Research Methods in Nutritional Anthropology (UNU, 1989, 201 pages): Foreword

Research Methods in Nutritional Anthropology (UNU, 1989, 201 pages)

Acknowledgement

Foreword

Introduction: Methodological directions in nutritional anthropology

(introductory text...)

References

1. Methods for determinants of food intake

(introductory text...)

Introduction

Overview of factors in human food selection

Economic and ecological factors affecting food choice

Sensory characteristics affecting food selection

Perception of physiological effects and food classification

Cultural symbolic dimension

The socio-cultural construction of diets

Summary and conclusions

References

Appendix 1. Obesity and cultural weight valuations (A variation on the method suggested by Massara, 1980)

Appendix 2. Dietary decision-making: formal models and ethnographic Qualifications

Appendix 3. Bitter or astringent taste standards

Appendix 4. A field test for estimating sweetness preferences to improve estimates of sucrose intakes in individuals

Appendix 5. Methods for describing staple food classifications

Appendix 6. Symbolic, folkloric, and medicinal factors

Appendix 7. Gender factors

2. Strategies of field research in nutritional anthropology

(introductory text...)

Introduction

Experimental and naturalistic field research

Prediction, cause, and causality

Selection of research communities

Collaboration with community people

Sample size and population definition

The household as a primary research unit

The structure of variables: categories versus variations

Quantitative and qualitative data and the EMIC/ETIC issue

Conclusions

References

3. Methodological procedures for analysing energy expenditure

(introductory text...)

Introduction

Survey of habitual activities

Determination of critical activities

Determination of key participants

Measuring energy expenditure rates

Time-motion analysis

Estimation of energy expenditure rates from time-allocation data

Assessment of endurance capacity

Summary

References

4. The relevance of time-allocation analyses nutritional anthropology: The relationship of time and household organization to nutrient intake and status

(introductory text...)

Introduction

Methods of data collection

(introductory text...)

Random or spot observations

Day-long observations

Processing and interpreting data

Procedures for collecting and analysing time-activity data efficiently and effectively

Conclusions

References

Appendix 1. Messer, mitla field notes, 4 September 1980

5. Cultural patterning and group-shared rules in the study of food intake

(introductory text...)

Introduction

Methods for studying cultural rules for food use

Research techniques

Social units

Food choices: a process of many phases

Levels and units of analysis

A comprehensive interview approach to food patterning

(introductory text...)

Three studies of meal-format rules

Actual meal data

Conclusion

6. Elementary mathematical models and statistical methods for nutritional anthropology

(introductory text...)

Introduction

Prediction models

Preference relations

Decision-making models and optimization analysis

Input-output analysis

Stochastic process models

Conclusion

References

Other UNU titles of interest

Foreword

Nutritional anthropology has emerged as a new branch of applied anthropology over the past 15 years, and its methods are having an important influence on the methods of nutrition survey and nutritional epidemiology. This book originated with United Nations University support for a workshop organized by the International Union of Nutrition Science's (IUNS) Committee on Nutritional Anthropology. This workshop was convened at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in September 1981. The IUNS committee, under the chairmanship of Gretel Pelto, commissioned the papers in this volume.

The field of nutritional anthropology has continued to develop rapidly since the original workshop and the subsequent period in which the chapters were written. Nevertheless, the chapters provide targeted methodological guidance that is not available elsewhere for applying anthropological methods to the conceptionalizing, conducting, and analysing of nutritional studies.

This book is intended for both anthropologists and nutritionists who are pursuing community nutrition studies in either industrialized or developing countries. It provides solid information on the development and application of anthropological methodologies for studying key aspects of the nutrition of individuals, families, and communities. An introductory overview of methodological options in nutritional anthropology and strategies for field research provide a background for the more specialized chapters, which deal with methods for studying nutritionally related social behaviour and household functioning, the determinants of food intake, the analysis of energy expenditure, and appropriate statistical methodologies.

The United Nations University has also encouraged the extension of anthropology to nutrition by the continuing sponsorship of a computerized global "Directory of Anthropologists and Sociologists Concerned with Food and Nutrition" and by establishing, with UNICEF and Ford Foundation support, a worldwide network for the involvement of anthropologists in the assessment of programmes of nutrition and primary health care. The experience of this network has resulted in the development of a monograph, Rapid Assessment Procedures for Nutrition and Primary Health Care: Anthropological Approaches to Improving Programme Effectiveness. This monograph has been published in English and Spanish by the Latin American Center, University of California, Los Angeles.

The United Nations University hopes that these publications will contribute significantly to the increasing recognition and use of nutritional anthropology in developing as well as industrialized countries.

Nevin S. Scrimshaw,
Director,
Food and Nutrition Programme,
United Nations University