Rui Sérgio Sereni Murrieta

Dialética do sabor: alimentação, ecologia e vida cotidiana em comunidades ribeirinhas da Ilha de Ituqui, Baixo Amazonas, Pará

Few aspects of human life are so deeply connected with basic survival and, at the same time, with symbolic and socially constructed elements than food. This paper presents and analyses data on food choice among the inhabitants of Ituqui Island, Lower Amazon, Para state. The staples on Ituqui Island are represented by the traditional Amazonian combination of fish and farinha (manioc flour). It is also apparent an effort of diversification concomitantly to ways of cotemporizing the continuities of everyday life with social constructions of class, which appear to shape the processes of food choice and consumption. Even though, there is not a positive correlation between high status foods and the staples. In addition, many discursive ways of representing food appear to contradict the social practices, which are characterized by flexibility and negotiation of sociopolitical domains. Such domains include the household and community micro-politics as well as broader political-economy contexts of regional and transnational markets. Thus, through these mediating qualities potential forces of change and conflict are accommodated. In conclusion, the ways we de-codify our physical experiences and biological needs engage into a dialectical relation with our social desires and habitual structures, which can only be understood when the contextual conditions of the moment of action are contemplated.

FISH AND FARINHA: PROTEIN AND ENERGY CONSUMPTION IN AMAZONIAN RURAL COMMUNITIES ON ITUQUI ISLAND, BRAZIL

In order to better understand food consumption among indigenous peasant (the so-called “Caboclos”) communities in Amazonia, this article describes and analyzes household and individual food consumption in the communities of Aracampina and São Benedito, located on ltuqui Island on the lower courses of the Amazon river, in the municipio (county) of Santarém, State of Pará, Brazil. ltuqui Islands landscape is dominated by savannas, meadows, secondary floodplain forests, pastures, and cultivation plots. Food consumption data were collected using 24-hour food recalls for a sample of 12 households and 42 individuals. The main patterns of consumption observed on ltuqui Island were higher consumption of protein than energy, dependency on regional staple foods, and a high reliance on imported secondary food items purchased at local urban centers. Also, interhousehold and community variation point toward a sociohistorical particularism of kindreds, as well as microenvironmental differences, both critical elements in understanding food consumption. Other important findings provide some insights about modifications and adjustment of food repertoires in coping with high seasonality. The simplification of staple-food repertoire and increased consumption of energy-rich items such as sugar and oil are probably the most important strategies observed. We conclude that to understand food consumption among Caboclo communities in Amazonia research should focus more closely on the composition of the local food repertoire and local ecological and sociocultural variations.

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.

Frozen chicken for wild fish: nutritional transition in the Brazilian Amazon region determined by carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios in fingernails.

Amazonian populations are experiencing dietary changes characteristic of the nutrition transition. However, the degree of change appears to vary between urban and rural settings. To investigate this process, we determined carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios in fingernails and dietary intake of Amazonian populations living along a rural to urban continuum along the Solimões River in Brazil.

O dilema do papa-chibé: consumo alimentar, nutrição e práticas de intervenção na Ilha de Ituqui, baixo Amazonas, Pará

Este artigo e uma analise das praticas cotidianas de escolha e utilizacao de alimentos na ilha de Ituqui, municipio de Santarem, Para. Somado a isto, pretendo avaliar alguns aspectos do impacto destes processos nas praticas locais de intervencao. Os estudos antropologicos sobre habitos alimentares concentram-se, principalmente, em analises mononivelares de estruturas mentais e sociais, sistemas de representacao e infra-estruturas economico-ambientais. Proponho para este estudo um deslocamento deste foco para as interacoes das praticas cotidianas com o habitus, e com as esferas acima referidas. Na Amazonia, a urgencia de estudos sobre os habitos alimentares de sociedades campesinas e seu papel no impacto de programas de intervencao nesta area, alia-se ao numero ainda modesto de estudos gerais sobre tais sociedades, especialmente, as Caboclas. O estudo realizado na ilha de Ituqui apresentou altos valores de consumo proteico e valores moderadamente baixos de calorico, quando comparados com as recomendacoes internacionais. Os processos de escolha sao praticas superpostas influenciadas e limitadas pelos sistemas de tabu locais, alta sazonalidade dos recursos naturais e do mercado, representacoes de classe e preferencias sociais e individuais. Apesar da heterogeneidade dos processos observados, os projetos de intervencao locais insistem em homogeneizar os pacotes de nutricao e alimentacao introduzidos, ignorando assim importantes variaveis de natureza social e cultural.

