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Body image, body size,and Samoan ecological andindividual modernizationAlexandra A. Brewis a & Stephen T. McGarvey ba Department of Anthropology , The University ofGeorgia , Athens, GA, 30602–1619, USAb Department of Medicine and CommunityHealth , Brown University School of Medicine,The Miriam Hospital , Providence, RI, 02906, USAPublished online: 31 Aug 2010.

To cite this article: Alexandra A. Brewis & Stephen T. McGarvey (2000) Bodyimage, body size, and Samoan ecological and individual modernization, Ecology ofFood and Nutrition, 39:2, 105-120, DOI: 10.1080/03670244.2000.9991609

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Ecology of Food and Nutrition, Vol. 39(2), pp. 105-120 © 2000 OPA (Overseas Publishers Association) N.V.Reprints available directly from the publisher Published by license underPhotocopying permitted by license only the Gordon and Breach Publishers imprint.

Printed in Singapore.

BODY IMAGE, BODY SIZE, AND SAMOANECOLOGICAL AND INDIVIDUAL

MODERNIZATION

ALEXANDRA A. BREWIS1,* andSTEPHEN T. McGARVEY2

1Department of Anthropology, The University of Georgia,Athens, GA 30602-1619, USA;

2Departments of Medicine and Community Health,Brown University School of Medicine,

The Miriam Hospital, Providence, RI02906, USA

(Received March, 1998; in final form December 3, 1999)

Idealization of slim bodies is a powerful cultural value in economically advant-aged Western societies, and this value appears to be taking global dimensions.To examine the relationship between increasing ecological and individual mod-ernity and acculturation to slim ideals, Samoans living in three environmentswith different degrees of modernization (Samoa, American Samoa, Auckland)were compared on actual and perceptual measures of body size. Women inmore ecologically modern settings selected significantly slimmer ideal bodysizes, and they also had the largest bodies on average. One significant finding isthat the value placed on slim ideal bodies was less pronounced among Samoanswho live in environments where they represent the dominant ethnic group.However, disregarding setting, Samoan women who engaged in non-traditionaloccupations displayed slimmer ideals than those with traditional women's occupa-tions, but had the same mean body sizes. The male pattern is distinct from thatof women, as men in both more and less modernized ecologies selected similarmean ideal sizes of male bodies. Men in non-traditional occupations and thosewith more education idealized larger male bodies than their peers, and also hadgreater average body size. The Samoan case indicates that acculturation to slimideals may occur rapidly and can occur without the increase in body size that isgenerally associated with biological modernization of populations. Further, therelationship between modernizing ecologies and changing body image in Samo-ans appears to be highly sex-specific, influencing women to a greater degree.

* Corresponding author.

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106 A.A. BREWIS AND S.T. McGARVEY

KEY WORDS: Body image, adiposity, eating disorders, modernization, Poly-nesia, Samoans

INTRODUCTION

Veneration of thinness and fat aversion are powerful embodiedcultural messages in economically advantaged Western societies,particularly for women, and have been associated with epidemicincreases in eating and exercise disorders (Pate et al., 1992;Parker et al., 1995). Ethnographically, it has been repeatedlyobserved that a thin body ideal is not universal; plumpness orfatness is considered more attractive, more marriageable, higherstatus, or healthier than thinness in many human societies(Anderson et al., 1992; Brown and Konner, 1987). Fat phobiaand thin worship have even been posed as a Western culture-bound syndrome (Swartz, 1985; Prince, 1985) because they arerelatively uncommon in the ethnographic and historical spectra.In evolutionary terms, the attraction of female plumpness hasbeen posited as a psychologic feature of our species, being anadaptive male strategy for identifying a more reproductively fitmate (Smuts, 1992).

Recent research by psychologists has measurably demon-strated cross-cultural differences in what constitutes a desired ordesirable body size. For example, quantitative body image stud-ies have shown that Ugandan undergraduates view larger bodiesmore positively than same age British undergraduates (Furnhamand Baguma, 1994), as do women in Samoa when comparedto age-matched Sydney women (Wilkinson, Ben-Tovin andWalker, 1994). Israeli women have a more positive image oflarge bodies than matched American women (Barak et al., 1994),and Arab undergraduate women have a smaller discrepancybetween ideal and estimated own body size than undergraduateAmericans (Ford, Dolan and Evans, 1990). Within industrialsettings, ethnicity also often appears to influence views of appro-priate and desired bodies. For example, Anglo-Americans have aslimmer ideal or less positive view of large bodies than Mexican-Americans, African-Americans, Puerto-Rican Americans and

