Ecuador's Amazon houses extraordinary levels of plant and animal biodiversity, plays a key role in global climate processes and carbon cycles, and supports the physical and cultural survival of indigenous and traditional forest people. However, because of petroleum exploitation, colonization, infrastructure development, urbanization, and land clearing for agriculture and cattle ranching, since 1990, Ecuador has had the highest rate of deforestation in the entire Amazon Basin. These processes also have led indigenous populations to become increasingly involved in the market economy, with profound economic, health, and cultural implications.
Dr. Flora Lu and Dr. Mark V. Sorensen, both of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will undertake research on the health consequences of increasing integration to the market among a cross-cultural sample of five native Amazonian populations of northeastern Ecuador. The research will (1) investigate variation in health, and (2) examine the mechanisms through which market integration influences health through reciprocity networks, mobility, diet, and access to and use of medical care. The project integrates methodologies from ecological, cultural, and biological anthropology. Research methods to be employed include focus groups, cultural domain analysis, dietary intake interviews, and time allocation studies, as well as anthropometric assessment and biomarkers of current infection, anemia, and vitamin A status.
This project is one of the few cross-cultural and interdisciplinary studies of indigenous economics and health. It builds on long-term collaborative and comparative research in the region and develops a model based on linking empirical data on market integration with biocultural outcomes. Theoretically, this research furthers understanding of the connections between cultural behavior, socioeconomic context, and health, with implications for biocultural resilience, human behavioral ecology, and life history theory. The broader impacts of this project will be seen in its relevance to promotion of indigenous well-being, direct public communication to policymakers, and promotion of education and training of Ecuadorian and United States students.
" Flora Lu and Mark Sorensen September 2012 Throughout Ecuador's Amazon, indigenous peoples find themselves and their lands increasingly circumscribed by commercial enterprises in pursuit of raw material extraction, energy production, or agro-business. Oil activities are particularly extensive in this region: the most productive oilfields are located in the northern Ecuadorian Amazon, the study site of this research. The Ecuadorian government has zoned close to 65% of its Amazon region for oil exploration and extraction, and the majority of oil concessions overlap with Native Amazonian lands. As indigenous groups adopt more sedentary settlement patterns, find their lands circumscribed by alternative land uses and users, and experience accelerated socio-cultural change, they also become more integrated into the market economy. The question of how markets impact native peoples has been a central theme in anthropological research, but surprisingly little cross-cultural study, theoretical development and empirical data collection have been undertaken. This project investigated the health consequences of increasing integration to the market among a cross-cultural sample of four native Amazonian populations of northeastern Ecuador (the Huaorani, Kichwa, Shuar and Cofán). This project is one of the few cross-cultural and interdisciplinary studies of indigenous economics and health. ?Our research aims are to: (1) investigate variation in health, and (2) examine the mechanisms through which integration to the market influences indigenous health through reciprocity networks, mobility, diet, and access to and use of medical care. In this project, we drew upon methodologies from ecological, cultural, and biological anthropology. In each of the seven study communities, we conducted focus groups, community censuses, semi-structured interviews, post-hunt interviews, dietary intake interviews, household economic diaries, and time allocation surveys. To characterize health and well-being in these villages, we focused on both subjective and objective measures. Subjective measures ascertained perceived health, perceived stress, and self-reported morbidity utilizing various questionnaires. Objective measures of health were ascertained by measurements of blood pressure, anthropometric status, and hemoglobin levels. We find that in varying ways, these different indigenous groups characterize hybrid livelihoods and economies that enable them to draw upon cultural and ecological resources, mitigate risk, and foster survival in a landscape increasingly circumscribed by competing land uses and users. For all these groups, despite varying degrees of access and quality of the natural resource base, the forest and rivers provide an important "natural subsidy" to their subsistence; taken together, these groups garnered edible forest products 39% of household-days sampled in 2009. Floral and faunal resources not only provide means of interfacing with the market economy (e.g., through the production of handicrafts for sale), they are fallback resources that enable indigenous groups to wane in their participation from the market economy when they need or choose to. Variations in nutritional status even among the indigenous ethnic groups and communities in this study were also evident, with the Kichwa communities demonstrating the poorest childhood health followed by the Huaorani and Shuar communities. However, yet all communities were significantly below the US median and experienced some degree of stunting suggesting chronic under-nutrition. We found little evidence of low weight or low arm circumference signifying that protein energy malnutrition is not a widespread nutritional issue. In contrast, over-nutrition is becoming a problem in some communities, particularly among adolescent girls who are overweight. The broader impacts of this project are its relevance to promotion of indigenous well-being, direct public communication to policymakers, and promotion of education and training of Ecuadorian and US students. Results of the study have been communicated to the study communities, indigenous federations to which they belong, and the Ecuadorian Ministry of Health. Medical supplies and training of indigenous health promoters (e.g., in monitoring child growth and risk factors associated with anemia) were provided in consultation with study communities. Results have also been disseminated at professional meetings such as the American Anthropological Association Meetings and the Human Biology Association Meetings. Project data have been instrumental in supporting the education of both Ecuadorian and US students: one Ecuadorian field researcher is now applying for US graduate programs in Anthropology, and two more Ecuadorian ethnographers utilized our data as the basis of their undergraduate theses. Six more US undergraduates have written, or are currently in the process of writing, their senior theses based on our project data; two of these theses have been awarded the Steck and Chancellor's Awards for undergraduate excellence at UC Santa Cruz. Project results have been incorporated into courses of the co-PIs, one of whom has been awarded two teaching awards during the period of the grant.
