Maggiulli, Ornella, Rufo, Fabrizio, Johns, Sarah E., Wells, Jonathan C. (2022) Food taboos during pregnancy: meta-analysis on cross cultural differences suggests specific, diet-related pressures on childbirth among agriculturalists. PeerJ, 10 . Article Number e13633. ISSN 2167-8359. (doi:10.7717/peerj.13633) (KAR id:95497)
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Official URL: https://peerj.com/articles/13633/ |
Abstract
Pregnancy is the most delicate stage of human life history as well as a common target
of food taboos across cultures. Despite puzzling evidence that many pregnant women
across the world reduce their intake of nutritious foods to accomplish cultural norms,
no study has provided statistical analysis of cross-cultural variation in food taboos
during pregnancy. Moreover, antenatal practices among forager and agriculturalists
have never been compared, despite subsistence mode being known to affect staple foods
and lifestyle directly. This gap hinders to us from understanding the overall threats
attributed to pregnancy, and their perceived nutritional causes around the world. The
present study constitutes the first cross-cultural meta-analysis on food taboos during
pregnancy. We examined thirty-two articles on dietary antenatal restrictions among
agricultural and non-agricultural societies, in order to: (i) identify cross-culturally
targeted animal, plant and miscellaneous foods; (ii) define major clusters of taboo
focus; (iii) test the hypothesis that food types and clusters of focus distribute differently
between agricultural and non-agricultural taboos; and (iv) test the hypothesis that food
types distribute differently across the clusters of taboo focus. All data were analysed
in SPSS and RStudio using chi-squared tests and Fisher’s exact tests. We detected a
gradient in taboo focus that ranged from no direct physiological interest to the fear
of varied physiological complications to a very specific concern over increased birth
weight and difficult delivery. Non-agricultural taboos were more likely to target
nondomesticated animal foods and to be justified by concerns not directly linked to the
physiological sphere, whereas agricultural taboos tended to target more cultivated and
processed products and showed a stronger association with concerns over increased
birth weight. Despite some methodological discrepancies in the existing literature on
food taboos during pregnancy, our results illustrate that such cultural traits are useful
for detecting perception of biological pressures on reproduction across cultures. Indeed,
the widespread concern over birth weight and carbohydrate rich foods overlaps with
clinical evidence that obstructed labor is a major threat to maternal life in Africa,
Asia and Eurasia. Furthermore, asymmetry in the frequency of such concern across
subsistence modes aligns with the evolutionary perspective that agriculture may have
exacerbated delivery complications. This study highlights the need for the improved
understanding of dietary behaviors during pregnancy across the world, addressing the
role of obstructed labor as a key point of convergence between clinical, evolutionary
and cultural issues in human behavior.
Item Type: | Article |
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DOI/Identification number: | 10.7717/peerj.13633 |
Uncontrolled keywords: | Food taboos, Pregnancy, Obstructed labor, Evolution of human diet, Evolution of human subsistence patterns, Agriculture, Obstetric dilemma, Hunter-gatherers, Phenotypic plasticity , Anthropology |
Subjects: |
G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology H Social Sciences H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Women R Medicine > RG Gynecology and obstetrics R Medicine > RG Gynecology and obstetrics > RG551 Pregnancy |
Divisions: | Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Anthropology and Conservation |
Depositing User: | Sarah Johns |
Date Deposited: | 20 Jun 2022 09:37 UTC |
Last Modified: | 12 Jul 2022 08:49 UTC |
Resource URI: | https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/95497 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes) |
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