Introduction
Beauty is a subjective concept, but searching for its ideal has always occupied researchers and philosophers. Many cultures have different ideas about this phenomenon, and this understanding is in the nature of objectivity among particular peoples. European ideals are pretty far from the Eastern world if one delves into its study. Social, historical, and religious factors together form the cultural environment, affecting everyday customs. Within the framework of these traditions, views on various aspects of life are cultivated, including the subjective concept of beauty. The uniqueness of this phenomenon in each culture is both a cause and a consequence of many distinctive points associated with lifestyle, which various psychological field methods can elucidate.
Methods and Phenomenon Understanding
The theme of the ideal of female beauty appears in a rather unexpected light from an unusual point of view, which is the basis of the culture of the peoples of the Sahara. In her book Feeding Desire, Popenoe tries to find out why female fattening is a tradition in the social structures of this region (2012). To do this, she uses field research, a direct trip to the area, where she asks many questions of the indigenous people about women, fatness, food, religion, motherhood, marriage, and traditions (Popenoe, 2012). The author accompanies the stories with a literature review, which also dives into data and related issues to track the dynamics of change and the correspondence of theory to actual practice.
Since the study of the Azawag peoples took place over many years, the author cites many literary sources not only from the past but even from the century before last. A comprehensive and progressive analysis of cultural aspects reveals the main points that formed the main pool of questions Popenoe (2012). For example, the review led the author to the idea of investing male labor in the fullness of the female body, which reflects the ability to work and success in commercial affairs of the head of the family (Popenoe, 2012). To test this fact with field methods, Popenoe presented questions about the importance of animal husbandry, the purpose of raising animals, and attitudes towards them and concluded that confirmed her hypothesis. Livestock is not idolized by the Azawag but is merely a means to a commercial end (Popenoe, 2012). As a result, the book demonstrates in an extraordinarily revealing and evidence-based manner how the author arrived at the hypotheses born during the literature review and how, in the form of a story, they are narrated about their confirmation or refutation.
It’s not just questions and interviews that Popenoe uses as a field tool. In the second part of the book, people talk about themselves on various planes (Popenoe, 2012). Indigenous people spoke about themselves in the light of their profession, family, and religious traditions. Popenoe sought in this way to preserve the form of the narrative, the everyday habits, and expressions of the people without driving the story into the strict framework of an interview or questionnaire that would be devoid of an emotional component (2012). The level of research is quite deep since the author seeks to find answers to a fairly specific question in many indirect aspects surrounding the described culture. A holistic view contributes to a holistic understanding of the book by not only providing facts but also how these principles and ideals are translated into the thoughts of indigenous people.
For example, the author describes the topic of marriage in a rather multifaceted way. For this presentation, Popenoe uses, in some cases, the field method of one’s presence – evidence, as in the case of the conversation between Aminatu and Ahmad (Popenoe, 2012). As a result, this technique is described in the first person by the author, who can both empathize and give his assessment of the participants in the incident. This style conveys mostly bare facts, accompanied by a slight distraction for thought (Popenoe, 2012). However, already here, the book takes on a relatively free form, where chapters with a bias towards a literary review alternate with chapters of real stories.
Popenoe also describes his experience of sharing life with the Azawag Arab world through the prism of understanding and using their own bodies. It is not for nothing that the author first demonstrates their vision of the way of life in many matters so that the demonstration of their way of life does not come as a surprise to readers. Also, in this way, Popenoe makes it possible to focus only on the identified problem, leaving other surprising aspects of the story in the background, in the form of context. A critical point of view for understanding the human body is chapter 7, where, after describing the ideas of the people about the body, a description of its use is given through the prism of the vastness of tents and deserts (2012). The author reveals the theme of fattening sequentially in each chapter.
Finally, there is a critical analysis of the data obtained in field studies describing health and desire in the context of one’s own body. In fact, the author uses field techniques from the direct demonstration of Azawag thoughts in their purest form to exclusively critical analysis through his vision of everyday life. This form of the book is of sufficient interest from the point of view of the gradual disclosure of the aspects of the question posed. It promotes a broad cultural coverage of Azawag life as a whole, gradually revealing the narrower points of the theme in the process. Despite the scientific methods used to collect information and analyze it, this book demonstrates the connection between a large female body and the values of the people. This work fully copes with the task, playing on the bright contrasts of the ideals of the beauty of the female body, which were well-established far from the Azawags, and revealing step by step the essential cultural traditions that distinguish the peoples of Europe and the Arab world.
Conclusion
This book provides a comprehensive assessment of the Saharan female beauty ideal phenomenon using both field techniques and classical scientific methods such as literature review, critical analysis, hypotheses, and observations. Each chapter is uniquely shaped, constantly alternating between these approaches, maintaining the thread of the narrative for a compelling argument. Consequently, Popenoe’s work provides, above all, a deep understanding of the way of life of the Azawag, and the cultural characteristics of their traditions, including marriage, attitudes towards animals, work, and relatives. From the mass of factors, one way or another influencing the views of the indigenous people, there is an idea of the phenomenon of fattening and fatness of the female body. Field methods contribute to immersion in the life and emotions of the Azawag, which is often lacking in the review of scientific literature and theoretical testing of hypotheses.
Reference
Popenoe, R. (2012). Feeding desire: Fatness, beauty and sexuality among a Saharan people. Routledge.