Year of Award

2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Name

Anthropology (Cultural Heritage and Applied Anthropology Option)

Department or School/College

Department of Anthropology

Committee Chair

Gregory Campbell

Commitee Members

Leora Bar-el, Kelly Dixon, Blakely Brown, David Beck

Abstract

Often an individualistic, consumerist strategy is promoted as the solution to decrease the growing prevalence of diet-related diseases. Unfortunately, this logic is ahistorical and apolitical while privileging pathological individualism, capitalistic consumerism, and prevalent diets within the United States. This reasoning fails to recognize diet construction across time by ideologies, policies, and practices. Such an outlook misses the reality that many people cannot escape the grip of the modern, pervasive, ultra-processed food system.

Several Native American populations find themselves plagued with high rates of diet-related diseases. Standard mantra shoulders these communities with their plight, often framing the discourse as personal responsibility and failed willpower instead of focusing on policy and systems.

Alternatively, vague abstractions are often shallowly discussed while obfuscating past and present laws, policies, and practices of governments, corporations, collectives, or individuals that harmed and continue to harm people and their food systems and continue to hamper individuals and communities.

Academics frequently spotlight health outcomes and vaguely described contributions to health consequences in Indigenous communities. For example, descriptions of Salish communities repeatedly include morbidity and mortality rates but the social arrangements and mechanisms of action contributing to disease, or a more in-depth exploration of the social, political, and economic health determinants often skimmed over, not reviewed, or accounted for at all. Common glossing over and limited accounting operates as a form of erasure, leaving out essential details of communities' lived realities.

This research explores relationships between politics, economy, policy, practices, and systems to assess these components' impact on diet and health outcomes of Salish people. A mixed-methods study provided qualitative and quantitative insights into Salish people's local food system, dietary patterns, and diet-related health outcomes. This work examines the linkages between environment, food systems, foodscapes, policy, and programming to highlight the interrelated connections between ecosystem, politics, economics, individual decisions, social patterns, and health in the Salish people of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation. The study contextualizes and provides detailed, nuanced understanding of factors impacting Salish communities' present food system, foodscape, dietary patterns, and related health outcomes.

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© Copyright 2023 Joshua William Brown