability and resilience to illness and its impact on lives and livelihoods. This paper illustrates how the inequality and health dialectic plays out among rural producers in the district of Nunoa in the southern Peruvian Andes. Using a critical biocultural approach attending to global–local interactions, relations of power and human agency, and that is grounded in ethnographic realities, we explore connections between vulnerability and resiliency in the reproduction of poverty and poor health. While the direct costs of healthcare can be catastrophic to a household's economy in extreme cases, indirect costs to labor power and household production create for many a greater cumulative loss that limits resilience in the face of future illness and other problems. The way illness impacts lives and livelihoods in the reproduction of poverty and poor health is shaped by people's access to land, labor power, and cash reserves, so that these effects are experienced unevenly and with different long-term implications among vulnerable populations.
{"title":"THE REPRODUCTION OF POVERTY AND POOR HEALTH IN THE PRODUCTION OF HEALTH DISPARITIES IN SOUTHERN PERU","authors":"T. Leatherman, K. Jernigan","doi":"10.1111/NAPA.12057","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/NAPA.12057","url":null,"abstract":"It is a common starting assumption for analyses of health disparities that poverty and poor health occur together and mutually influence one another. While earlier research tended to focus on how poverty leads to poor health, over the past two decades it has become more common to focus on the social and economic costs of illness and disease. Yet, the majority of this research has not employed an ethnographic lens and is limited in accounting for local level factors that shape vulnerability and resilience to illness and its impact on lives and livelihoods. This paper illustrates how the inequality and health dialectic plays out among rural producers in the district of Nunoa in the southern Peruvian Andes. Using a critical biocultural approach attending to global–local interactions, relations of power and human agency, and that is grounded in ethnographic realities, we explore connections between vulnerability and resiliency in the reproduction of poverty and poor health. While the direct costs of healthcare can be catastrophic to a household's economy in extreme cases, indirect costs to labor power and household production create for many a greater cumulative loss that limits resilience in the face of future illness and other problems. The way illness impacts lives and livelihoods in the reproduction of poverty and poor health is shaped by people's access to land, labor power, and cash reserves, so that these effects are experienced unevenly and with different long-term implications among vulnerable populations.","PeriodicalId":181348,"journal":{"name":"The Annals of Anthropological Practice","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129401296","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article examines the roles of structural and interpersonal violence in individual experiences of health transition in South Africa, focusing on women's narratives of distress and diabetes as well as epidemiology. Over the past decade marked increases in noncommunicable diseases, including type 2 diabetes, have transitioned in South Africa to afflict those who concurrently face great mental health burdens and the world's largest HIV and AIDS and tuberculosis epidemics. First, this article considers how social and health problems cluster among impoverished populations through a discussion of syndemics theory. Drawing from the VIDDA Syndemic employed to describe the experience of Mexican immigrant women living with diabetes and depression in urban United States, this analysis demonstrates how violence plays a unique role as a perpetuator of suffering through structural, social, psychological, and even biological pathways. Second, data around stress and structural violence, gun violence, and gender-based violence that emerged from a small study of urban South African women with type 2 diabetes are presented to discuss how violence functions as a cofactor of the syndemic of diabetes and depression in this context. This analysis emphasizes the role of historical and social contexts in how conditions such as depression and diabetes are distributed epidemiologically and experienced individually. Finally, this article argues that the utility of understanding the role of violence in health transition may be a fundamental source of intervention to mitigate the effects of the double burden of diseases on socially and economically marginalized populations in middle-income countries such as South Africa.
