R. Brooke Thomas

Social Responses During Severe Food Shortages and Famine [and Comments and Reply]

Although emergency food shortages and famines have been a prominent part of human experience for thousands of years and recur somewhere on our planet almost annually, data describing behavioral and organizational responses are few and scattered. Generalizations, when not speculative, tend to be vague and frequently contradictory. Practical, humanistic, and scientific concern with how people respond when overtaken by nutritional catastrophe provide compelling reason for development of a systematic, empirically based understanding of how social life changes amidst severe, protracted starvation. This paper surveys literature from several fields. By piecing together diverse observations and findings and paying close attention to the chronology of response, it is possible to infer the existence of a series of social transformation in which distinctive patterns of social interaction emerge as starvation progresses from stage to stage. Behavioral adaptations appearing in concert with the physiological alterations entailed by starvation lie at the root of this sequence. The degree of physiological stress and behavioral change experienced by individuals and groups depends on external (e.g., famine-causing events, relief-giving agencies, etc.) and internal (e.g., biological traits, social structures, etc.) factors. The latter are discussed in both intra- and interpopulational contexts. Sociocultural adaptations to famine consist of progressive and recursive traits. Progressive adaptations are selected as precautionary or preventive measures. Recursive adaptations unfold as a synchronous response to increasing scarcity. Recursive social adaptations seem to possess the same basic structure regardless of culture. This structure consists of a triphasic response pattern in which the rate of activity and the extent and frequency of positive reciprocities at first increase, later decreasing to near zero if the starving population remains unrelieved. The effects of this curvilinear pattern are examined in the context of household and interpersonal relations, political organization, and religious and ritual life. Existing images of famine-stricken people are summarized and found wanting. An alternative conception is developed with special emphasis on linking quantitative changes in behavior with qualitative changes in the organization of institutions.

Changing dietary patterns in the Peruvian Andes

This study examines the effect of seasonality and socioeconomic differentiation on food consumption and dietary change in the southern highlands of Peru. Nutritional data were collected by means of food weighing on a sample of 33 households (n=179) from the town of Nunoa. Comparisons with previously‐reported data for this community indicate that the composition of the diet has changed markedly since the 1960s while the energy content has not. Seasonality in food availability is evident, as traditional stored foods and non‐local products assume greater importance during the months preceding the harvest. However, such seasonal effects are mediated by dramatic socioeconomic differences in food consumption. Upper SES families have more diverse diets that are higher in energy and fat, but less seasonally variable than those of poorer families. On the other hand, the poorer households purchase fewer non‐local foods and thus experience marked seasonal fluctuations in energy consumption. Hence, increased levels o...

Demographic impact of introducing modern medicine to a subsistence-level agrarian population: A simulation

Typical of many peasant communities in the Third World, the highland Indian population of Nuñoa, Peru operates close to its capacity for providing members with adequate nutrition. High birth and mortality rates maintain population stability in groups such as this. The introduction of modern medical services could decrease mortality and stimulate population growth, thus upsetting stability of the population size.Development of Third World countries includes improving health of subsistence-level populations by providing modern medical services. However, such changes would have secondary effects which should be anticipated. Using the Nuñoa population as a representative data base, and making a number of simplifying assumptions to increase the generality of this case, a simulation model has been devised to explore some of the consequences of introducing modern medical services.The model predicts that decreased mortality would initiate population growth. Some growth would be supported by changes in individual consumption patterns. But unless decreases in birth rate stabilized the population, it would increase beyond the level sustainable by local resources. Starvation or emigration would cause the population to crash. The model identifies several strategies for reducing birth rate sufficiently to avoid a population crash. Despite these strategies, increased equilibrium size of population would reduce per capita consumption. Since the population lives at the subsistence level, hardship, hunger, and even starvation could result. Thus, introduction of modern medical services could involve a trade-off between short-term improvements in health and. long-term economic hardship for the population. The model suggests that improved well-being of the population would require not only modern medical services but also (a) reduced birth rates; and (b) the improved technology necessary to increase food production.

A Half Century of High-Altitude Studies in Anthropology: Introduction to the Plenary Session

Until 50 years ago, high‐altitude terrestrial research was conducted largely within the realm of environmental physiology, where interests were focused on physiological mechanisms and mountain exploration. Scientists from the United States, Europe, and Peru had developed sophisticated physiological models of adaptation and acclimatization to the hypoxia of high altitude, but very little research had been conducted on permanent residents, particularly natives of high altitude in the two major regions of the world—the Andes and the Himalayas. In 1962, Raul T. Baker initiated a project at the Pennsylvania State University to explore the responses of indigenous Peruvians to the major stresses at altitude: hypoxia and cold. Approaches to this early research were anthropological in perspective and centered on population‐level studies with an evolutionary approach. Studies were conducted by applying a combination of physiological experimental methods, simulated field experiments, and extended anthropological field observations. Early hypotheses at this time were that heredity played a major role in the adaptive complexes in native high‐altitude residents. These early hypotheses were later modified to incorporate or replace the genetic hypotheses with developmental adaptation models. A half century of research within anthropology and research in other fields has presented a vastly more complex and integrated picture of high‐altitude adaptation in native residents. Recent studies incorporate physiology and oxygen transport, population and molecular genetics, reproduction, growth, and development. The history and current status of high‐altitude research and its anthropological applications are treated in papers from this plenary symposium. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 25:148–150, 2013.