“Oh God, Save Us from Sugar”: An Ethnographic Exploration of Diabetes Mellitus in the United Arab Emirates

Abstract

This article explores diabetes mellitus in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with an analysis of gift exchange and hospitality revealing how rapid environmental and economic transformations have led to chronicities of physical activity, food, and stress; uniting at a critical point in time to produce chronicities of modernity that precipitate diabetes. The high value of commensality and the association between food (particularly sugar) and honor offers insight into the motives for both the quantity and quality of food consumed. Emirati understandings of self and disease confirm the anthropological adage that disease and illness are not the same and suggests there is the potential to stem the growth of diabetes in the UAE with greater attention to structural issues through an anthropological understanding of the sociocultural conditions in which it thrives.

Keywords:

• chronicities of modernity
• gift exchange
• hospitality
• Islam
• obesity
• diabetes

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you to the anonymous reviewers and the editor for their helpful comments and suggestions. My gratitude must also go to everyone I came into contact with during the course of fieldwork, and without whose kindness and generosity I could not have completed this article.

Notes

These refer to the sayings of the Prophet Mohammed, a source of Islamic theology and practice.

Relevant here, expressions of ‘honorable’ behavior vary within and between societies; there is no single ‘honor code’ to which all subscribe (Abu-Lughod 1986; Gregg 2005).

This comment was often heard throughout fieldwork.

Although there are subtle ways of refusing an invitation, one generally needs a valid reason for doing so if one is not to cause offence. Altorki's (1988) work in Saudi Arabia was similarly guided by the norms of gift exchange and reciprocal visits that form the basis of women's social interactions there. She also notes that failing to take part in these reciprocal activities indicates rejection of one's responsibilities to the group.

See Abu-Lughod (1986) for a discussion of the importance of women's participation in the honor/generosity/hospitality triad.

Delayed wound healing is symptomatic of the microvascular complications typical of diabetes.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rosslyn Baglar

ROSSLYN BAGLAR is an independent scholar whose research interests include women and children's health, cultural competence in health care provision, and pearl diving in the Arabian Gulf.