Summary
This article examines the anthropology of nutrition – a dynamically developing branch of research of modern ethnologists, social and medical anthropologists. On the one hand, it is based on dietary research, and on the other – on the consideration of cultural phenomena influenced by natural factors. This article establishes the relationship between the state of health and the peculiarities of human nutrition. The purpose of this article is to define healthy food with a focus on understanding the internal point of view of the people and the terms used. In some traditional societies, healthy food becomes symbolic, especially from the point of view of a person’s spiritual connection with ancestors, gods and animals. Scientists note that this meaning is acquired by food, which is useful from a biological point of view.
The main arguments given by scientists are examples of diets of different people. For example, for the Inuit from Arctic Canada, eating the meat of a freshly caught seal is an important ritual of human unity with animals. Healthy eating among the Inuit is directly related to the ideas about the ecological balance of human and seal populations (Dufour and Piperata 2018). Therefore, the key to health is the consumption of all parts of the body of seals. At the same time, from the point of view of anthropology, it is important not only what people eat in different cultures. The article also explores the process of cooking and eating, especially ceremonial meals. Scientists focus on the geographical and climatic aspect of nutrition. Thus, the article covered such a topic as the connection of the symbolism of various products with their health benefits.
Reflection
The anthropological concept of health differs in many ways from the definitions given by other disciplines. The technical definition takes into account only the current physical condition, while the anthropological definition considers its cause. The mainstream definition of health also focuses on physical symptoms, whereas the anthropological definition is closely related to the cultural characteristics of a person. This perspective brings more dimensions to the analysis, as attention is paid to the cultural contexts of health, illness and healing. In all societies, regardless of their level of development, health problems are always in the spotlight. The complex of ideas and practices associated with them is a stable element of any culture; the perspective of medical anthropology allows it to be included in the analysis.
The voices of individual nationalities are here through anthropological analysis and those voices are silenced in conventional understandings of health. The study of the question of ways to preserve health has led to diverse studies of the potential of traditional medicine. Anthropology, unlike conventional medicine, is aware of alternative practices characteristic of different people, such as herbalism, spiritual healing, magico-religious healing. This article has changed my preconceived notices of the nutritiology. I learned that through practices related to the selection, preparation and consumption of food, it is possible to understand how a society or an individual group lives. In addition, the connection of the symbolism of individual products with their greatest nutritional value for a particular people was new for me. I discovered that what people eat depends not only on the availability of food resources, cultural traditions and technological advances. It is also based on the genetically determined ability to digest a particular type of food.
Reference
Dufour, Darna, and Barbabra Piperata. 2018. “Reflections on Nutrition in Biological Anthropology.” The American Journal of Physical Anthropology 165 (4): 855-864.