To eat or not to eat, is that the question? An anthropological approach to the study of eating disorders

Abstract

This article presents an argument for the relevance of the anthropological gaze in the study of eating disorders. Anthropology offers ways of understanding the social forces underlying food and eating practices that defy convention and are treated as irrational in biomedical discourse. Most studies of the social determinants of health, especially those dealing with their influence on nutritional and/or psychological status, are epidemiological, and although they shed light on the prevalence and course of eating disorders, they tend to offer overly simplified or insufficient explanations of the sociocultural dimensions of the problem, in terms of both its causes and its consequences. This article offers a holistic approach to the analysis of eating disorders that joins subjectivity to context. The sources of data used to develop answers to the question of how food, the body, and women are linked in eating disorders are life stories, group interviews, Internet blogs, and direct observation. Ethnography’s main contribution lies in its contextualized and relational approach to the conceptions and experiences of the various actors involved in the health/illness/treatment process, especially in interactions between patients and health professionals.