ANTHROPOLOGY-BACKGROUND PAPER Anthropological Contributions to Nutrition Education Research Gretel H. Pelto Over the past several decades, the productive collaboration of nutritionists and anthropologists has led to new avenues of re- search, reflected particularly in the emergence of an ecological approach to the study of food use and nutrition issues in human communities. The journal Ecology of Food and Nutrition as well as journals such as Human Ecology and Medical Anthro- pology provides evidence of the benefits of this disciplinary cross-fertilization. Anthropologists of various persuasions, in- cluding archaeologists, human biologists, and cultural ecologists, increasingly include food and nutrition as significant aspects of study. Nutritionists are broadening their research perspectives to take into account a number of variables traditionally in the domain of anthropology. To date, however, the interfacing of anthropology with nutrition education and nutrition education research has not been examined as fully as have other aspects of collaboration between the two fields. The discussion here will focus on potential anthropological contributions to two components of nutrition education re- search: I) the study of dietary behavior (food habits) and 2) the evaluation of nutrition education activities. The importance of dietary behavior research and of evalua- tion for the discipline of nutrition education has been frequently articulated. For example, an American Dietetic Association po- sition paper on nutrition education asserts that evaluation must be an integral part of all nutrition education activities (I). Re- garding the study of dietary behavior as a significant aspect of the "discipline of nutrition education," Maretski writes: The scientific study of human food behavior in naturalist settings must provide the theoretical basis for a science of nutrition education in both community and classroom..... Perhaps in its infancy the field of nutrition could not en- compass enough of the social sciences to justify the argu- ment that there are, in fact, a range of nutritional sciences which contribute to our understanding of what we eat, why we eat it, and how diet affects the health and well-being of both individuals and of the society as a whole. Today this recognition is crucial to the development of the field of nu- trition education (2). In a farewell editorial as editor of the Journal of Nutrition Education, Ullrich discusses both of these themes: When JNE started publication, there were few evaluation techniques to measure the effectiveness of nutrition educa- tion programs. Nutritionists tended to be satisfied if people seemed to enjoy the puppet show or read the labels. Today, our expectations of effectiveness are increased. The research methodology in nutrition education is expanding. The in- quiry into influences which bring about particular eating habits and affect behavior change is readily developing. Nu- trition education is a field that is discovering exciting new dimensions (3). THE A UTHOR is Associate Professor, Department of Nutri- tional Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06268. S2 JOURNAL OF NUTRITION EDUCATION The contributions of anthropological method and theory to these two important areas of nutrition education are not alto- gether clearly distinguishable from the contributions of other social sciences. The social and behavioral sciences have a long history of communication - borrowing, adapting, and building on each other's methods and theories. In highlighting a series of main points in the discussion that follows, anthropological ap- proaches should be seen as part of a body of social and behav- ioral science perspectives, all of which potentially have important roles to play in the development of nutrition education research. THE STUDY OF DIETARY BEHAVIOR Anthropological interest in food acquisition and diet can be traced back to the 19th century or even earlier, although there was little in the way of organized research until the emergence of functionalist theory in the I920s and I930s. Anthropological in- terest in dietary behavior from an applied perspective (that is, re- search for the purpose of intervening and changing behavior, as contrasted with a major emphasis on recording and analyzing it) dates to the Second World War and the Committee on the Study of Food Habits, headed by Margaret Mead. The work of this committee, reflected in the Manualfor the Study ofFood Habits (4), and the research of J. W. Bennett (Note I) and others was intended to generate practical and significant data for nutrition- ists to use in implementing programs of planned change. In the years immediately after the war, applied anthropological interest in food and health shifted from a focus on the United States (as in the Committee on Food Habits) to concern about societies that were brought into direct contact with United States public health and nutrition services (e.g., in Micronesia). The development of ecological theory directed anthropological attention again to issues of food and nutrition after a hiatus dur- ing the 1950s. However, the interest was primarily with food sys- tems rather than individual dietary behaviors. Although the cor- pus of studies is still very small, anthropological research into dietary behavior, particularly during the 1970s, provides us with some guidelines and examples of key features of anthropological theory and method that relate to the study of dietary behavior. Throughout our discussion, the expression "dietary behavior" will be used, rather than "food habits." The phrase "food hab- its" was commonly used in previous years to describe this type of research interest but carries with it connotations of stability and "customariness." The term is thus theoretically "loaded," implying characteristics that the activity may not exhibit. We therefore prefer the more neutral term "dietary behavior," which carries active and dynamic connotations, at least in its nontech- nical, common usage (Note 2). "HOLISM": A SYSTEMS APPROACH TO DIETARY BEHAVIOR From its very inception, a major feature of anthropological theory has been the concept of "holism," which emphasizes a multidimensional approach to studying and understanding hu- man behavior and society. Social, cultural, economic, political, VOLUME 13 NUMBER 1 SUPPLEMENT 1981