Frameworks of population obesity and the use of cultural consensus modeling in the study of environments contributing to obesity Stanley J. Ulijaszek Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Unit for Biocultural Variation and Obesity, University of Oxford, 51 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6PF, UK Abstract Obesity in Eastern Europe has been linked to privilege and status prior to the collapse of communism, and to exposure to free-market economics after it. Neither formulation is a complete explanation, and it is useful to examine the potential value of other models of population obesity for the understanding of this phenomenon. These include those of: thrifty genotypes; obesogenic behaviour; obesogenic environments; nutrition transition; obesogenic culture; and biocultural interactions of genetics, environment, behaviour and culture. At the broadest level, obesity emerges from the interaction of thrifty genotype with obesogenic environment. However, defining obesogenic environments remains problematic, especially in relation to sociocultural factors. Furthermore, since different identity groups may share different values concerning the obesogenicity of the environment, a priori assumptions about group homogeneity may lead to flawed interpretations of the importance of sociocultural factors in obesogenic environments. A new way to identify cultural coherence of groups and populations in relation to environments contributing to obesity is put forward here, that of cultural consensus modeling. # 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Obesogenic environment; Eastern Europe; Economic transition; Genetics; Culture; Consensus; Obesity 1. Introduction Across the past 60 years or so, social, economic and technological changes have altered patterns of life almost everywhere on earth. In tandem, changes in diet and physical activity patterns have been central to the emergence of obesity among many of the world’s populations http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ehb Economics and Human Biology 5 (2007) 443–457 E-mail address: Stanley.ulijaszek@anthro.ox.ac.uk. 1570-677X/$ – see front matter # 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ehb.2007.08.006