Chapter: Corporate Anthropologists, page 24

The article talked about how anthropologists play an important role in the corporate environment. Anthropologists have been working with businesses since the 1930's, however in the 1980's this field experienced significant growth. This was due to the "globalization of business activity and the increased awareness of the importance of culture for business," (Laabs 24). Cultural anthropology is the study of existing people and corporations find this information useful in trying

Peter Brown, the anthropologist who wrote the article, gave his perception on obesity. He believes that "an anthropological model of culture has significant advantages over the commonly used undifferentiated concept of 'environment' for generating hypotheses about behavioral causes of obesity," (Brown 93). Brown states that the problem of obesity and overweight is that today's industry thrives on the culture belief about having the perfect body and sexual attractiveness rather on the medical perspective. Obesity and being overweight is not just a psychological issue but a serious health issue. Brown claims that there are four facts about the social distribution of society that must be addressed. They are: "1) The gender difference in the total percent and site distribution of body fat, as well as the prevalence of obesity; 2) the concentration of obesity in certain ethnic groups; 3) the increase in obesity associated with economic modernization; and 4) the powerful and complex relationship between social class and obesity," (Brown 94). He goes on to further state that "human biology and behavior can be understood in the context of two distinct processes of evolution," (Brown 96). The two processes are natural selection and historical changes in the structure of cultural systems. Furthermore, Brown states "Because the concept of culture is rarely considered in medical research on obesity, and because I am suggesting that this concept has advantages over the more common and undifferentiated term environment, it is necessary to review some basic aspects of this anthropological term," (Brown 97). He provides a diagram that explains culture in relation to obesity. He concludes that fatness is "symbolically linked to psychological dimensions, such as self-worth and sexuality," (Brown 99) but continues to state that this is not a consistent symbol. In some cultures fatness symbolizes wealth and health. Lastly he concludes that culture and its relation to obesity can be concluded practically and theoretically. "First, recognition of cultural variation in beliefs and behaviors related to obesity needs to be incorporated into health programs aimed at reducing the prevalence of obesity. The second conclusion regards the need for more research on the role of culture, as it interacts with genes, on the etiology of obesity," (Brown 101).

The anthropologist's experiences came from first hand knowledge when trying to give gifts to the people that they were studying. One anthropologist by the name of Richard Lee, from the University of Toronto, had an experience with the !Kung hunter-gatherers. He gave the tribe an ox as a token of good will but all the !Kung did was complain about how scrawny the ox was. "Only later did Lee learn, with relief, that the !Kung belittle all gifts," (Cronk 144). According to the !Kung ridiculing gifts "is their way of diminishing the expected return and of enforcing humility on those who would use gifts to raise their own status within the group," (Cronk 144). Another example from an anthropologist was by Rada Dyson-Hudson, from Cornell University. Dyson-Hudson gave the Turkana's of Kenya pots, maize meal, tobacco, and other items. Much to her dismay it was less than appreciated. "A typical response to a gift of a pot, for example, might be, 'Where is the maize meal to go in this pot?' or, 'Don't you have a bigger one to give me?' To the Turkana, these are legitimate and expected questions," (Cronk 144).

McIntosh explains that as a white person she had been sheltered from the privileges that she had. "I think whites are taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege," (McIntosh 135). She compiled a list of things that she encounters daily that are a privilege to white people that may not come so easily to a person of a different race. For example one item states that she "can turn on the television or open the front page of the paper

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