Biocultural Factors in School Achievement for Mopan Children in Belize

DEBORAH L. CROOKS / UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY Biocultural Factors in School Achievement for Mopan Children in Belize We were once much smarter people. into traditional statistical models of biological anthro- —Maya caretaker at archaeological site, Toledo District, Belize pological research is difficult because of the distinctly different nature of the two kinds of data produced. One MOPAN MAYA CHILDREN of San Antonio, Toledo, Be- approach to this problem is discussed by William lize, face a number of challenges to their success in Dressier (1995), who advocates using ethnography up school. Mayan ethnicity, language, and traditional eco- front in the research design to construct culturally nomic strategies are rendered disadvantageous for meaningful variables that can then be quantified for school achievement by historical, social, cultural, and testing. Resulting models are able to account for local economic forces. Statistics on poverty and child growth levels of meaning within the framework of "scientific" indicate that Mayan children are poorer and more research. poorly nourished than other Belizean children, and they Another approach is that taken by Thomas Leather- do less well on national achievement exams. In addi- man (in press) and Brooke Thomas (in press). This po- tion, they attend school structured on the British model litical-economic approach uses quantitative measures and taught in English. In the past, biocultural ap- of biological outcome but contextualizes the numbers proaches might model a causal pathway from poverty to by focusing "upstream" on conditions that produce nutritional status to cognitive development to school stress and either facilitate or constrain coping re- achievement. But the interrelationships among poverty, sponses. Thus households within communities undernutrition, and school achievement are more compli- going rapid social and economic change become a criti- cated than can be described by simple formulas or re- cal focus, as does the agency of individuals and ductionist models. To understand these relationships, households in negotiating with local, national, and in- we need a combination of quantitative and qualitative ternational forces to produce well-being. information. Another approach is that used by Francis Johnston In research conducted between November 1990 and Setha Low (1995) and Katherine Dettwyler (1992), and July 1991, I utilized both quantitative and qualita- which utilizes social behavior and cultural process as tive techniques to explore the complex web of relationships among nutritional status, household factors, and qualitative phenomena to assist the reader in interpret- school performance for Mopan Maya children. Combin- ing quantitative results. In this approach, ethnography ing quantitative and qualitative techniques in biocultur- returns anthropology to biological anthropological re- al research, however, requires a rethinking of the research by providing a picture of how people go about search process. To incorporate qualitative methodologies their lives and by situating human biology in ecological, social, political, economic, and cultural contexts. More importantly, the approach allows research participants to explain for themselves what is important in their DEBORAH L. CROOKS is an assistant professor in the Department of lives, how they go about making decisions, what they Anthropology, University of Kentucky. Lexington, KY 40506. can and cannot do, and what the constraints are under American Anthropologist 99(3):586-601. Copyright © 1997. American Anthropological Association. SCHOOL ACHIEVEMENT IN BELIZE / DEBORAH L. CROOKS 587 which they live. This approach provides invaluable in- sources may lead to inferior school infrastructure, re- sight into the quantitative data in that it acknowledges duced operating expenses, and lack of quality teachers the lived experiences from which the numbers were in schools situated among predominantly poor popula- produced. tions. The research reported here was a first attempt on Along with these biological and social constraints, the part of this anthropologist to bring together quanti- cultural factors may act as barriers to school achieve- tative and qualitative data, incorporating elements of all ment as well. For example, in developing countries, three approaches. I recognize that more extensive eth- school is often taught in the language of colonizers, a nography than was allowed in this research, or perhaps language that is foreign to many indigenous children collaboration among multiple researchers, would im- and compromises their ability to learn. And school cur- prove the ability of the two kinds of data to inform each ricula and pedagogy may be structured by cultural val- other, but that awaits the next field project. Neverthe- ues equally as foreign. Where these conditions exist, es- less, even the limited ethnographic data collected in pecially where they exist concomitant with poverty, this research assisted in interpreting the biological data children may have great difficulty succeeding at school. and yielded subtle insights into the cultural and social Where economies, politics, and social structures are realities that shape the lives of Mopan children and their changing, this lack of success at school may translate to families in Belize. lack of economic success as adults, producing intergen- erational poverty. A limited body of literature deals with the relation- Background Research ship between nutrition and school achievement in developing countries, but it indicates a strong link be- Over the years, in an attempt to understand the re- tween the two. The recent publication of the follow-up lationship between poverty and learning, much re- to the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Pan- search focused on undernutrition and cognitive devel- ama (INCAP) intervention study of 1969-77 is an exam- opment. This research was predicated on animal ple.4 In this study, Reynaldo Martorell (1995) and Er- research that identified deficits in brain structure as a nesto Pollitt and his colleagues (1995) provide evidence 1 consequence of early undernutrition. Research with for a long-term association between early nutrition and people, however, suggested a more complicated sce- intellectual performance for a generally poor popula- nario, one that involved factors that went beyond sim- tion, such that nutritional supplementation enhances ple nutrition and involved the quality of the child's over- "the educational returns to schooling" (Martorell 1995: all environment (Winick et al. 1975). For example, 1135S) and acts as a "social equalizer." Other re- studies of children in nonpoverty environments indi- searchers report that achievement scores are higher cated that cognitive deficits resulting from severe un- 2 (Clarke et al. 1991; Popkin and Lim-Ybanez 1982), grade dernutrition were often reversible. And for undernour- attainment is higher (Jamison 1986; Moock and Leslie ished children in poverty environments, "stimulating" 1986), school duration is longer (Sigman and Neumann experiences could increase cognitive test performance 1989), and grade scores are higher (Galler et al. 1984a) (Grantham-McGregor et al. 1983; Sinisterra 1987). These for well-nourished children compared to the under- and other studies indicated that long-term functional nourished growing up in poor environments. These consequences of undernutrition vis-a-vis cognitive de- mostly quantitative studies indicate a complex relation- velopment and behavior depended less upon the nutri- ship that may be indirect—that is, occurring via cogni- tional insult itself and more on the context in which it 3 tive deficits and/or behavioral deficits—and is often occurred. complicated by factors such as parental literacy, gen- Extending this scenario to school achievement, we der, school absence, relative socioeconomic status, and find that the situation is equally complex. School poverty. achievement is the result of an interplay among a vari- One reviewer of this article questioned both the ety of short- and long-term biological and social factors. relevance of the concept of poverty measured by own- On an individual level, poverty can lead to poor health ership of material goods for people in many parts of the and nutrition, compromising cognitive development, world and the ethnocentricity of characterizing the behavior, school attendance, and thus achievement. At lives of "peasant farmers" as unsatisfying. But the peo- the household level, limited resources may not allow for ple of San Antonio often refer to themselves as "poor," the purchase of school supplies and books, or payment especially in conversations with outsiders. San Antonio of various school fees, and where children are economi- is a landlocked community with a large and growing cally productive members of households, a family's will population Subsistence farming is becoming less of an or ability to release children from work may be lacking. option for everyone, and it is not desired by everyone. At the national level, inequitable distribution of re- Parents told me that "farming is not profitable anymore," 588 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST • VOL. 99, No. 3 • SEPTEMBER 1997 that it "won't have much for these children." Many par- ment. This adjustment required that Belize privatize ents hope that education will enable their children to many of its assets and institute development policies find work off the farm, out of the bush. As one father put that emphasized low-wage labor and

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