McNamara Katharine, Wood Elizabeth
Department of Environmental & Global Health College of Public Health and Health Professions, University of Florida, 1225 Center Drive, P.O. Box 100182, Gainesville, FL, 32610-0182, USA.
J Health Popul Nutr. 2019 Aug 7;38(1):17. doi: 10.1186/s41043-019-0170-8.
Household nutrition is influenced by interactions between food security and local knowledge negotiated along multiple axes of power. Such processes are situated within political and economic systems from which structural inequalities are reproduced at local, national, and global scales. Health beliefs and food taboos are two manifestations that emerge within these processes that may contribute beneficial, benign, or detrimental health outcomes. This study explores the social dimensions of food taboos and health beliefs in rural Khatlon province, Tajikistan and their potential impact on household-level nutrition. Our analysis considers the current and historical and political context of Tajikistan, with particular attention directed towards evolving gender roles in the wake of mass out-migration of men from 1990 to the present. Considering the patrilieneal, patrilocal social system typical to Khatlon, focus group discussions were conducted with the primary decision-making groups of the household: in-married women, mothers-in-law, and men. During focus groups, participants discussed age- and gender-differentiated taboos that call for avoidance of several foods central to the Tajik diet during sensitive periods in the life cycle when micronutrient and energy requirements peak: infancy and early childhood (under 2 years of age), pregnancy, and lactation. Participants described dynamic and complex processes of knowledge sharing and food practices that challenge essentialist depictions of local knowledges. Our findings are useful for exploring entaglements of gender and health that play out across multiple spatial and temporal scales. While this study is situated in the context of nutrition and agriculture extension, we hope researchers and practitioners of diverse epistemologies will draw connections to diverse areas of inquiry and applications.
家庭营养受到粮食安全与沿多个权力轴协商的地方知识之间相互作用的影响。这些过程存在于政治和经济体系之中，而结构不平等正是在地方、国家和全球层面通过这些体系得以再现。健康观念和食物禁忌是这些过程中出现的两种表现形式，它们可能带来有益、无害或有害的健康结果。本研究探讨了塔吉克斯坦哈特隆省农村地区食物禁忌和健康观念的社会层面及其对家庭层面营养的潜在影响。我们的分析考虑了塔吉克斯坦的当前、历史和政治背景，尤其关注自1990年至今男性大规模外出移民后不断演变的性别角色。考虑到哈特隆典型的父系、从夫居社会制度，我们与家庭中的主要决策群体进行了焦点小组讨论：嫁入的女性、婆婆和男性。在焦点小组讨论中，参与者讨论了按年龄和性别区分的禁忌，这些禁忌要求在生命周期中微量营养素和能量需求达到峰值的敏感时期避免食用塔吉克饮食中的几种核心食物：婴儿期和幼儿期（2岁以下）、孕期和哺乳期。参与者描述了知识共享和食物实践的动态复杂过程，这些过程挑战了对地方知识的本质主义描述。我们的研究结果有助于探索在多个空间和时间尺度上呈现的性别与健康的交织情况。虽然本研究是在营养与农业推广的背景下进行的，但我们希望不同认识论的研究人员和从业者能够将其与不同的研究和应用领域建立联系。
