EAGER: Ethnographic Investigation of Fat Stigma in Three Countries

该奖项是探索性研究(EIGER)的早期概念补助金。该项目将提供第一批数据，深入探讨发展中国家人们对超重(“肥胖污名”)的不同理解。PIs正在构建一个概念模型，通过可以跨文化应用的象征性身体资本来调节肥胖耻辱和向上流动之间的关系。他们假设了一个经济繁荣的转折点，在这个转折点上，肥胖是一种不受欢迎的个人和社会特征的想法开始扩散。在该项目的这一阶段，他们将对关键概念进行人种学评估，他们将在稍后阶段通过更广泛的基于调查的研究来测试这些关键概念。肥胖在全球范围内的日益流行与全球经济参与度的提高有关，从而影响了饮食和工作模式。与此同时，即使在传统上重视体型较大的社会中，反对超重的污名似乎也在增加。人们对肥胖污名上升的预测因素和过程知之甚少。对于改变对体型、理想体型和肥胖污名的理解，更是知之甚少。研究人员将在这些人群中一个典型的向上流动的群体--大学生--以及他们年龄匹配的非学生同龄人中收集人种学数据。他们将在伯利兹、牙买加和尼泊尔这三个肥胖率、财富和文化不同的国家的大学校园和社区站点进行参与者观察。将在六个地点的每个地点与年龄(18-25岁)和性别匹配的线人进行面谈(共120次面谈)。他们还将对更大的样本进行调查。这项研究的发现将有助于体现、道德人格和社会转型的理论。他们还将为健康促进计划提供信息，并为文化人类学方面的双向国际教育合作提供及时的机会。三名研究生和两名本科生将从事数据收集，两名研究生和两名本科生将协助数据编码和分析。

This award is an Early-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER). The project will provide the first data closely exploring the changing meanings that people attach to being overweight ("fat stigma") in the developing world. The PIs are building a conceptual model of the relationship between obesity stigma and upward mobility as mediated by symbolic body capital that can be applied cross-culturally. They hypothesize a tipping point of economic prosperity where the idea of fatness as an undesirable personal and social characteristic begins to proliferate. In this phase of the project they will evaluate ethnographically the key concepts that that they will test with more extensive survey-based research in a later phase. The growing global prevalence of obesity is associated with increased engagement in the global economy, affecting diet and work patterns. At the same time there appears an increase in stigma against overweight even in societies that traditionally valued larger bodies. Little is known about the predictors and processes of the rise of fat stigma. Even less is understood about changing understandings of shifts in body size, body size ideals, and fat stigma. The researchers will collect ethnographic data in a typically upwardly mobile segment of these populations -- university students -- as well as among their non-student age-matched peers. They will conduct participant-observation on university campuses and in community sites in Belize, Jamaica, and Nepal, three countries that vary in obesity rates, wealth, and culture. Interviews will be conducted with infomants matched by age (18-25) and gender in each of the six sites (for a total of 120 interviews). They will also conduct a survey of a larger sample.Findings from this research will contribute to theory on embodiment, moral personhood, and social transition. They will also inform health-promotion programs and provide timely opportunities for two-way international educational collaborations in cultural anthropology. Three graduate students and two undergraduate students will be engaged in data collection, and two graduate students and two undergraduate students will assist in data coding and analysis.