A agricultura de corte e queima: um sistema em transformação

Slash-and-burn agriculture has been practiced for thousands of years in the forests around the world, especially in the tropics, where it provides for the livelihood of countless poor rural populations. Characterized by an array of techniques based on crop diversification and shifting land use, this cultivation system has on the utilization of forest decomposing vegetations energetic capital its main asset. Many studies claim that slash-and-burn agriculture is sustainable only when performed under conditions of low human demographic density and maintenance or even increase of local biodiversity. However, it is growing in the academic literature, as well as in development debates, the concern regarding the role that this system has been playing in the deforestation of the planets tropical forests. This process appears to be closely linked to changes in land use patterns (agricultural intensification) and urban and rural demographic growth. On the thread of these concerns, this article presents a critical review of the international and national academic literature on slash-and-burn agriculture. Thus, this review intend to draw a broad scenario of the current academic debate on this issue, as well as to identify the main alternatives strategies proposed to maintain or replace this cultivation system.

Consumo alimentar e ecologia de populações ribeirinhas em dois ecossistemas amazônicos: um estudo comparativo

OBJECTIVE: This article analyses and compares data on household food intake of two Amazonian riverine populations settled in different rain forest ecosystems: terra firme (land not subject to annual flooding) forest and floodplain. METHODS: Food surveys were carried out in 11 households at the floodplain area (Ituqui Island), located in the Municipality of Santarem, and in 17 households at the terra firme area (Caxiuana National Forest), located in the Municipalities of Melgaco and Portel. Household food consumption data were collected using the 24-hour food recall method. Data analysis was run in Statistical Package for Social Sciences, version 12.0. RESULTS: The results confirm, in both ecosystems, the central roles of fish and manioc in the local diet. Nevertheless, other secondary food items, e.g. acai (in Caxiuana) and milk (in Ituqui) are also important. In addition, sugar stands out as a reliable household energy source to cope with the extreme seasonality of rain forest natural resources. In addition, there seems to be a greater caloric contribution of fish in Ituquis diet, probably due to the higher productivity of lakes and rivers in Ituqui varzea (low and flat land alongside a watercourse). Finally, Ituqui has shown greater dependency over purchased items, whereas Caxiuana has still a strong reliance on agricultural activities and on local social and economic exchange networks. CONCLUSION: Besides confirming the importance of fish and manioc, results have also shown that industrialized products, such as sugar, play an important role in local diets, and may point towards new tendencies in food consumption related to the current nutritional transition and to the erosion of local subsistence systems.

Agricultura e alimentação em populações ribeirinhas das várzeas do Amazonas: novas perspectivas

The main objective of this research is to characterize and compare household food intake of two riverine populations located in the Floodplains of the Lower Amazon (Ituqui Island, Santarem-PA) (1995-97). A special emphasis is given to the role of agriculture in the food consumption patterns of these populations. The obtained results indicate high levels of protein intake in relation to energy intake, relative seasonal instability of energy sources, and increasing dependency on imported industrialized foodstuffs. In spite of such a pattern, food items locally produced such as manioc flour (farinha) and fish remain as the main part of local diet. In addition, a broad array of subsistence and commercial activities as well as the intense exploitation of different ecological zones by the local population were observed. The above scenario tends to undermine some of the major assumptions on the supposed environmental homogeneity and simplicity of productive strategies among native populations, which have dominated until recently the development of academic knowledge and practice.

The impacts of shifting cultivation on tropical forest soil: a review

The sustainability of shifting cultivation is presently a topic of debate in scientific and institutional communities; however, there is no current consensus. To address this debate, we performed a search of the pertinent literature that was published during the last 30 years on the impact of shifting agriculture on tropical soils. This search revealed that the nature of the impact depends on the shifting cultivation system (SCS) phase (conversion, cultivation, or fallow) and on the soil properties (physical, chemical, and biological). We also suggest soil quality indicators for evaluating this agricultural practice in tropical forests, which may be used as a basis for analyses on the tendencies of conservation and degradation of impacted soils. Future research should improve the choices of these indicators, relying mostly on practical criteria, so they can be used by shifting cultivators.

A casa e a roça: socioeconomia, demografia e agricultura em populações quilombolas do Vale do Ribeira, São Paulo, Brasil

This study aims to characterize the socioeconomic and demographic profile of nine Quilombola populations in the Ribeira Valley, State of Sao Paulo, and to identify the main factors responsible for the recent changes in their subsistence system. Since the first assemblages of runway and abandoned slaves in the 18th. century, the relations established by these populations with nearby towns and regional market have gone through periods of expansion and retraction, adapting and adjusting to new socioeconomic and political changes. In the last five decades, the impact of external factors on the local subsistence patterns appears to have had a significant increase. Our results show that restrictions imposed by environmental laws, conflict over land, the construction of a major road in the region, the growing insertion into a market economy, and the intervention of governmental and non-governmental development agencies are the main factors behind the changes observed in the subsistence system and, consequently, in the socioeconomic organization of these populations.