Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Dietary transitions among three contemporary hunter-gatherers across the tropics

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Food Security Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The diets of contemporary hunter-gatherers are diverse and highly nutritious, but are rapidly changing as these societies integrate into the market economy. Here, we analyse empirical data on the dietary patterns and sources of foods of three contemporary hunter-gatherer societies: the Baka of Cameroon (n = 160), the Tsimane’ of Bolivia (n = 124) and the Punan Tubu of Indonesia (n = 109). We focus on differences among villages with different levels of integration into the market economy and explore potential pathways through which two key elements of the food environment (food availability and food accessibility) might alter the diets of contemporary hunter-gatherers. Results suggest that people living in isolated villages have more diverse diets than those living in villages closer to markets. Our results also suggest that availability of nutritionally important foods (i.e., fruits, vegetables and animal foods) decreases with increasing market integration, while availability of fats and sweets increases. The differences found seem to relate to changes in the wider food environment (e.g., village level access to wild and/or market foods and seasonality), rather than to individual-level factors (e.g., time allocation or individual income), probably because food sharing reduces the impact of individual level differences in food consumption. These results highlight the need to better understand the impact of changes in the wider food environment on dietary choice, and the role of the food environment in driving dietary transitions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ahmed, S. & Herforth, A. (2017). Missing wild and cultivated environments in food environment measures. ANH Academy Newsletter, Aug 30, 2017. (https://anh-academy.org/academy-news-events/blog/2017/08/30/missing-wild-and-cultivated-environments-food-environment).

  • Bahuchet, S. (1993). L’invention des Pygmées. Cahier, 33, 153–181.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bailey, R. C., & Headland, T. N. (1991). The tropical rain forest: Is it a productive environment for human foragers? Human Ecology, 19(2), 261–285. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00888748.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bailey, R. C., Head, G., Jenike, M., Owen, B., Rechtman, R., & Zechenter, E. (1989). Hunting and gathering in tropical rain Forest: Is it possible? American Anthropologist, 91(1), 59–82. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1989.91.1.02a00040.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berbesque, J. C., Marlowe, F. W., Shaw, P., & Thompson, P. (2014). Hunter–gatherers have less famine than agriculturalists. Biology Letters, 10(1), 20130853.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Bliege Bird, R. L., & Bird, D. W., (1997). Delayed reciprocity and tolerated theft. Current Anthropology, 38(1), 49.

  • Bowles, S. (1998). Endogenous preference: The cultural consequences of markets and other economic institutions. Journal of Economic Literature, 36, 75–111.

    Google Scholar 

  • Broegaard, R. B., Rasmussen, L. V., Dawson, N., Mertz, O., Vongvisouk, T., & Grogan, K. (2017). Wild food collection and nutrition under commercial agriculture expansion in agriculture-forest landscapes. Forest Policy and Economics, 84, 92–101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2016.12.012.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chrisomalis, S. (2006). Comparing cultures and comparing processes: Diachronic methods in cross-cultural anthropology. Cross-Cultural Research, 40(4), 377–404.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chweya, J. A., & Eyzaguirre, P. B. (1999). The biodiversity of traditional leafy vegetables. Rome: International Plant Genetic Resource Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crittenden, A. N., & Schnorr, S. L. (2017). Current views on hunter-gatherer nutrition and the evolution of the human diet. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 162, 84–109. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.23148.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, A., & Wagner, J. R. (2003). Who knows? On the importance of identifying "experts" when researching local ecological knowledge. Human Ecology, 31(3), 463–489.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Díaz-Reviriego, I., Fernández-Llamazares, A., Salpeteur, M., Howard, P., & Reyes-García, V. (2016). Gendered knowledge contributions to adaptive capacity and health sovereignty in Amazonia. Ambio, 45(3), 263–275.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Dounias, E. (2007). Damned pigs! Why do the Punan persist running after the migrating wild boars of Borneo? In E. Dounias, E. Motte-Florac, & M. Dunham (Eds.), Animal symbolism. Animals, keystone in the relationship between Man and Nature? (pp. 1068–1096): IRD éditions.

