Tradition and Limits: Polemical Construction of Body Size Among the Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria

Large body size is a major risk factor in the development of chronic diseases. However, Africans are reputed for appreciating large body size. Narratives of socially constructed knowledge of body size are seemingly nonexistent among the Yorùbá. Hence, this research was designed to explore social construction of body size among the Yorùbá. Relying on a triangulation of qualitative methods, this study reflects the evidence that though there are antecedents of traditional veneration of large body, the traditional Yorùbá culture invokes frames of references that impose limitations on such veneration. Moreover, social construction of body size has undergone tremendous changes, which divide this construction along the traditional and the modern. The latter secures remarkable acceptance in contemporary Yorùbá society. The reflection of this modern attitude on body size maintaining or reducing actions appear most significant in Yorùbá culture. © 2017, Springer Science+Business Media New York.