Nourishing Identity: the Intersection of Foodways, Body Image, & Cultural Values in Perugia, Italy

Abstract

Electronic Thesis or DissertationThe bodies of women are especially contested spaces through expectations of bodily size, beauty, and aesthetics. These expectations hurt not only women’s physical bodies but also their mental representations of themselves in the form of body image. In pursuit of the idealized body, food may be sacrificed, leading to mental illnesses such as eating disorders which can affect 15.3% of women by their mid-life according to a study in the UK (Micali et al., 2017) and can sometimes be fatal. Thin-ideal internalization is reinforced through mass media, social relationships, and other extrinsic factors (Thompson & Stice, 2001). Therefore, it is essential for global health to investigate the sociocultural forces that affect body image and especially foodways. This research investigated the degree to which the culinary tradition in Perugia, Italy – a locality where food holds deep cultural significance- affects the body image of women ages 18-30. Few studies have examined cultural foodways and their impacts on the lived experiences of women in their bodies. While studies have investigated food behaviors and eating disorders, no ethnographic studies have examined the influence of cultural foodways upon the construction and maintenance of body image within the lives of women in Perugia. This study critically analyzes culinary tradition, embodied dispositions towards Christianity, and the mother-daughter dyad in the creation and maintenance of body image and its subsequent effect on eating behaviors. Drawing on field research, interviews, and existing scholarship, this work contributes to the anthropological notion that the body is a rich wellspring of anthropological knowledge (Csordas,1994). Ultimately, this research asserts that cultural models of the body are deeply intertwined with culinary traditions and one’s cultural locality, affecting even the tacit expressions of everyday life