Fatness and the Maternal Body: Women's Experiences of Corporeality and the Shaping of Social Policy

Published by Berghahn Books 2011

Fatness and the Maternal Body

Women's Experiences of Corporeality and the Shaping of Social Policy

Edited by: Maya Unnithan-Kumar and Soraya Tremayne

Volume 22 in the series Fertility, Reproduction and Sexuality: Social and Cultural Perspectives

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780857451231

Overview
Contents

About this book

Obesity is a rising global health problem. On the one hand a clearly defined medical condition, it is at the same time a corporeal state embedded in the social and cultural perception of fatness, body shape and size. Focusing specifically on the maternal body, contributors to the volume examine how the language and notions of obesity connect with, or stand apart from, wider societal values and moralities to do with the body, fatness, reproduction and what is considered ‘natural’. A focus on fatness in the context of human reproduction and motherhood offers instructive insights into the global circulation and authority of biomedical facts on fatness (as ‘risky’ anti-fit, for example). As with other social and cultural studies critical of health policy discourse, this volume challenges the spontaneous connection being made in scientific and popular understanding between fatness and ill health.

Author / Editor information

Maya Unnithan-Kumar is Reader in Social Anthropology at the University of Sussex. She is currently leading an Economic and Social Research Council (UK)–funded research project on state-NGO relations as defined by their engagement with human rights discourse in the fields of sexual, maternal and reproductive health in India.

Soraya Tremayne is a social anthropologist and the Founding Director of the Fertility and Reproduction Studies Group and a Research Associate at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford. For the past twelve years, she has carried out research on reproduction and sexuality in Iran. Her current research focuses on assisted reproductive technologies and Islam in Iran.

Maya Unnithan-Kumar is Reader in Social Anthropology at the University of Sussex. She is currently leading an Economic and Social Research Council (UK)–funded research project on state-NGO relations as defined by their engagement with human rights discourse in the fields of sexual, maternal and reproductive health in India.

Reviews

“…a timely addition to the growing canon of obesity scholarship within anthropology…While any anthropological examination of body weight is likely to incorporate the themes of sex/gender and kinship, tackling these issues head-on makes this collection especially valuable…an impressive collection of different perspectives on, and stories about, obesity and fatness.” · Medische Antropologie

“The newest edition (Volume 22) to Berghahn Books outstanding 'Fertility, Reproduction and Sexuality' series, is a 248-page compendium that has been knowledgeably compiled and deftly edited…Informed and informative, [this volume] is a seminal collection of impressively presented scholarship and a highly recommended addition to personal, professional, and academic library reference collections and supplemental reading lists.” · Library Bookwatch

“As a volume, this book weaves together many concerns and debates…[It] makes a valuable and fresh contribution to scholarship across a variety of fields and is accessible. The introduction would be particularly suitable as a concise overview to third year undergraduate and MSc students from a wide variety of disciplines. Overall the book would make a strong addition to both undergraduate and postgraduate reading lists.” · Sociology of Health & Illness

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	v
LIST OF FIGURES Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
LIST OF TABLES Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
PREFACE Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION. CORPOREALITY AND REPRODUCTION: UNDERSTANDING FATNESS THROUGH THE DIVERSE EXPERIENCES OF MOTHERHOOD, CONSUMPTION AND SOCIAL REGULATION Maya Unnithan-Kumar Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 2 THE TRAFFIC IN ‘NATURE’: MATERNAL BODIES AND OBESITY Megan Warin, Vivienne Moore and Michael Davies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	22
Chapter 3 FAT AND FERTILITY, MOBILITY AND SLAVES: LONG-TERM PERSPECTIVES ON TUAREG OBESITY AND REPRODUCTION Sara Randall Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
Chapter 4 WOMEN OF GREAT WEIGHT: FATNESS, REPRODUCTION AND GENDER DYNAMICS IN TUAREG SOCIETY Saskia Walentowitz Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	71
Chapter 5 CHILDBEARING, BREASTFEEDING AND BODY WEIGHT IN TANZANIA: THREE BODIES, THREE INDIVIDUALS, MANY DIFFERENT INTERRELATIONS AMONG THE WAGOGO (CENTRAL TANZANIA) Mara Mabilia Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	98
Chapter 6 THE ‘OBESITY CYCLE’: THE IMPACT OF MATERNAL OBESITY ON THE EXOGENOUS AND ENDOGENOUS CAUSES OF OBESITY IN OFFSPRING IN THE UNITED KINGDOM Nicola Heslehurst Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
Chapter 7 CULTURE, DIET AND THE MATERNAL BODY: GHANAIAN WOMEN’S PERSPECTIVES ON FOOD, FAT AND CHILDBEARING Ama de-Graft Aikins Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	130
Chapter 8 UNHEALTHY, UNWEALTHY, UNWISE: SOCIAL POLICY AND NUTRITIONAL EDUCATION IN A DISADVANTAGED COMMUNITY IN IRELAND Shauna Clarke Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
Chapter 9 THE MAHARAJA MAC: CHANGING DIETARY PATTERNS IN INDIA Devi Sridhar Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
Chapter 10 IS THERE A RELATION BETWEEN FATNESS AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH? A STUDY OF BODY MASS INDEX AND THE REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH OF INDIAN WOMEN Aravinda Meera Guntupalli Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	188
Chapter 11 REPRODUCING INEQUALITIES: THEORIES AND ETHICS IN DIETETICS Lucy Aphramor and Jacqui Gingras Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	205
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	224
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	227

Language: English
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 246
Keywords: Medical Anthropology; Gender Studies and Sexuality

eBook

Published: July 1, 2011
ISBN: 9780857451231