An ethnographic investigation of lifestyle change, living for the moment, and obesity emergence in Nauru

Thesis

The Republic of Nauru, a small Pacific island nation, has one of the highest obesity rates in the world. Obesity emerged rapidly in Nauru during the 1970s, a period characterised by political independence and unprecedented economic growth resulting from lucrative phosphate mining. In the mid-1970s, the Nauruan population was one of the first in the world in which obesity, diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease – co-morbidities associated with obesity – were identified as significant ...

Expand abstract

Authors: McLennan, A

• Publication date: 2013
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Nauru; economic anthropology; emotion; exchange; social relations; moral values; obesity; diabetes; lifestyle disease; economic change; time; ethnography
• Subjects: Social anthropology; Anthropology; Medical and ecological anthropology