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Nutrition Transition, Socioeconomic Differentiation, and Gender Among Adult Xavante Indians, Brazilian Amazon

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Abstract

High prevalence rates of overweight and obesity are increasingly common among indigenous Amazonian societies experiencing greater involvement in market economies. An important factor in such nutritional transition is internal socioeconomic differentiation, which partially accounts for fatness frequencies. We report the results of a diachronic anthropometric comparison and cross-sectional anthropometric and socioeconomic survey of Xavante adults from a single, large community. Our data show an accelerated nutrition transition, with significant weight and BMI increases for males and females between 1962 and 2006. We also found income and wealth to be significantly associated with fatness measures for both sexes combined and for females separately. We interpret the observed gender differences as reflecting differences between male and female social dietary practices. Comparison with other studies in the Amazon region suggests that the relationships between internal socioeconomic differentiation and dietary health vary between cultural and economic settings. We also argue that parallels between Xavante health perspectives and epidemiological interpretations demonstrate the potential for proactive interchange between native and scientific health discourses.

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Notes

  1. Whereas these studies address inter-community variation, our study addresses intra-community variation. Although both approaches engage related topics, they call for different analytical approaches and their results may have different implications. For a review of studies addressing inter-community variation in market integration, see Lu (2007).

  2. In 1962 the community we refer to here as Pimentel Barbosa/Etênhiritipá was located at São Domingos village. Since that time, it has undergone several divisions that resulted in the establishment of separate villages, including Caçula, Tanguro, and Wederã, which also subsequently subdivided. The present study did not entail these other now independent communities.

  3. The lack of differentiation in house structure we observed at Pimentel Barbosa/Etênhiritipá may not occur on other Xavante Indigenous Reserves located closer to cities and having greater degrees of integration with local economies.

  4. We also considered using a socioeconomic indicator related to education. However, we observed that education was closely associated with age and sex (younger and male individuals having more education). There was the additional complication that while some adults studied in the local school located in the village, others studied outside the reservation. The comparison of number of years of schooling should be carried out carefully in this case, since the quality of education varies considerably. Because of these difficulties, we opted not to include it in this article.

  5. Although BMI may overestimate adiposity of individuals with increased muscularity, it was employed in this study as a convenient estimate of population weight-to-height appropriateness. Gugelmin and Santos (2006) evaluated the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and anthropometric measurements in Xavante adults aiming at analyzing the use of BMI as an indicator of nutritional status in this specific population. Their findings show that high BMI values are highly correlated with excess fat.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Xavante for their willingness to participate in the research. We thank Goiano Serema’á and Vinícius Supretaprã for field assistance and translation, Francisco Mauro Salzano for allowing us to work with original anthropometric data from São Domingo village, and Nancy M. Flowers for allowing access to her population lists. This research was made possible by funds provided by the Brazilian Research Council (CNPq), grant numbers MCT-CNPq/MS-SCTIE-DECIT/CT 40.0944/2005-7 and 40.0926/2005-9, the Ford Foundation, and the Fulbright Commission, Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship, award number P022A040016.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, 70118, USA

    James R. Welch

  2. Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

    James R. Welch, Aline A. Ferreira, Ricardo V. Santos, Guilherme Werneck & Carlos E. A. Coimbra Jr.

  3. Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

    Ricardo V. Santos

  4. Instituto de Nutrição, Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

    Silvia A. Gugelmin

  5. Instituto de Medicina Social, Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

    Guilherme Werneck

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Correspondence to James R. Welch.

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Welch, J.R., Ferreira, A.A., Santos, R.V. et al. Nutrition Transition, Socioeconomic Differentiation, and Gender Among Adult Xavante Indians, Brazilian Amazon. Hum Ecol 37, 13–26 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-009-9216-7

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