A "coca-cola" shape: cultural change, body image, and eating disorders in San Andrés, Belize.
Eating disorders have been associated with developing nations undergoing rapid social transition, including participation in a global market economy and heavy media exposure. San Andrés, Belize, a community with many risk factors associated with the cross-cultural development of eating disorders, has shown remarkable resistance to previously documented patterns, despite a local focus on female beauty. Drawing on longitudinal person-centered ethnography with adolescent girls, this article examines why this community appears exceptional in light of the literature. First, community beauty and body image ideals and practices are explicated. Then, a protective ethnopsychology is proposed as a key mediating factor of the rapid socio-cultural change among young women. Finally, possible nascent cases of eating disordered behavior are discussed in light of their unique phenomenology: that is, having to do more with economic opportunity in the tourism industry and less with personal distress or desire for thinness. Close, meaning-centered examination of eating and body image practices may aid understanding and prevention of eating disorders among adolescents undergoing rapid social change in situations of globalization and immigration.
Anderson-Fye
Eileen P
EP
Center for Culture and Health, Neuropsychiatric Institute, University of California, Los Angeles 90024-1759, USA. eileenaf@ucla.edu
D000293:Adolescent; D001504:Beauty; D001531:Belize; D001828:Body Image; D002391:Catchment Area, Health; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003469:Culture; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000208:ethnology*; D006801:Humans