  • Dounias, E., & Froment, A. (2006). When forest-based hunter-gatherers become sedentary: consequences for diet and health (Vol. 57, Unasylva, Vol. 224).

  • Dounias, E., Selzner, A., Koizumi, M., & Levang, P. (2007). From sago to Rice, from Forest to town: The consequences of Sedentarization for the nutritional ecology of Punan former hunter-gatherers of Borneo. Food and Nutrition Bulletin, 28(2 suppl2), S294–S302. https://doi.org/10.1177/15648265070282s208.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Enloe, J. G., (2004). Hunter-gatherer food sharing: Social and economic interaction. In G. M. Crothers (Ed.), Hunter and Gatherers in theory and archaeology. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University: Center for Archaeological Investigations.

  • Fischler, C. (1988). Food, self and identity. Social Science Information, 27(2), 275–292.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Froment, A., Koppert, GJA., & Loung, JF. (1993). “Eat well, live well”: Nutritional status and health of forest populations in Southern Cameroon. In C. M. Hladik, A. Hladik, O. F. Linares, H. Pagezy, A. Semple, & M. Hadley (Eds.), Tropical Forests, People and Food: Biocultural Interactions and Applications to Development (pp. 295–310, Man and the Biosphere Series, Vol. 13). Paris, France: UNESCO and The Parthenon Publishing Group.

  • Godoy, R., Reyes-García, V., Byron, E., Leonard, W. R., & Vadez, V. (2005). The effect of market economies on the well-being of indigenous peoples and on their use of renewable natural resources. Annual Review of Anthropology, 34, 121–138.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Godoy, R., Nyberg, C., Eisenberg, D. T. A., Magvanjav, O., Shinnar, E., Leonard, W. R., Gravlee, C., Reyes-García, V., Mcdade, T. W., Huanca, T., Tanner, S., & Bolivian TAPS Study Team. (2010). Short but catching up: Statural growth among native Amazonian Bolivian children. American Journal of Human Biology, 22(3), 336–347.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gurven, M. (2005). To give and to give not: The behavioral ecology of human food transfers. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 27(4), 543–583.

  • Herforth, A., & Ahmed, S. (2015). The food environment, its effects on dietary consumption, and potential for measurement within agriculture-nutrition interventions. Food Security, 7(3), 505–520. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-015-0455-8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Joiris, D. V. (2003). The framework of central African hunter-gatherers and neighbouring societies. African study Monogr Suppl, 28, 57–79.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, A. D. (2017). Critical review of the emerging research evidence on agricultural biodiversity, diet diversity, and nutritional status in low- and middle-income countries. Nutrition Reviews, 75(10), 769–782. https://doi.org/10.1093/nutrit/nux040.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Kaskija, L. (2012). Images of a Forest People, Punan Malinau – Identity, Sociality, and Encapsulation in Borneo. Vol. 52, Uppsala Studies in Cultural Anthropology. Uppsala: Uppsala University.

  • Kennedy, G., Ballard, T., & Dop, MC. (2011). Guidelines for measuring household and individual dietary diversity. Rome, Italy: Food and agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

  • Kitanishi, K. (2006). The impact of cash and commoditization on the Baka hunter-gatherer society in southeastern Cameroon. African Study Monographs, 33(Supplementary Issue), 121–142.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koppert, GJA., Dounias, E., Froment, A., & P. Pasquet (1993). Food consumption in three forest populations of the southern coastal areas of Cameroon: Yassa - Mvae - Bakola. In Tropical Forests, People and Food. Biocultural Ineractions and Applications to Development. Paris, France: Man and biosphere Seriers #13, UNESCO: The Parthenon Publishing Group.

  • Kuhnlein, HV. (2009). Introduction: Why are Indigenous Peoples’ food systems important and why do they need documentation? In HV. Kuhnlein, B. Erasmus, & D. Spigelski (Eds.), Indigenous Peoples’ food systems: the many dimensions of culture, diversity and environment for nutrition and health. Rome, Italy and Montreal, Canada: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Centre for Indigenous Peoples' Nutrition and Environment.

