Anthropo-entomophagy: Cultures, evolution and sustainability

Environmental cycles and human factors have altered ecosystems throughout the world. Natural resources have acquired high value because they are important to life and the survival of human beings. Among these resources are edible insects. They have many important features and, to date, up to 2086 species are consumed by 3071 ethnic groups. Rural people, who primarily search, gather, fix, commercialize and store this important natural resource, do not exterminate them. This is because rural people exploit only the central part of the insects' population curves. Nonetheless, some species are overexploited. Anthropo-entomophagy (eating of insects by humans) constitutes a major source of nutrition and these foods are eaten in 130 countries, with the African and American continents being the most entomophagous until now. It exists in protocultures (care is given to the edible insect species) and formal cultures, such as in Mexico, which date back to prehisphanic times. According to anthropologists the "saving gene theory" is based on insect ingestion, which, since the Paleolithic era, has given human beings reproductive success. The evolution of anthropo-entomophagy has been achieved in many ways, from the point of view of collection, fixing, marketing and consumption, and for the insects' organoleptical qualities. The sustainability of these species is fundamental; therefore, it is necessary to take certain measures for species conservation. In Mexico, more than 100 species of edible insects have been tested for their sustainability over 500 years, from the Spanish conquest to the present.     

Cassava Trait Preferences of Men and Women Farmers in Nigeria: Implications for Breeding

Nigeria is the world’s largest cassava producer, hosting a diverse array of cassava farmers and processors. Cassava breeding programs prioritize “common denominator” traits in setting breeding agendas, to impact the largest possible number of people through improved varieties. This approach has been successful, but cassava adoption rates are less than expected, with room for improvement by integrating traits in demand by farmers and processors. This paper aims to inform breeding priority setting, by examining trait and varietal preferences of men and women cassava farmer/processors. Men and women in eight communities in Southwest and Southeast Nigeria were consulted using mixed methods. Women and men had significantly different patterns of cassava use in the Southwest. Fifty-five variety names were recorded from the communities demonstrating high genetic diversity maintained by growers, especially in the Southeast. High yield, early maturity, and root size were most important traits across both regions, while traits women and men preferred followed gender roles: women prioritized product quality/cooking traits, while men placed higher priority on agronomic traits. Trait preference patterns differed significantly between the Southeast and Southwest, and showed differentiation based on gender. Patterns of access to stem sources were determined more by region and religion than gender.     

Child nutrition in the transition from nomadic pastoralism to settled lifestyles: individual, household, and community-level factors

The research reported here examines child nutrition in a population that is currently experiencing a transition in subsistence, shifting from nomadic pastoralism to a variety of settled lifestyles. We investigate the range of nutritional consequences of settlement both within and between communities by examining individual, household, and community-level predictors of child nutritional status. Data are drawn from the Rendille Demographic and Health Survey, which contains anthropometric data from 1,088 children ages 6 months to 10 years, as well as socioeconomic data from 640 households drawn from one nomadic and four economically and ecologically diverse settled communities. Comparisons allow us to test the widely held assumption that settlement results in nutritional improvements. The examination of individual and household-level factors highlights several important influences on child nutrition. We find a complex interaction between gender and birthorder, whereby firstborn sons have significantly higher weight-for-height scores than other children, potentially reflecting preference under a system of primogeniture. We also find a complex interaction between defacto female-headed households, where males are absent for over half of the year, and economic status. Young children from poor female-headed households have significantly lower weight-for-height than other children, possibly due to the fact that these households are amongst the poorest in the entire community. However, young children from economically sufficient female-headed households actually fare better than their counterparts in male headed households, suggesting that in households with any discretionary resources, female heads prioritize food acquisition relative to other concerns. Finally, our comparison of child nutritional status across communities, while controlling for individual and household-level variation, does not support the contention that settlement is associated with nutritional improvements. Rather, the effect of community, and its associated changes in subsistence and lifestyle, results in either no nutritional changes, or in the case of young children in the lowland desert community of Korr, diminished nutritional status. Our results underscore the importance of considering variation in sample composition and socioeconomic status when performing community comparisons, and highlight the central role of women in influencing the nutritional welfare of their families.     

Plant Knowledge and Current Uses of Woody Flora in Three Cultural Groups of the Brazilian Semiarid Region: Does Culture Matter?

