Politics of the «healthy» body in a postcolonial context: food and «obesity» in Wallis-and-Futuna

Abstract

Health workers in Wallis-and-Futuna (a French possession in the South Pacific) most often blame local « culture » as the main obstacle to public health interventions regarding obesity. Polynesian culture would encourage people to stay obese by valuing « large bodies » as marking either fertility for women, or strength and power for men. These representations have been quite common in the South Pacific, as in many other places, but now seem to be shifting under the double influence of public health policies on the one hand, and the generalization of global beauty standards on the other hand. This paper examines the various corporeal norms that circulate within the archipelago, showing that they are finally far less « cultural » than they are social, and even political in the sense that bodies reflect both economic inequalities and an asymetrical relationship to the French State.