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MODERNIZING BODY IMAGE IN SAMOANS 107

sometimes Asian-Americans (Parker et al., 1995; Greenberg andLaPorte, 1996; Massara, 1979; Streigel-Moore et al., 1995). Sim-ilar patterns have been seen in migrants from less developedcountries to industrial urban centers. For example, Kenyanmigrants to Britain display larger body ideals than other Britishresidents that are similar to (but higher than) those of in situKenyans (Furnham and Alibhai, 1983), and several studies ofAsian-British and Asian-American women have shown their viewscan exceed even "mainstream Anglo" ideas of thinness eventhough they have smaller mean body sizes (Wardle et al., 1993).

Generally, it appears that ideal or desired body sizes candecrease markedly with increasing exposure to contemporaryWestern notions of slimness and economic modernity, andreduce even further in industrial settings as socioeconomic statusincreases (Goldblatt, Moore and Stunkard, 1965). However,there is no simple pattern of the change in body ideals with mod-ernization, and the relationship between slimming body idealsand degree of modernization is not necessarily linear. Raphaeland Lacey (1992) have proposed that the negative effects ofacculturation on body image are more dramatic, that is occurmore rapidly and notably, "...when the population is suddenlyimmersed in a society with those new values than when a societygradually acquires new values from outside." While some studiessupport this proposition, others do not. For example, Smith andCogswell (1994) found that in the Jamaican context plumpnessremains revered because "...favorable attitudes to plumpnessare strong enough to counteract foreign preoccupations withthinness." Akan and Grilo (1995) show that degree of assimila-tion with mainstream US culture appears unrelated to ethnicdifferences in body images in some groups.

At present, little is understood in a fundamental sense how,when, or why these transformations in views about bodies occurin the context of economic modernization, arguably one of thepowerful aspects of contemporary ecological change. Further,despite the observation that changes in body size are well docu-mented to occur in the process of modernization, it is also ill-specified how these apparent changes in body image articulatewith the actual changes in body size. Certainly, the food energy

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108 AA. BREWIS AND S.T. McGARVEY

enrichment of modernization almost always promotes a trend tolarger bodies (McGarvey et al., 1989) that is counter to apparentdownward trends in notions of ideal body size. Elsewhere, wehave discussed how Samoans are unlikely to regard themselvesas overweight or obese even when they are very large, and thatlarge Samoans are no more motivated to become slim than theirsmaller bodied peers, a pattern also seen in other Pacific Islandgroups (Brewis et al., 1998), and used the Samoan case to testboth evolutionary and "media-driven" explanations of why bodyimage distortion in women is so common and globalizing (Brewis,1999). Here we examine how Samoan body image and sizeappear to transform as Samoans engage with the process ofmodernization. To do this, we will compare both population/ecological and individual measures of differing degrees of mod-ernity with measures of body image and size.

To establish this population/ecological comparison, we usedthe model that posits ecologically valid comparisons can be madebetween Samoans living in different settings as these populationsrepresent a rough but meaningful gradient of exposure to influ-ences of modern life (Baker, Hanna and Baker, 1986 amongother workers). The settings we compare here are Samoa (for-merly termed Western Samoa), American Samoa, and the urbanarea of Auckland, New Zealand (see Figure 1). Samoa is classi-fied as the least economically modern site and Auckland themost. These three sites have large differences in diet, occupa-tional and activity patterns, and material item ownership anduse. The differences in these ecological modernization indicesare described in Table I. In Samoa and American Samoa,Samoans dominate numerically, socially and economically. InAuckland, Samoans are a minority immigrant group within adominantpakeha (Western) cultural milieu.

Studies that define modernization solely on the basis of wherethe individual lives provide only a limited understanding of theeffects of modernization because this can mask a variety of lifewaysthat represent different levels of modernization for individuals(Bindon and Baker, 1985). In conducting analyses of the relation-ship between individual lifestyle aspects of modernization and bodyimage ideals in Samoans we used number of years of schooling

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2

: ^ American Samoa.',

HEWZEALAMO

SOtx)O

a

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FIGURE 1 Map of the Pacific Region showing location of the study sites.Dow

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110 A.A. BREWIS AND S.T. McGARVEY

TABLE IEcological modernization indicators for Samoan populations, in percentage3

Indicator

Percentage of the populationSamoan

Men in subsistenceemployment

House DescriptorsSamoan-style open houseIndoor plumbingTelevision in houseElectricity in house

Samoa

98

72

37202074

American Samoa

94

7

3509195

Auckland, NZ

5

0

010097

100

"Data from Murphy and McGarvey (1994) and the American Samoa, Samoa andNew Zealand censuses.

and being employed in a non-traditional or traditional occupa-tion as our two measures. We compared those who completedtwelve years of education (equivalent to high school graduation)with those having fewer than twelve years of formal education.Examples of traditional occupations are farmer, chief, or house-wife. Non-traditional occupations include teacher or engineer.