Patterns of plant use in human populations are context-specific and influenced by many different ecological and social factors like plant diversity and availability, and gender, age, and household structure. The aim of this study is to evaluate current levels of knowledge and use of native plant species in different sociocultural groups living in the same ecological area. We examine the association between an individual’s species knowledge and use and (1) species availability and (2) individual age, gender, and group pertinence. Data were collected through interviews with three different groups living in the municipality of Açu, Rio Grande do Norte (n = 233): an urban community, a local community of fishers, and a traditional community of self-identified indigenous people (Caboclos de Açu). The results show no correlation between knowledge/use and resource availability. Elders know and use more species than younger interviewees. Men know more species than women, but there is no difference between the number of species used by men and women. Group pertinence was related to both current levels of species knowledge and use: the urban community had less knowledge of the flora than the local and traditional communities. Regarding species uses, the traditional community uses more plants than the local community, and informants in the urban community use the least. Our results dovetail recent anthropological research suggesting that, despite other important cultural changes, the Caboclos de Açu continue to maintain at least part of their traditional knowledge system, probably because they depend on the use of plant resources for their livelihood. Overall, our results highlight the predominance of culture above the environment in driving plant use and knowledge.     

Gendered Homegardens: A Study in Three Mountain Areas of the Iberian Peninsula

Gendered Homegardens: A Study in Three Mountain Areas of the Iberian Peninsula. As an example of the importance of gender relations in the use of natural resources, several authors have analyzed the role of women in homegardens. Gendered differences in homegarden management have been difficult to disentangle due to the often–shared nature of gardening. Here, we use an innovative approach to analyze gendered differences in the characteristics and management of homegardens. Specifically, we use information on the prevalence of different household members in gardening activities to classify homegardens as women’s, men’s, or shared. Then, we compare several garden characteristics across the three types of homegardens. For the case study, we use data from homegardens in three rural areas of the Iberian Peninsula. We found that household members generally share homegarden responsibilities in these three regions and that many homegarden characteristics vary with the distribution of gardening tasks. Specifically, we discovered that gardens managed mainly by men were larger, more distant from the dwelling, and better exposed than gardens managed by women. Men and women also used different management techniques; organic fertilizers and traditional pest control management systems predominated in gardens managed by women. Men and women also differed in how they reportedly use garden products, with women favoring household consumption versus sale or gifting. Last, gardens managed mainly by women had a larger diversity of uses for species and a larger diversity of species per unit area. Cultural norms of what is considered appropriate behavior for men and women help explain differences in garden characteristics and their plant composition and structure.     

Case oriented approach to co-occurrence of risk lifestyle behavior with overweight, excess abdominal fat and high blood pressure: the CroHort study

Objective of this paper is to estimate interim risk factors (INTF) proportions and changes within 5-years of groups with at least one risk health behavior (BEHF) in CroHort population. Results show that CroHort 2008 group has higher proportions of excess abdominal fat and overweight. Men older than 65 without any BEHF have smaller proportions of INTF in 2008 than in 2003. Proportion of people with high blood pressure is smaller in 2008 for all groups except for young women who show increase. Analysis of middle age group shows significant increase in all INTF in women smokers while men smokers have the highest increase in abdominal fat. Physical inactivity in women is associated with increase of all INTF, while men have decrease in overweight INTF. Alcohol intake has protective effect on middle aged men, except for increase in waist circumference. Women show constant increase in all INTF with heavy alcohol intake.     

The impacts of dependent development on community and resources in Kilenge,Papua New Guinea

In recent years, many rural Third World communities have suffered from the gradual degradation of the natural resources on which they depend. The Kilenge people of West New Britain, Papua New Guinea, offer such an example. The paper examines some of the nutritional, economic, social, and political impacts of these changes on the individual, on the household, and on the community in one Kilenge village. It argues that there may be alternatives to dependent development for this community. It concludes that redirected priorities can assist indigenous communities like Kilenge to achieve sustainable selfdirected economic improvement.     