{"title":"SYNDEMIC SUFFERING IN SOWETO: VIOLENCE AND INEQUALITY AT THE NEXUS OF HEALTH TRANSITION IN SOUTH AFRICA","authors":"Emily Mendenhall","doi":"10.1111/NAPA.12058","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/NAPA.12058","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the roles of structural and interpersonal violence in individual experiences of health transition in South Africa, focusing on women's narratives of distress and diabetes as well as epidemiology. Over the past decade marked increases in noncommunicable diseases, including type 2 diabetes, have transitioned in South Africa to afflict those who concurrently face great mental health burdens and the world's largest HIV and AIDS and tuberculosis epidemics. First, this article considers how social and health problems cluster among impoverished populations through a discussion of syndemics theory. Drawing from the VIDDA Syndemic employed to describe the experience of Mexican immigrant women living with diabetes and depression in urban United States, this analysis demonstrates how violence plays a unique role as a perpetuator of suffering through structural, social, psychological, and even biological pathways. Second, data around stress and structural violence, gun violence, and gender-based violence that emerged from a small study of urban South African women with type 2 diabetes are presented to discuss how violence functions as a cofactor of the syndemic of diabetes and depression in this context. This analysis emphasizes the role of historical and social contexts in how conditions such as depression and diabetes are distributed epidemiologically and experienced individually. Finally, this article argues that the utility of understanding the role of violence in health transition may be a fundamental source of intervention to mitigate the effects of the double burden of diseases on socially and economically marginalized populations in middle-income countries such as South Africa.","PeriodicalId":181348,"journal":{"name":"The Annals of Anthropological Practice","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123985613","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Proponents of global market expansion claim that economic growth brings prosperity and creates a more equitable global society, yet these efforts may result in the exacerbation of economic disparities that translates into significant disparities in health. These trends underscore the importance of research examining the social determinants of health in an increasingly unequal world. This article brings together concepts from biocultural anthropology, developmental origins of health and disease, and research examining the long-term effects of early environments on social capital to formulate the notion of biosocial inheritance. Biosocial inheritance is the process whereby social adversity in one generation is transmitted to the next through reinforcing biological and social mechanisms that impair health, exacerbating social and health disparities. Such a theoretical framework considers contemporary and historic political-economic forces that shape inequalities in human health, across generations. We examine the biosocial determinants of growth in the Andes as a case study of biosocial inheritance, developing a model that will illuminate the contemporary and historic sources of persistent poverty in low-income communities around the world. By highlighting the biosocial mechanisms underpinning the intergenerational transmission of poverty, this model allows for the formulation of interventions aimed at breaking the cycle of poverty and a reconsideration of the way we think about poverty and social mobility.
{"title":"BIOSOCIAL INHERITANCE: A FRAMEWORK FOR THE STUDY OF THE INTERGENERATIONAL TRANSMISSION OF HEALTH DISPARITIES","authors":"Morgan K. Hoke, T. McDade","doi":"10.1111/NAPA.12052","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/NAPA.12052","url":null,"abstract":"Proponents of global market expansion claim that economic growth brings prosperity and creates a more equitable global society, yet these efforts may result in the exacerbation of economic disparities that translates into significant disparities in health. These trends underscore the importance of research examining the social determinants of health in an increasingly unequal world. This article brings together concepts from biocultural anthropology, developmental origins of health and disease, and research examining the long-term effects of early environments on social capital to formulate the notion of biosocial inheritance. Biosocial inheritance is the process whereby social adversity in one generation is transmitted to the next through reinforcing biological and social mechanisms that impair health, exacerbating social and health disparities. Such a theoretical framework considers contemporary and historic political-economic forces that shape inequalities in human health, across generations. We examine the biosocial determinants of growth in the Andes as a case study of biosocial inheritance, developing a model that will illuminate the contemporary and historic sources of persistent poverty in low-income communities around the world. By highlighting the biosocial mechanisms underpinning the intergenerational transmission of poverty, this model allows for the formulation of interventions aimed at breaking the cycle of poverty and a reconsideration of the way we think about poverty and social mobility.","PeriodicalId":181348,"journal":{"name":"The Annals of Anthropological Practice","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130003241","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
W. Dressler, Mauro C. Balieiro, Rosane P. Ribeiro, J. E. Santos
Health disparities or health inequalities refer to enduring differences between population groups in health status, well-being, and mortality. Health inequalities have been described by race, ethnic group, gender, and social class. A variety of theories have been proposed to account for health inequalities, including access to medical care and absolute material deprivation. Several theorists (including Michael Marmot and Richard Wilkinson) have argued that relative deprivation is the primary factor. By this they mean the inability of individuals to achieve the kind of lifestyle that is valued and considered normative in their social context. In this article, we show that the concept and measurement of cultural consonance can operationalize what Marmot and Wilkinson mean by relative deprivation. Cultural consonance is the degree to which individuals approximate, in their own beliefs and behaviors, the prototypes for belief and behavior encoded in shared cultural models. Widely shared cultural models in society describe what is regarded both as appropriate and desirable in many different domains. These cultural models are both directive and motivating: people try to achieve the goals defined in these models; however, as a result of both social and economic constraints, some individuals are unable to effectively incorporate these cultural goals into their own lives. The result is an enduring loss of coherence in life, because life is not unfolding in the way that it, culturally speaking, “should.” The resulting chronic stress is associated with psychobiological distress. We illustrate this process with data collected in urban Brazil. A theory of cultural consonance provides a uniquely biocultural contribution to the understanding of health inequalities.
