ABSTRACT
One of the major aspects of the culture specificity of eating disorders, as discussed in the previous chapter, is their assumed rarity in non-western societies. Non-western cultures have long been considered relatively immune from developing eating disorders, by reasons of different authentic cultural values that do not overvalue thinness and possibly associate plumpness with positive attributes of wealth, fertility and femininity. Even obesity in some societies was once seen to reflect desirable sexual characteristics (Ford and Beach 1952, Rudofsky 1972).