Samoans are a particularly pertinent group in which to studybody image transformations because Samoan society tradition-ally valued large bodies and Samoan bodies have enlarged con-siderably in recent decades in association with ecological andeconomic change (McGarvey, 1991). According to ethnographicstudies and historical records, larger bodies are representationalof chiefly status, power (mana) and affluence so that obesity isconsidered the product of an individual's high status (Gould,1994; Howard, 1986). Aside from chiefly classes, premodernSamoan bodies were tall and well-built but not characteristicallyadipose (Sullivan, 1921; Wilkes, 1856). However, Samoan popu-lations in modern or modernizing settings display some of thehighest levels of adiposity of any human groups (McGarvey,1991). The health impact of this is apparent in elevated popula-tion risks for obesity-related diseases, including cardiovasculardisease and type II diabetes (Galanis et al., 1995; McGarvey

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MODERNIZING BODY IMAGE IN SAMOANS 111

et al., 1993; Zimmet et al., 1981). The cause of this increase inobesity is a complex interaction of relative genetic susceptibilityand modernizing environments, especially as related to changingdiet and activity patterns (McGarvey, 1991).

METHODS

This study used community-based samples of Samoans in Auck-land, New Zealand (N = 65) that were collected in conjunctionwith the Ola Fa'autauta project (Swinburn, Amosa and Bell,1997), and similarly recruited samples from eight villages in bothurban and rural Samoa (N = 160) and the urban center of PagoPago, American Samoa (A'" = 76) collected in conjunction withthe Brown University Adiposity and Cardiovascular DiseaseRisk Study (Chin Hong and McGarvey, 1996). The AmericanSamoan segment of the research was conducted only withwomen; the other samples comprise both sexes. We considermale and female data sets separately because the relationshipbetween changing ecological settings and body size/shape inSamoans is known to be highly sex-specific, particularly asrelated to distinct sex roles and associated activity patterns (Bin-don, 1995; McGarvey et al., 1989). Mean age of women in theSamoan sample (41.2 + 8.5) was the same as that in AmericanSamoa (41.6 ± 8.4), compared to a lower mean age and greater agerange for Auckland women (32.5 ± 13.9) and men (30.9 ± 15.5).The mean age of males in Samoa was 43.7 ± 8.7 years.

Each participant was asked to provide single ratings on avisual scale to describe their perceived current size and ideal size,and to answer a short series of questions regarding their desire tochange body size. The body image scale was comprised of linedrawings of ascending sized figures on a 0 to 100 scale, and theparticipants selected the point on the continuous scale usingfigures set each 10 points as a guide. This scale was adaptedfrom Furnham and Alibhai (1983) and redrawn to appear gener-ically Samoan. When we pretested several potential body imagemeasurement tools with Samoans in Auckland, including photo-graphic and computer generated images, we found that line

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112 AA. BREWIS AND S.T. McGARVEY

drawings were preferred and more easily distinguished. Anthro-pometric measures of height and weight were taken for eachparticipant to calculate body mass index (BMI: kg/m2), whichwas used as the measure of each individual's actual body size.

Comparisons of mean values in body image estimates and bodysize measures were made statistically using two-tailed Mests andone-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with post-hoc compar-isons. Significance was considered at p < 0.05. Initial analysiscomparing individual's above the 50th percentile in age to thosebelow indicated a lack of any statistically significant age associ-ation in all the variables under study (all/? > 0.05 between olderand younger cohorts of both women and men at each fieldsite).Therefore, age-associated differences were considered minimaland are not included in the discussion that follows.

