New Guinea sago gatherers

Townsend, Patricia K.

doi:10.1080/03670244.1971.9990265

Cited by 19 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Food taboos during pregnancy are not present among the African !Kung and Hadza, or some Asli groups and the RuMuda in Malaysia ( Howell, 2010 , p. 23; Fitzpatrick, 2018 ; Bolton, 1972 ; Wilson, 1973 ). They do not differ from those applied to other critical life-stages among the Sago of Papua New Guinea ( Townsend, 1971 ), they seem to be less important than those during puberty among the Subarctic Athapaskan ( Asim et al, 2021 , as cited in Spielmann, 1989 ), and they are personal avoidances among the Mbuti ( Spielmann, 1989 ). The taboo on deformed plants among the Sirono of Bolivia does not substantially impact the diet of pregnant women ( Holmberg, 1950 ), whilst the animals prohibited among the Ntomba of Congo are rarely-consumed species ( Pagezy, 2006 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…The No or unspecified physiological complications category of taboo focus exemplifies the tendency of many societies to ascribe health problems to troubled relations with the non-material world ( Voeks & Sercombe, 2000 ), even though the avoidance of generic sickness and death, and physical-behavioural anomality, is often the final aim ( Table 3 ). For example, if pregnant Sago women of Papua New Guinea eat taboo foods they consider themselves generically at risk of being killed by the aye ipari spirits ( Townsend, 1971 ), while the spirits of taboo animals among the Orang Asli are thought to produce sawan , an umbrella term used to indicate severe illness ( Bolton, 1972 ). In Mornington Island, the consumption of unborn dugong foetus is banned to avoid children’s weakness ( Pearn & Sweet, 1977 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With regard to pregnancy, reasons that bring women to engage in taboos range from meeting family and social expectations to the point of “disagreeing but complying” ( Chang, Kenney & Chao, 2010 ), to the internalized belief that taboos are beneficial to the mother and the baby ( Otoo, Habib & Ankomah, 2015 ). Perceptions of wellbeing vary dramatically across cultures ( Napier, 2015 ), and the intervention of non-material forces are commonly seen as both causal agents of illness/death and the threats that taboos should protect from ( Carles, 2014 ; Bolton, 1972 ; Townsend, 1971 ). Therefore, taboos during pregnancy, as well as taboos focused on other life-stages, should be approached under the expectation that health and non-health intents related to the periods before, during and after childbirth may not be immediately distinguishable according to the western concept of “health”.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Food taboos during pregnancy: meta-analysis on cross cultural differences suggests specific, diet-related pressures on childbirth among agriculturalists

Maggiulli

Rufo

Johns

et al. 2022

PeerJ

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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 non-domesticated animal foods and to be justified by concerns not directly linked to the physiological sphere, whereas agricultural taboos tended to targed 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.

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