  • Kuhnlein, H. V., & Receveur, O. (1996). Dietary change and traditional food systems of indigenous peoples. Annual Review of Nutrition, 16, 417–442.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kuhnlein, H. V., Receveur, O., Soueida, R., & Egeland, G. M. (2004). Arctic indigenous peoples experience the nutrition transition with changing dietary patterns and obesity. The Journal of Nutrition, 134(6), 1447–1453.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lara, M., Gamboa, C., Kahramanian, M., Morales, L., & Bautista, D. (2005). Acculturation and Latino health in the United States: A review of the literature and its sociopolitical context. Annual Review of Public Health, 26, 367–397.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Leclerc, C. (2012). L’adoption de l’agriculture chez les pygmées Baka du Cameroun ; dynamique sociale et continuité structurale. Paris: FMSH édition.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levang, P., Sitorus, S., & Dounias, E. (2007). City life in the midst of the Forest: A Punan hunter-gatherers’ vision of conservation and development. Ecology and Society, 12(1), 18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lu Holt, F. E. (2007). Integration to the market among indigenous peoples. Current Anthropology, 48, 593–602.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Napitupulu, L., Gueze, M., and Reyes-García, V. (2016). Sharing in a context of rural Develoment. A study among a contemporary hunter-gatherer society in Indonesia. In Hunter gatherers in a changing world, edited by V. Reyes-García and A. Pyhala: Springer.

  • Nasi, R., Taber, A., & Vliet, N. V. (2011). Empty forests, empty stomachs? Bushmeat and livelihoods in the Congo and Amazon basins. International Forestry Review, 13(3), 355–368. https://doi.org/10.1505/146554811798293872.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Padoch, C., & Sunderland, T. (2013). Managing landscapes for greater food security and improved livelihoods. Unasylva, 214(64), 3–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parrotta, JA., Dey de Pryck, J., Darko Obiri, B., Padoch, C., Powell, B., Sandbrook, C., et al. (2015). The historical, environmental and socio-economic context of forests and tree-based Systems for Food Security and Nutrition. In B. Vira, C. Wildburger, & S. Mansourian (Eds.), Forests, Trees and Landscapes for Food Security and Nutrition. A Global Assessment Report (Vol. 33, pp. 51–86): IUFRO World Series.

  • Popkin, B. (2004). The nutrition transition: An overview of world patterns of change. Nutrition Reviews, 62, S140–S143.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Powell, B., Ouarghidi, A., Johns, T., Ibn Tattou, M., & Eyzaguirre, P. (2014). Wild leafy vegetable use and knowledge across multiple sites in Morocco: A case study for transmission of local knowledge? Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, 10(1), 34.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Powell, B., Thilsted, S., Ickowitz, A., Termote, C., Sunderland, T., Herforth A. (2015). Improving diets with wild and cultivated biodiversity from across the landscape. Food Security, 1–20.

  • Puri, R.K. (2001). Bulungan Ethnobiology Handbook. Bogor, Indonesia: Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).

  • Reyes-García, V., and Pyhälä, A. (Editors) (2017). Hunter gatherers in a changing world. Springer.

  • Reyes-García, V., Godoy, R., Vadez, V., Ruiz-Mallen, I., Huanca, T., Leonard, W. R., et al. (2009). The pay-offs to sociability. Human Nature-an Interdisciplinary Biosocial Perspective, 20(4), 431–446.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reyes-García, V., Paneque-Galvez, J., Bottazzi, P., Luz, A. C., Gueze, M., Macia, M. J., et al. (2014). Indigenous land reconfiguration and fragmented institutions: A historical political ecology of Tsimane' lands (Bolivian Amazon). Journal of Rural Studies, 34, 282–291. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2014.02.007.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reyes-García, V., Menendez-Baceta, G., Aceituno-Mata, L., Acosta-Naranjo, R., Calvet-Mir, L., Domínguez, P., et al. (2015). From famine foods to delicatessen: Interpreting trends in the consumption and gathering of wild edible plants through their connection to cultural ecosystem services. Ecological Economics, 12, 303–311.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reyes-García, V., Gueze, M., Diaz-Reviriego, I., Duda, R., Fernández-Llamazares, Á., Gallois, S., et al. (2016). The adaptive nature of culture. A cross-cultural analysis of the returns of local environmental knowledge in three indigenous societies. Current Anthropology., 57(6), 761–784.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Reyes-García, V., Gallois, S., Díaz-Reviriego, I., Fernández-Llamazares, Á., Napitupulu, L. (2018). Children’s diets in three Indigenous societies. Journal of Ethnobiology. 38(2), 244–260.

