I questioned what is normal when Dundes mentions the sacredness of the number 4, since based on my cultural biased I agree on the sacredness of the number 3.

 

In Lima within the high socio-economic circle, women were traditionally expected to get a degree, get married, have kids and become a housewife (least that was the expectation for my parents generation). With increasing globalization, influx of new ideas and increase in opportunities I think it would be interesting to explore if young women of my generation feel like they are expected/pressured to follow that same pattern or if  view of what is considered acceptable for women in the city of Lima is shifting. 

You could argue that Imo's behaviors were not cultural because there was an evolutionary reason behind them, whereas, with humans, cultural tendencies can seem mostly random and subjective. 

Ethnography, through observation, participation, and reflexivity, can reveal the “machinery” that leads to “globesity.”  Governments gather alarming numbers and rush to lower them without necessarily understanding the root-causes of the issue. Therefore, obesity is tackled superficially, and the outcome is unexpectedly dissatisfactory. 

Ethnographies will discern the varying perceptions of fat in different communities and cultures. There is no universal truth about the opinion or relationship to fat; therefore, there can’t be a unique remedy to obesity. Based on the views of it, adequate and fitting solutions to it can be elaborated for each community. For instance, in societies where fat is beautiful, fat-shaming advertisement, on the one hand, would be culturally insensitive, and on the other, would be ineffective in encouraging improved nutrition. A suitable approach in this situation is perhaps to focus more on the negative ways in which fat affects health rather than physical appearance.