Dynamics of Food Consumption in a Q'eqchi' Maya Community

摘要

This thesis examines how a nutrition transition effects identity, locality, and economy in a Q'eqchi' Maya aldea (hamlet) near Livingston, Guatemala, located along the Caribbean coast. The data collected explore community members' attitudes and behaviors regarding food consumption, food sources, and health---both individual and familial. This thesis examines the structuralist categories community members created within a larger discussion of the effects of globalization and economic development on indigenous communities. Analysis explored how external processed food companies profit by hijacking internal cultural attributes. Findings indicate that, as community members have had consistent contact with external forces for at least 25 years, local notions of healthiness have accommodated processed foods into the diet. Based on these findings, this research enhances our understandings of how processed food companies have used marketing and branding to insert themselves into rural communities---what Thomas Leatherman calls "Coca Colonization."