RESULTS

Differing Ecological/population Contexts of Modernization andBody Image and Size

Using the comparison of American Samoa, Samoa, and Samoansin Auckland to represent Samoan populations living in three dif-ferent degrees of ecological modernization, Table II presents theresults of analyses of differences in measures of body size andbody image for each population by sex. The BMI of both menand women in Samoa are significantly lower than in the moremodern ecologies of American Samoa and Auckland. A BMI ofgreater than 32 is suggested to be an appropriate cut-off fordefining Polynesians as overweight or obese (Swinburn et al.,1995). [It is suggested that existing standards of what constitutesobesity are not suitably applied to Polynesians because at anygiven BMI they appear leaner than reference samples (Swinburnet al., 1995), and because the health risks associated with obesitymay occur only at higher weights or are less closely associatedwith risk factors (Hodge, Dowse and Zimmet, 1993; Pinhey,Heathcote and Rarick, 1994).] The mean BMI values in Auck-land and American Samoa, but not Samoa, exceed this cut-pointof 32 kg/m2.

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TABLE IIPerceived and actual Samoan body size and ideals by sex and population

sodw50N•zaaod

aw

Mean BMI(+ sd, range)

Percentage"obese"

(>BMI32)

Mean estimate ofcurrent size from

scale (+ sd)

Mean idealbody size from

scale (± sd)

Mean disparity(as percentage)

between perceivedcurrent and idealbody size (± sd)

Percentagecontent withcurrent size

WomenAucklandAmerican SamoaSamoa

MenAucklandSamoa

34.1(7.9,22-59)35.7(7.7,20-64)30.5 (5.8,19-47)

33.5(6.8,21-49)28.9 (5.3,18-40)

55.064.936.3

66.627.9

45.2 (24.6)48.9 (16.6)36.5 (13.7)

53.9 (20.9)37.2(12.1)

23.8 (10.7)35.1 (11.9)29.1 (10.5)

39.5 (5.8)28.4 (9.0)

48.5 (17.1)37.6 (17.1)39.2 (17.6)

35.1 (17.2)39.9(14.1)

7.519.345.8

16.632.5

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114 A.A. BREWIS AND S.T. McGARVEY

In all three populations, women perceived themselves as beinglarger on average than the size they indicated on the scale theywould most prefer to be, and this difference proved to be statist-ically significant. Women in Auckland identified a significantlysmaller ideal body size on average than women in Samoa andAmerican Samoa, and also demonstrated the greatest degree ofdisparity (48.5%) between the size they considered themselves tobe and that they indicated on average to be their ideal. Almostall women in Auckland (94.5%) wished to be smaller than theywere, compared with 54.2% of Samoan women. The male pat-tern was distinct from that displayed by women. Men in WesternSamoa (the less modern setting) identified a significantly smallerbody ideal than men in Auckland. The degree of disparitybetween perceived current size and ideal size was statisticallysimilar between the two populations. The difference in desire forchange in own body size between Auckland and Samoan womenwas also evident in the male samples, although the differencewas less pronounced.

Individual-level Measures of Modernization and Differences inBody Image and Size

Using measures of occupation and years of schooling as indirectindividual-level measures of modernization, differences in bodyimage and body size are presented in Table III. For women, therewas no significant difference between mean BMI and eitherparticipation in traditional versus non-traditional occupation orthose completing high school versus not completing high school.For men, there was a significant difference in BMI by the indi-vidual-level measures of modernization. Men with more school-ing (more than 12 years) had significantly higher mean BMI.However, men pursuing traditional occupations had significantlyhigher mean BMI than those in non-traditional occupations.

Women completing twelve years of education selected idealbody sizes that were statistically similar on average to womenwith less schooling. Both groups selected ideal body sizes thatwere on average smaller than the size women considered them-selves to be. Women in non-traditional occupations exhibited

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TABLE IIIPerceived and actual Samoan body size and ideals by sex and individual modernization measures

Mean BMI Percentage Mean estimate Mean ideal(+ sd, range) "obese" of current size body size

(>BMI32) from scale from scale(±sd) (±sd)

Mean disparity(as percentage)

between perceivedcurrent and idealbody size (+ sd)

Percentagecontent withcurrent size

2oo

N

1td

WomenNon-traditional occupationTraditional occupationCompleted high schoolDid not complete high school

MenNon-traditional occupationTraditional occupationCompleted high schoolDid not complete high school

33.6(6.9,22-59)33.2(7.7,19-64)33.5(6.8,20-59)32.5(6.8,20-59)

32.9(6.4,21-49)28.6(5.3,18-40)31.8(6.4,20-49)27.6(4.5,18-36)

55.049.654.341.8

56.228.350.020.5

44.1 (22.0)41.1 (16.7)43.3 (18.4)39.7(18.7)

