Some Aspects of Human Ecology in South America

Abstract

Ecology has been described as a ‘branch of biology dealing with living organisms, habits, modes of life and relations to their surroundings’ (Oxford Dictionary, 1949). This is a very wide and general concept that in the case of man would cover the whole range of man’s interaction with his environment starting with climate, soil, habitat, going to food and nutrition, infection and infestation and ending up with the social and cultural activities of the particular group under study. Even a modest attempt to cover these different aspects of man in South America could require the writing of a work, possibly of several volumes—and thus exceed by far the requirements of one small chapter such as this one. Instead the author proposes to briefly present and discuss some aspects of human ecology in South America based on results of research carried out over the last twenty years. These aspects concern themselves on the one hand with man’s adaptation to various components of the climate he lives in and on the other hand with his nutrition. This apparent dichotomy is, however, not to be taken as real, it is just being used as a method of presentation and the author fully realizes that climate and nutrition, at least in much of South America are closely inter-woven and the latter depends to a large extent on the former.