Pedro Da-Gloria

The nutrition transition in amazonia: Rapid economic change and its impact on growth and development in Ribeirinhos

The goal of this longitudinal study was to assess the impact of economic change and increased market integration on subsistence strategies, living conditions, growth, and nutritional status of Ribeirinhos living in the rural Amazon, Brazil. Data on weight, height, skinfolds, and circumferences, as well as data on economic strategies and living conditions were collected from 469 individuals in 2002 and 429 in 2009. Of these, 204 individuals were measured on both occasions. Independent and paired t-tests were used to identify changes in nutritional status over time in the larger sample and smaller, longitudinal subsample, respectively. Multiple linear regressions were used to examine the relationship between changes in economic/living conditions and nutritional status in the longitudinal subsample. Results indicate modest improvements in linear growth (HAZ) and among male children the observed increase was related to enrollment in the Brazilian conditional cash transfer program, Bolsa Família (P = 0.03). In terms of short-term measures of nutritional status, we found a significant increase in ZTSF and a reduction in ZUMA in most age/sex groups. Among subadults, there was a negative relationship between ZUMA and access to electricity (P = 0.01) and positive relationship between ZUMA and the sale of the açaí fruit (P = 0.04). Significant changes in weight and BMI (P < 0.01) were found among adult females and both were negatively related to household cash income (P = 0.02 and P = 0.03, respectively). Despite significant changes in economic strategies and lifestyle, changes in nutritional status were modest which may be explained by increased food insecurity documented during this early stage of transition.

Nutrition in transition: Dietary patterns of rural Amazonian women during a period of economic change

The goal of this study was to understand the relationship between economic change (wage labor, retirement, and the Bolsa Família program) and dietary patterns in the rural Amazon and to determine the extent to which these changes followed the pattern of the nutrition transition.

Dental health in Northern Chile's Atacama oases: evaluating the Middle Horizon (AD 500-1000) impact on local diet.

As one of the few areas apt for horticulture in Northern Chiles arid landscape, the prehistory of the Atacama oases is deeply enmeshed with that of the inter-regional networks that promoted societal development in the south central Andes. During the Middle Horizon (AD 500-1000), local populations experienced a cultural apex associated with a substantial increase in inter-regional interaction, population density, and quantity and quality of mortuary assemblages. Here, we test if this cultural peak affected dietary practices equally among the distinct local groups of this period. We examine caries prevalence and the degree of occlusal wear in four series recovered from three cemeteries. Our results show a reduction in the prevalence of caries for males among an elite subsample from Solcor 3 and the later Coyo 3 cemeteries. Dental wear tends to increase over time with the Late Middle Horizon/Late Intermediate Period cemetery of Quitor 6 showing a higher average degree of wear. When considered in concert with archaeological information, we concluded that the Middle Horizon was marked by dietary variability wherein some populations were able to obtain better access to protein sources (e.g., camelid meat). Not all members of Atacameño society benefited from this, as we note that this dietary change only affected men. Our results suggest that the benefits brought to the San Pedro oases during the Middle Horizon were not equally distributed among local groups and that social status, relationship to the Tiwanaku polity, and interment in particular cemeteries affected dietary composition.

NONSPECIFIC INFECTIOUS DISEASES IN PREHISTORIC SAN PEDRO DE ATACAMA, NORTHERN CHILE

Resumen en: The region of San Pedro de Atacama, Northern Chile, has undergone several cultural and social changes after humans settled in Atacama Desert around 500 B...