Differences in Life Style and Nutritional Status Between Settlers and Siona
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DIFFERENCES IN LIFE STYLE AND NUTRITIONAL STATUS BETWEEN SEITLERS AND SIONA-SECOYA INDL4NS LrVING IN THE SAME AMAZONIAN MILIEU ERIC BENEFICE and HENRI BARRAL Departnient of Nirrrition and Departnierit of Geography, Irzsririrt Français de Recherches pour le Developpmenr en Cooperation, and Insrirriro Xacional de Colonizacion de la Regiori Anza:oriica Eciraroriana, Quito, Ecuador (Received April 14rk. 1990: in final form March '3rd. 1990) The influx of migrant populations who came to colonize the Amazon province of Napo (Ecuador) profoundly changed the human landscape and physical environment of the region. To study the nutritional consequences of this newly created situation. individual anthropometric. agricultural and food consumption surveys were carried out among the colonizers and Siona-Secoya Indians. None of the children displayed signs of serious malnutrition. hut physical underdrwlopment, . infections and parasites were common, the settlers heing more affected than the Indians. With a lifestyle favouring better hygiene. agriculture majoring in food crops. and a more diversified menu. the suhsistence sisrem of the Sionas-Secoyas is better ahle to meet their needs and maintain their physical integrity than &at of the settlers, who are ill-adapted to their new surroundings and whose production is mainly oriented towards cash 'crops. The eficiency of Siona-Secoya subsistence acririries must be recognized. especially in the current cgntext of conipetiticin for access to land which is jeopardizin? the future of the group. KEY WORDS: Ecuador. Amazonia. Siona-Secoya. nutritional status. parasirism. subsisrence. anrhropomerry INTRODUCTION An ecological perspective integrating physical. social, cultural and biological factors (Jerome, Pelto and Kandel, 1980) is particularly useful in understanding the nutri- tional situation of peoples living in a state of subsistence. Nevertheless. the aso-oid balance between man and nature, which guaranteed satisfactory biological condi- tions, is currently being disrupted (Oomen, 1571), and resulting transitional situ- ations are difficult to analyse. In northern Ecuador (the Amazon region), for instance, no group of Indians can avoid interethnic exchanges (Kroeger and Freedman, 1984). The cultural values of the indigenous groups of that region have often been noted by anthropologists (Larrick, Yost and Kaplan, 1979; Vickers, 1976), but their well-being is being jeopardized by the integration of the Amazon provinces into the rest of the country (Whitten, 1981). It has been observed. in Amazonia. that this type of change has been accompanied by a deterioration of the state of health of the indigenous population (Bourée et al., 1985; Dricot-d'Ans and Dicot, 1978). The uniqueness of the present Ecuadorian situation consists in the coexistence. in the same milieu at the same time, of $twovery different subsistence systems: the "modern" system of the immigrants, representing in a certain sense the future evolution of the region, and the "traditional" system of indigenous groups representing the past and present situation of a population well adapted to its envi- ronment. 2 E. BENEFICE AND H. BARRAL As a result, the following questions may be asked: Does the Indians' traditional system assure their survival as efficiently as that of the settlers? Would evolution toward a modern system have a positive effect on their health? Comparing the nutritional ecology of these two groups should help to answer these questions. Hence the aim of the present work is to describe and compare health and nutri- tional status of the Indians and the settlers, seeking explanation in their way of life, production system and diet. MILIEU AND POPULATIONS This study was carried out in an area below the 600 m contour, between the basins of the Aguarico and Nap0 rivers (see Figure 1). The area has a humid, tropical climate with an average temperature of 25" C and a high annual rainfall of 3,000 mm, evenly distributed in time, space and quantity. The vegetation consists of luxuriant, tropical forest. The discovery and exploitation of oil reserves in northeast Ecuador in 1967 led to the building of roads, and permitted the influx of migrants from areas on the coast and the Andes experiencing population growth (Uquillas, 1988). Natural disasters and economic crisis have further encouraged migration. Between 1974 and 1982, the population of the province of Nap0 increased from 62,000 to 115,000, of which 70% are currently settlers, installed mainly along the trunk roads. _._ The settlers live in wooden houses perched on piles and roofed with corrugated iron. Inside, partitions divide them into small, poorly-ventilated rooms. They are surrounded by dense vegetation, and household rubbish, scattered freely, provides food for a host of rats, pigs and insects. Living far from the rivers, the settlers draw their water from shallow weIls without sides, easily