An obesity epidemic in Tonga? Anthropological accounts on the weight of the body between medicalization and blame
Dienstag, 21.10.2025, 18:30 UhrOnline-Vortrag der OSPG, Wien
Zur Anmeldung: bokuvienna.zoom.us/j/64096405389#success
Vortrag von Dr. Gaia Cottino, Ecampus University, Italy
An obesity epidemic in Tonga? Anthropological accounts on the weight of the body between medicalization and blame
The population of Tonga appears at the top of the list of the world’s most obese countries, together with other Polynesian island states, and for this reason UN health Agency WHO has declared an “obesity epidemic” in the Archipelago. The talk will explore such an epidemic, through data collected in years of ethnographic research in the archipelago, illustrating the cultural and social context in which these bodies are defined obese. By addressing the food habits and patterns, body and beauty ideals and their constant generational restructuring, and the health issues of the local population, tackling the indexes used to measure bodies, a different picture will emerge, that of a medicalization of big body sizes, to be blamed as careless of their wellbeing. Short bio
Gaia Cottino is a Tenure Track Researcher at Ecampus University. Between islands and mountains has carried put research in Oceania (Hawaii and Tonga) as well as on the Western Alps. Her main field of interest are food, body and health, with a specific focus on indigenous knowledge on land and sea. She published numerous articles on italian and international journals and the following books: Il Peso del corpo. Un’analisi antropologica dell’obesità a Tonga, Unicopli (n.e. 2022), Verso Monte. Nuove mobilità e culture del cibo nella Alpi occidentali, Unicopli (2023) e Cavallette a colazione. I cibi del futuro tra gusto e disgusto, Utet (2024).
