Women and nurture in industrial societies.

Abstract

To address the subject of women and nutrition, it is necessary to work across disciplines. There is a long tradition of nutritionists and anthropologists working together in the United States, thanks to the pioneering work of Margaret Mead in this area. In Britain, the collaboration began even earlier with Audrey Richards (1932) in the 1930s. This collaboration continues today in the Economic and Social Research Council’s research programme on the Nation’s Diet: the Social Science of Food Choice, directed by Professor Anne Murcott. Unfortunately, in Canada it never really began. The following are some reasons why collaboration between anthropologists and nutritionists is valuable: 1. while the immediate causes of hunger and malnutrition may be related to an inadequate intake of nutrients, the basic underlying causes of hunger are rooted in the cultural system; 2. nutrition programmes and interventions are often assumed to be transportable crossculturally. This is not so. Awareness of cultural differences suggests how programmes may be adapted to fit different cultural contexts; 3. what is considered ‘edible’ is culturally determined. Nutritionists need to know how food and drink are defined and categorized in the local language before undertaking any food-intake data collection; 4. nutritional methods such as dietary surveys and anthropometric assessment are inadequate for explaining reasons behind food selection or eating patterns; 5. sample selection and targeting of at-risk populations is more effective when the nutritionist has knowledge of intra-cultural diversity within a given population; 6. both the media and policy makers can use in-depth case studies derived from anthropological fieldwork to communicate with the public about food and hunger issues; 7. knowledge of cultural factors allows for the development of culturally-appropriate messages regarding nutrition and food; 8. cultural analysis shows how food issues are interconnected with other domains such as agriculture or health; this facilitates integrating nutrition programmes with other programmes. Nutritionists are professionals in a field with well-defined methods for evaluating nutritional status and dietary adequacy. It is unrealistic to expect nutritionists to have the motivation, need, or opportunity to study anthropology. However, nutritionists and anthropologists working together make powerful and effective teams. When we discuss topics such as women and nutrition, this collaboration is essential. Nutritionists talk about nutrients, and both nutritionists and anthropologists talk about food and the relationship between food and health. But without careful consideration of the topics of power and gender, we may well be talking to ourselves, and not affecting the context within which women live, nurture others, and eat. The present paper addresses the relationship between women in industrial societies, and nurture, the capacity to nourish and provide food for others. I refer generally to EuroAmerican societies dependent on industrial food systems. Such food systems provide a wide variety of highly-processed foods often produced at a distance from the consumer