50.4 (19.4)37.1 (12.6)45.1 (18.3)37.0 (12.4)

25.8(11.3)32.2(11.7)30.8 (12.6)30.1(11.6)

36.8(14.1)28.3 (9.1)34.0 (13.2)27.5 (8.4)

45.2 (18.4)38.77(16.5)41.8 (17.8)38.7 (16.0)

34.6 (15.3)40.9 (14.6)37.9 (15.3)39.7 (15.0)

10.538.425.147.5

18.732.833.322.7

Od

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116 A.A. BREWIS AND S.T. McGARVEY

a significantly smaller ideal body size than women in traditionaloccupations, even though their mean body size was greater.Thus, women in non-traditional occupations had a greater gapbetween ideal body size and the size they currently consideredthemselves to be on average than women in traditional occupa-tions. Men in non-traditional occupations and those with moreeducation idealized larger male bodies, and also had greateraverage BMI. Thus, there was no significant difference on thebasis of education or occupation in the mean disparity betweenideal and perceived current body size for men.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

The finding that BMI is lower in Samoa than among migrantSamoan populations and American Samoans replicates the find-ings of many previous studies of Polynesian adiposity (Bindonand Baker, 1985; Bindon, 1995; McGarvey, 1991; 1994; 1995).Samoan women in all three study populations selected body sizesas ideal that were significantly smaller than the body size theyperceived themselves to have. This ideal is comparatively slimalthough not skinny. Significantly, the idealism of slimmer bodiesis apparent among Samoan women even in the less modern set-ting of Samoa. This is in contrast to the "traditional" Samoanveneration of large bodies.

While a cross-sectional design such as was used in this studycannot determine the causal relationships between decreasingbody image, increasing body size, and ecological modernization,the following suggestions about this complex relationship aremade as the most reasonable interpretation of the results. First,increasing modernization results in the acquisition of slimmerbody ideals among women. The slimmest ideals are in Aucklandrepresenting the most modern site, while in Samoa women selectlarger ideals on average. When compared, the Samoa and Auck-land data suggest Samoan body ideals are becoming smaller inthe process of modernization, despite significant increases inactual body size. Second, slim body ideals can be acquired in theabsence of the profound changes in body size that are associated

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MODERNIZING BODY IMAGE IN SAMOANS 117

(albeit indirectly) with the food energy enrichment of ecologicalmodernization. Women in Samoa, posed as the least modernenvironment, pick an ideal body size that is significantly smallerthan their perceived current size, just as do women in the moremodern setting of Auckland. Third, while the idea of slim-fashion is being acquired this acquisition is less rapid or less salientin environments where Samoans remain the dominant culturalgroup. These Samoan analyses suggest that downward shifts inidealized body size may be more pronounced among migrantsmoving into ecologically modern settings (Auckland) rather thanwhere increasing exposure to ecological/economic moderniza-tion has been more gradual, and new ideas about the positivevalue of smaller bodies have been acquired less rapidly (Amer-ican Samoa and Samoa). American Samoans, with bigger bodiesand living in a social setting where Samoans remain dominantsocially, are maintaining more achievable ideal values. Fourth,there are gender differences in the speed and/or salience ofacquiring slim ideals in the process of modernization. While menin both Samoa and Auckland identified body ideals that weresignificantly smaller than their perceived current size, the malepattern is in contrast to the female one in that men in the moremodern setting (Auckland) selected an ideal size that was larger,and closer to their current perceived body weight, than did menin Samoa. It is notable, but not surprising, that such gender dif-ferences are apparent: this gender difference in body image,where male ideals tend to be less extreme than female, is now aconventional wisdom in studies of body image in Western popu-lations (Fallon and Rozin, 1985; Furnham et al., 1990), resultingfrom the understanding that Western cultural values promotegreater weight-consciousness among women than men (Garneret al., 1980), even if men are not unsusceptible to the messages(Cash and Hicks, 1990).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We gratefully acknowledge support for this research by grants from The Uni-versity of Auckland Research Committee and The Health Research Council of

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118 AA. BREWIS AND S.T. McGARVEY

New Zealand to AB, and NIH Grant #AG09376 to STM. We thank KristinaMaconaghie, Vandana Reddy, Julie Jones, and Bettina Parker for assistancein data collection and entry. We acknowledge the permission and support ofthe Public Health Division of the American Samoan Department of Health,the Nutrition Centre, Department of Health, Samoa, and local governmentofficials.

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