This unique comparative ethnography uses a systematic and nuanced approach to delve into the myriad meanings of being fat within and across different global sites.

Traits that signal belonging dictate our daily routines, including how we eat, move, and connect to others. In recent years, "fat" has emerged as a shared anchor in defining who belongs and is valued versus who does not and is not. The stigma surrounding weight transcends many social, cultural, political, and economic divides. The concern over body image shapes not only how we see ourselves, but also how we talk, interact, and fit into our social networks, communities, and broader society. Fat in Four Cultures is a co-authored comparative ethnography that reveals the shared struggles and local distinctions of how people across the globe are coping with a bombardment of anti-fat messages. Highlighting important differences in how people experience "being fat," the cases in this book are based on fieldwork by five anthropologists working together simultaneously in four different sites across the globe: Japan, the United States, Paraguay, and Samoa. Through these cases, Fat in Four Cultures considers what insights can be gained through systematic, cross-cultural comparison. Written in an eye-opening and narrative-driven style, with clearly defined and consistently used key terms, this book effectively explores a series of fundamental questions about the present and future of fat and obesity.

This unique comparative ethnography uses a systematic and nuanced approach to delve into the myriad meanings of "being fat" within and across different global sites.

This Handbook provides an in-depth discussion on doing cross-cultural research more ethically, sensibly and responsibly with diverse groups of people around the globe. It focuses on cross-cultural research in the social sciences where researchers who are often from Western, educated and rich backgrounds are conducting research with individuals from different socio-cultural settings that are often non-Western, illiterate and poor.

A look at how fatness became a cultural stigma in the United States.

Revised for the first time in ten years, the second edition of Nutritional Anthropology: Biocultural Perspectives on Food and Nutrition continues to blend biological and cultural approaches to this dynamic discipline. While this revision maintains the format and philosophy that grounded the first edition, the text has been revamped and revitalized with new and updated readings, sections, introductions, and pedagogical materials that cover current global food trade and persistent problems of hunger in equal measure. Unlike any other book on the market, Nutritional Anthropology fuses issues past and present, local and global, and biological and cultural in order to give students a comprehensive foundation in food and nutrition.

A science journalist's provocative exploration of how biology, psychology, media, and culture come together to shape our ongoing obsession with our bodies, while also tackling the myths and realities of the "obesity epidemic."