dirtied by horses or children. They use no latrines. Domestic animals, dogs, pigs, horses, mules and other animals are many. The Siona-Secoya Indians living along the Aguarico River are descendants of two originally distinct ethnic groups, which are now closely related (Vickers, 1976). The Siona-Secoyas are members of the Western Tucanoan group, a branch of the Tucanoan linguistic family to which many Amazonian ethnic groups belong. It is an ethnic group in transition, in which traditional subsistence farming, fishing and hunting persist, but where market crops are making their appearance. The Siona- Secoyas have a markedly different lifestyle from that of the settlers. Their raised houses have bamboo floors and are roofed with matted palm fronds. They consist of one big room with low walls, and a small platform outside for the kitchen. The houses are kept clean inside and out, and surrounding vegetation is cleared. Influ- enced by Christian missionaries, San Pablo residents use latrines at the edge of the forest and filter rainwater through gauze for drinking. Every day, they spend a lot of time bathing and washing in the Aguarico River. Sometimes they keep tortoises or small animals such as agoutis (Dasyprocta spp.) in pens for food. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Our study consisted of an inquiry into the nutritional status of the community in the Amazon province of Nap0 (Ecuador) complemented by data on agricultural production and household food consumption. The first difficulty was to define the population groups. Immigration into Amazonia over the past decade has been so U i. C O L O\M B I A Y u COLONIZATION AREAS u blUNAb btLUYAb ItHHIIUHl * SITES INVESTIGATED 4 E. BENEFICE AND H. BARRAL heavy that the numbers, localizations and activities to these settlers are still not fully known; to this may be added the fact that certain groups established in natural reserves or indigenous territories have no legal property rights, and thus fail to figure on official registration. In these circumstances, a functional basis was used to define a sample, that is, according to the use made of the soil. This method has, furthermore, been advocated and employed for other nutritional studies (Collis, Dema and Omolulu, 1962). To do this, one of us (H.B.) drew up a typology of the uses made of the soil by the population groups in the area (Barral, 19S7) on the basis of an earlier socioeconomic survey (Barral, 1978), linked to the study of past and present aerial photographs and spot checks on the ground. The two most common production patterns for the province were selected: that of recent settlers in zones connected to the national highway network (that is, the petroleum- producing zone) and that of the Indians living along the rivers. Eight recently installed (mean = 5.5 I 1.5 years) settler‘s communities, or “cooperatives,“ in Shushufindi, Tarapoa and Coca areas (Figure l), were contacted and 83 families with small children were selected for study. In the course of seven visits between January 1984 and June 1985, practically all members of these families, 855 individ- uals, were examined. This figure represents 1o/o of the province’s approximately 80,000 recent immigrants, the population group by far the most numerous. The Siona-Secoya Indians in the San Pablo of Kantesi-Aya district were chosen by virtue of abundant earlier contact. The Rio Aguarico Sionas-Secoyas count 105 heads of households, representing some 400 individuals. Most of the inhabitants of the San Pablo population centre and its surrounding hamlets (230 individuals belonging to 20 households) were examined. Table I shows the sample sizes for both groups. Numbers of adolescents and adult males are relatively low since their work in distant fields or in the forest made them miss the survey. Health and nutritional investigations consisted of a general clinical examination and measurements of weight (in kg) and height (in cm). The children were weighed, TABLE I Demographic characteristics (numhers) of settlers and Siona-Secoya Indians studied in the Napo Province of Ecuador. ~ ~______ ~~ Serrlers Siona-Secoyas Tooral Yurririo17als~rn~ey No. families 83 20 103 0-4 year-olds 23 1 3s 269 5-7 year-olds 142 38 180 8-12 year-olds 209 74 283 13-16 year-olds 82 29 111 Adult males 40 12 52 Adult females 151 39 190 Total individuals 855 230 I085 Food consuinprion survey No. families 26 8 34 0-4 year-olds 36 14 so 5-7 year-olds 26 4 30 8-1 2 year-olds 30 7 31 13-16 year-olds 9 -7 11 Adult males 33 8 42 Adult females 29 13 42 Tora1 individuals 164 48 212 NUTRITIONAL STATUS AMAZONA lightly clothed, on a medical precision scale accurate to within 10 g. Children less than 2 years old were weighed nude in the arms of their mother. Then she was weighed immediately afterwards and the weight of the child determined by calcu- lating the difference between the two measures. Children up to 2 years of age were measured lying down on an infantometer; those age 3 years and over were measured standing up, with a stadiometer.