Anthocyanins in corn: a wealth of genes for human health

Different epidemiological and preclinical studies have demonstrated that regular consumption of anthocyanin-rich foods is associated to a reduced risk of chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer and obesity. However, assigning a health property to anthocyanins or other classes of flavonoids may be limited by the influence of other metabolites of plant-based food consumed in the diet, acting as possible confounding factors. The development of model foods essentially isogenic and nutritionally identical except that in the type and quantity of plant bioactives to be studied represents an important tool in nutritional studies. The extensive knowledge of the regulation of flavonoid pathway in maize can be exploited to obtain ‘near-isogenic’ model foods, which differ only in the content of specific classes of flavonoids. Being obtainable by breeding strategies, maize model foods can provide functional foods that can be used for both animal feeding studies and human intervention trials for assessing the role of flavonoids or other bioactives in preventing chronic diseases. This review will be focused on recent advances regarding the anthocyanin biosynthesis in maize, the role of anthocyanins from corn in preventing chronic diseases and finally on the breeding activities to produce maize functional foods with increased anthocyanin content.     

Nutritional Characteristics of Wild and Cultivated Foods for Chimpanzees (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Pan troglodytes</Emphasis>) in Agricultural Landscapes

Primate habitats are being transformed by human activities such as agriculture. Many wild primates include cultivated foods (crops) in their diets, calling for an improved understanding of the costs and benefits of crop feeding. We measured the macronutrient and antifeedant content of 44 wild and 21 crop foods eaten by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) in a mosaic habitat at Bulindi, Uganda, to evaluate the common assertion that crops offer high nutritional returns compared to wild forage for primates. In addition, we analyzed 13 crops not eaten at Bulindi but that are consumed by chimpanzees elsewhere to assess whether nutritional aspects explain why chimpanzees in Bulindi ignored them. Our analysis of their wild plant diet (fruit, leaves, and pith) corresponds with previous chemical analyses of primate plant foods. Compared to wild food equivalents, crops eaten by the chimpanzees contained higher levels of digestible carbohydrates (mainly sugars) coupled with lower amounts of insoluble fiber and antifeedants. Cultivated fruits were relatively nutritious throughout the ripening process. Our data support the assumption that eating cultivated foods confers energetic advantages for primates, although crops in our sample were low in protein and lipids compared to some wild foods. We found little evidence that crops ignored by the chimpanzees were less nutritious than those that they did eat. Nonnutritional factors, e.g., similarity to wild foods, probably also influence crop selection. Whether cultivated habitats can support threatened but flexible primates such as chimpanzees in the long term hinges on local people’s willingness to share their landscape and resources with them.     

The Social Life of Rights: ‘Gender Antagonism’, Modernity and Raet in Vanuatu

In the northern Vanuatu town of Luganville a small group of men have responded to social and legal changes engendered by women's rights activists by forming a male support group called ‘Violence Against Men’. Members of this ‘backlash’ movement argue that the insidious promotion of Western‐style ‘women's rights’ is leading to discrimination against men in divorce proceedings, child custody battles, and in domestic violence and rape cases. They directly oppose recent and ongoing legal changes aimed at protecting women from domestic violence, such as Domestic Violence Protection Court Orders, and the repeatedly tabled (but long‐delayed) ‘Family Protection Bill’. Such interventions, they argue, undermine Vanuatu's ‘natural’kastom and Christian patriarchal gender order and, in doing so, pose a serious threat to the socio‐economic productivity of the nation‐state. For other men, however, rather than opposing women's rights activism, such challenges have raised questions about how men might successfully negotiate their identities in ways that are sensitive to contemporary issues of gender equality without undermining existing paradigms. Thus, this paper addresses the value accorded to universalism and relativism in gender activism in Vanuatu, and especially in terms of the linked discourses of kastom, church and modernity. It therefore explores gender relations in terms of the contemporary entanglement of indigenous and exogenous epistemologies, and in doing so argues that the contextual analysis of ‘rights’ should consider the specific historical, political and socio‐cultural circumstances in which they are put to use.     

Adult stature and age at menarche in Zapotec-speaking communities in the Valley of Oaxaca,Mexico, in a secular perspective

Adult stature and the age at menarche among individuals from Zapotec-speaking communities in the Valley of Oaxaca in southern Mexico are considered in a secular perspective. Four sets of observations are utilized: (1) adult stature in males and females from five rural communities; (2) age at menarche in adult women and school girls from a single rural community; (3) earlier studies of adult stature in the Valley of Oaxaca; and (4) estimated stature from long bones excavated in various archaeological sites in the Valley of Oaxaca. There were no significant differences among the five communities for stature; hence, the data were pooled for analysis and comparison. Results of linear regression of stature and stature adjusted for the estimated effects of aging after 30 years of age on year of birth indicate negligible secular changes in either sex. Comparisons with statures from earlier surveys, the earliest dates to 1899, also indicate negligible changes. When adult women are grouped according to age, there are no differences in mean ages at menarche between the older and younger women. Mean age at menarche for the total adult sample is 14.53 ± 0.08 years, which compares favorably with the probit estimate for school girls, 14.70 ± 0.32 years. These results thus suggest virtually no secular change in adult size and maturity of the Zapotec-speaking population in the Valley of Oaxaca over the past 80 years. Differences in stature between contemporary populations and estimated statures from long bones from several archaeological sites in Oaxaca are small, and thus suggests little secular change over the past one to two–thousand years.     

