ABSTRACT
This volume offers a welcome perspective on fatness and obesity across cultures. It presents rich and varied data about how human beings relate to large bodies in many different social settings. The volume is particularly useful for readers interested in addressing four important questions. First, the volume offers data to enable us to think about the relationship between “modernization”—social and economic development—and obesity. Several papers—those by Pollock, Teti, Wilson, Bindon, and Greksa—suggest that as traditional agricultural populations begin to eat more processed foods and be engaged in wage as opposed to subsistence labor, they develop proclivities for obesity. The papers offer reflections on how this fattening will affect the health, aesthetic standards, and fertility of these populations.