{"title":"CULTURE AS A MEDIATOR OF HEALTH DISPARITIES: CULTURAL CONSONANCE, SOCIAL CLASS, AND HEALTH","authors":"W. Dressler, Mauro C. Balieiro, Rosane P. Ribeiro, J. E. Santos","doi":"10.1111/NAPA.12053","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/NAPA.12053","url":null,"abstract":"Health disparities or health inequalities refer to enduring differences between population groups in health status, well-being, and mortality. Health inequalities have been described by race, ethnic group, gender, and social class. A variety of theories have been proposed to account for health inequalities, including access to medical care and absolute material deprivation. Several theorists (including Michael Marmot and Richard Wilkinson) have argued that relative deprivation is the primary factor. By this they mean the inability of individuals to achieve the kind of lifestyle that is valued and considered normative in their social context. In this article, we show that the concept and measurement of cultural consonance can operationalize what Marmot and Wilkinson mean by relative deprivation. Cultural consonance is the degree to which individuals approximate, in their own beliefs and behaviors, the prototypes for belief and behavior encoded in shared cultural models. Widely shared cultural models in society describe what is regarded both as appropriate and desirable in many different domains. These cultural models are both directive and motivating: people try to achieve the goals defined in these models; however, as a result of both social and economic constraints, some individuals are unable to effectively incorporate these cultural goals into their own lives. The result is an enduring loss of coherence in life, because life is not unfolding in the way that it, culturally speaking, “should.” The resulting chronic stress is associated with psychobiological distress. We illustrate this process with data collected in urban Brazil. A theory of cultural consonance provides a uniquely biocultural contribution to the understanding of health inequalities.","PeriodicalId":181348,"journal":{"name":"The Annals of Anthropological Practice","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130973837","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2011-11-01DOI: 10.1111/J.2153-9588.2011.01078.X
Chad T Morris, John S. Luque
{"title":"ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSIGHTS ON EFFECTIVE COMMUNITY‐BASED COALITION PRACTICE: AN INTRODUCTION","authors":"Chad T Morris, John S. Luque","doi":"10.1111/J.2153-9588.2011.01078.X","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/J.2153-9588.2011.01078.X","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":181348,"journal":{"name":"The Annals of Anthropological Practice","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115700585","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2009-11-01DOI: 10.1111/J.1556-4797.2009.01032.X
Rebecca K. Zarger
The particularities of how residents in Southern Belize encounter the vagaries of what is commonly referred to as a “global food crisis” (between 2006 and 2008) are explored in this paper. Belize, like many other nation states around the globe, has been structurally (and sequentially) “readjusted” by transnational lending institutions over the last several decades. Cyclical shifts in agricultural practices have taken place in many Maya communities in Southern Belize in the last decade, partly in response to migration, a severe hurricane, land tenure conflicts, and within the last year, skyrocketing staple prices and food scarcity. The costs of basic staples such as corn, wheat, and rice have nearly doubled, in parallel with much of the rest of the globe during the same time frame. Shifts in subsistence strategies have significant implications for the power and politics of land use, access, and mobility. Furthermore, they reflect centuries-old ways of adjusting to changing circumstances in global markets and colonial and postcolonial realities. I conclude by emphasizing the importance of incorporating political and historical ecologies of land use and food production when considering the local impacts of global food crises.
{"title":"MOSAICS OF MAYA LIVELIHOODS: READJUSTING TO GLOBAL AND LOCAL FOOD CRISES","authors":"Rebecca K. Zarger","doi":"10.1111/J.1556-4797.2009.01032.X","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/J.1556-4797.2009.01032.X","url":null,"abstract":"The particularities of how residents in Southern Belize encounter the vagaries of what is commonly referred to as a “global food crisis” (between 2006 and 2008) are explored in this paper. Belize, like many other nation states around the globe, has been structurally (and sequentially) “readjusted” by transnational lending institutions over the last several decades. Cyclical shifts in agricultural practices have taken place in many Maya communities in Southern Belize in the last decade, partly in response to migration, a severe hurricane, land tenure conflicts, and within the last year, skyrocketing staple prices and food scarcity. The costs of basic staples such as corn, wheat, and rice have nearly doubled, in parallel with much of the rest of the globe during the same time frame. Shifts in subsistence strategies have significant implications for the power and politics of land use, access, and mobility. Furthermore, they reflect centuries-old ways of adjusting to changing circumstances in global markets and colonial and postcolonial realities. I conclude by emphasizing the importance of incorporating political and historical ecologies of land use and food production when considering the local impacts of global food crises.","PeriodicalId":181348,"journal":{"name":"The Annals of Anthropological Practice","volume":"48 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126224393","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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