Fishing and the Sexual Division of Labor among the Meriam

Do men and women forage differently because they are cooperatively responding to children's requirements for care or because they are differentially sensitive to variance? In this article, I examine how care trade-offs and variance contribute to gender differences in fishing strategies among Torres Strait Islanders (Meriam). Women's fishing had lower failure rates, coefficients of variation, and frequencies of sharing than men's fishing. Men and women responded to trade-offs between mean and variance differently: Women spent less time on high mean–high variance activities, men less time on high mean–low variance activities. Although child-care trade-offs affected time allocation to different fishing activities among women, they did not affect differences in time allocation between the sexes. These results support previous work implicating variance and sharing frequency as important resource currencies shaping gender differences in subsistence decisions, and they offer challenges to a general model of the division of labor predicated on economic notions of specialization as increasing production efficiency.     

The Role of Gender in Chagas Disease Prevention and Control in Honduras: An Analysis of Communication and Collaboration Networks

In Honduras, where Chagas disease is a serious health and environmental concern, prevention measures face the challenge of achieving widespread and long-term sustainable adoption by communities. The article integrates social network analysis and a gender-sensitive approach to understand the role of men and women in the implementation of a community-level intervention, based on the adoption of housing improvements to reduce the presence of the insect vector. A total of 108 people in the community of El Salitre were interviewed. Data were collected on socio-demographic characteristics, participation in project activities, communication and collaboration networks related to Chagas disease prevention, knowledge of Chagas disease, and adoption of housing improvements techniques. Communication mostly occurred between the same gender individuals and was associated with knowledge of Chagas disease. Socioeconomic status, Chagas disease knowledge, and collaboration with men were associated with women adopting housing improvements. For men, however, participation in project activities, formal education, and collaboration with women were associated with adoption. These findings suggest that men and women were driven by distinct concerns, interests, and motivations when adopting new Chagas disease prevention strategies. Participatory community interventions that seek to generate health knowledge and foster collaborations to reduce health risk should address gender differences.     

Deconstructing Community for Conservation: Why Simple Assumptions are Not Sufficient

Many conservation policies advocate engagement with local people, but conservation practice has sometimes been criticised for a simplistic understanding of communities and social context. To counter this, this paper explores social structuring and its influences on conservation-related behaviours at the site of a conservation intervention near Pipar forest, within the Seti Khola valley, Nepal. Qualitative and quantitative data from questionnaires and Rapid Rural Appraisal demonstrate how links between groups directly and indirectly influence behaviours of conservation relevance (including existing and potential resource-use and proconservation activities). For low-status groups the harvesting of resources can be driven by others’ preference for wild foods, whilst perceptions of elite benefit-capture may cause reluctance to engage with future conservation interventions. The findings reiterate the need to avoid relying on simple assumptions about ‘community’ in conservation, and particularly the relevance of understanding relationships between groups, in order to understand natural resource use and implications for conservation.     

Gender and global labour. Reflections on reading Donna L Chollett’s “renegotiating gender and class in the berry fields of Michaocan,Mexico”

In this response article, the author contextualizes transitions in gender and class relations in Mexico’s berry fields as outlined in Donna L. Chollet article, “Renegotiating gender and class in the berry fields of Michaocan, Mexico,” by examining global trends. While women have both lost and gained from their insertion in global commodity chains, global commodity chains have also opened space for the creation of new identities and broadened the scope of confrontation. Questions are raised about the continuities of class struggle, organization and militancy in the berry fields today, as well as how contemporary capitalism has influenced the relationship between race, gender and class.     

Sheikhanzai women: Sisters,mothers and wives

The Sheikhanzai are goat‐and‐sheep‐herding pastoralists who migrate from winter pastures near the Iranian and Soviet borders of Afghanistan to highland summer pastures in the western Hindu Kush. The article sets out to show that among the Sheikhanzai, women's management of economic resources provides a source of power which is frequently unavailable to women in sedentary communities. The domestic work and productive activities of Sheikhanzai women will be examined in the context of their roles as power‐wielders and power‐brokers. Attention is drawn to intra‐societal variation between different categories of women.     

The influence of geomagnetic field compensation on human cognitive processes

The influence of compensation of the geomagnetic field to levels below 0.4 μT (referred to below as “zero magnetic field”) on human cognitive processes has been studied. 40 participants in the study were assigned to four groups according to their gender and age. The study focused on the assessment of cognitive processes. Each participant took part in two experiments, one of which was set up under normal (control) conditions, whereas the second one was set up under the conditions of a zero magnetic field. 45 min of exposure to zero magnetic field caused statistically significant changes in five out of eight parameters in the cognitive tests. The magnitude of the effects varied between 1.3 and 6.2%, with an average value of 2.1% for all tests ( p < 0.002, MANOVA). It was found that exposure to a zero magnetic field resulted in an increased number of errors and extension of the time required to complete the tasks compared to normal conditions. Men outperformed women under zero magnetic field conditions and young people performed better than older people. It was found that factors other than age and gender affected the cognitive performance under zero magnetic field conditions.     

Factors shaping the tolerance of local Tibetan herders toward snow leopards

Snow leopards (Panthera uncia) have long co-existed with livestock herding people across Asia’s high mountains. Multiple use landscapes however imply potential competition for shared resources, livestock predation, and the risk of retaliatory killing of predators. Community-based conservation is a central pillar for supporting people’s livelihoods and safeguarding predators and their habitat. Based on the theory of planned behavior, we examined the factors that shape herders’ tolerance of snow leopards. Our questionnaire-based study was conducted in the Sanjiangyuan Region, China, encompassing four communities with varying livelihoods, experiences with livestock depredation and levels of exposure to community conservation interventions. Our results showed that respondents generally held positive views towards snow leopards, although women tended to have relatively more negative views towards snow leopards compared with men. Current household income was largely dependent on caterpillar fungus rather than livestock. Social norms around religion and the role of community leaders in our study area seemed to be the main determinants of the generally benign association of people with wildlife, overshadowing potential influences of community-based conservation interventions. Our work suggests that conservations programs will be aided through collaborations with communities and religious institutions, and that conservationists must proactively engage with women as significant actors in conservation.     

Market Integration, Livelihood Transitions and Environmental Change in Areas of Low Agricultural Productivity: A Case Study from Morocco

Rural areas of the developing world have become increasingly integrated into the world economy through both production and consumption during the last decades. This growing integration shapes the development of communities and influences their relationship to the natural environment. Where livelihoods are constrained by resource limitations and the productivity of labor in farm activities is low, it may result in a shift to nonfarm activities, which may under some conditions improve wellbeing and relieve pressure on natural resources. The possibility of such a “win-win” development pathway has important implications for development and environmental policy. In this article we use original qualitative and quantitative data to examine environmental and social changes during the last half century in a rural area of Morocco, seeking evidence of such a pathway. While our case study supports the hypothesis that nonfarm diversification in a context of resource scarcity allowed people to improve their material living conditions, the effects of economic integration and nonfarm diversification on the environment were mixed.     

Calidad de la alimentación de adultos mayores de Santiago de Chile

IntroductionWith the increase in the elderly population of Chile, it is very important to evaluate the quality of food of this age group using simple and quick tools.ObjectiveTo compare the food quality of the elderly, according to gender and age.Material and methodsA cross sectional study was conducted on 458 elderly subjects ≥ 60 years-old of Santiago de Chile. Each one of them were interviewed in their home using the Food Quality Survey for Elderly (FQSE). The objective of this survey is to measure the quality of the food and preparations considered healthy and/or unhealthy for elderly. Weight and height, was obtained from the control document of the elderly.ResultsMen consume a higher number of unhealthy foods compared to women (P = .01). On comparing ages, those over 80 years-old consumed less unhealthy foods (P = .01). The elderly obese showed a lower score in unhealthy eating habits and total intake score.ConclusionWomen eat healthier compared to men, and better eating habits are observed at an older age, especially in men. Finally, on comparing nutritional status, the elderly obese are those who eat in the most inadequate form.