  • Rosinger, A., Tanner, S., & Leonard, W. R. (2013). Precursors to overnutrition: The effects of household market food expenditures on measures of body composition among Tsimane' adults in lowland Bolivia. Social Science & Medicine, 92, 53–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.05.022.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rowley, K. G., Gault, A., McDermott, R., Knight, S., McLeay, T., & O'Dea, K. (2000). Reduced prevalence of impaired glucose tolerance and no change in prevalence of diabetes despite increasing BMI among aboriginal people from a group of remote homeland communities. Diabetes Care, 23(7), 898–904.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sackett, R., and Johnson A. (1998). Direct systematic observation of behavior. In Handbook of methods in cultural anthropology, edited by H. R. Bernard. Walnut Creek, California: Altamira Press.

  • Sahlins, M. (1974). The original affluent society. In Stone Age Economics: Routledge.

  • Sakai, S., Harrison, R. D., Momose, K., Kuraji, K., Nagamasu, H., Yasunari, T., Chong, L., & Nakashizuka, T. (2006). Irregular droughts trigger mass flowering in aseasonal tropical forests in asia. American Journal of Botany, 93(8), 1134–1139. https://doi.org/10.3732/ajb.93.8.1134.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sercombe, P. G., & Sellato, B. (2007). Beyond the green myth: Hunter-gatherers of Borneo in the twenty-first century. Copenhagen: NIAS Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Serrasolses, G., Calvet-Mir, L., Carrió, E., D’Ambrosio, U., Garnatje, T., Parada, M., Vallès, J., & Reyes-García, V. (2016). A matter of taste: Local explanations for the consumption of wild food plants in the Catalan Pyrenees and the Balearic Islands1. [journal article]. Economic Botany, 70(2), 176–189. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-016-9343-1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sibhatu, K. T., Krishna, V. V., Qaim, M. (2015). Production diversity and dietary diversity in smallholder farm households. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(34), 10657–10662.

  • Vadez, V., Reyes-García, V., Godoy, R., Leonard, W., Huanca, T., & Byron, E. (2008). Income diversification of rural households: What role for agriculture? Household evidence from the Tsimane' Amerindians of the Bolivian Amazon. Human Organization, in press.

  • van Vliet, N., Quiceno-Mesa, M. P., Cruz-Antia, D., Tellez, L., Martins, C., Haiden, E., et al. (2015). From fish and bushmeat to chicken nuggets: The nutrition transition in a continuum from rural to urban settings in the tri frontier Amazon region. Ethnobiology and Conservation, 4(2015).

  • Woodburn, J. (1998). Egalitarian Societies. In J. Gowdy (Ed.), Limited wants, unlimited means: A reader on hunter-gatherer economics and the environment. Washington DC: Island Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yasuoka, H. (2009). Concentrated distribution of wild yam patches: Historical ecology and the subsistence of African rainforest hunter-gatherers. [journal article]. Human Ecology, 37(5), 577–587. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-009-9279-5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yasuoka, H. (2013). Dense wild yam patches established by hunter-gatherer camps: Beyond the wild yam question, toward the historical ecology of rainforests. Human Ecology, 41(3), 465–475.

    Article  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Zane, N., & Mark, W. (2003). Major approaches to the measurement of acculturation among ethnic minority populations: a content analysis and an alternative empirical strategy. In C. KM, O. PB, & M. G (Eds.), Advances in Theory, Measurement and Applied Research (pp. 39–60). Washington, D.C: American Psychological Association.

  • Zycherman, A. (2013). The changing value of food: Localizing modernity among the Tsimane’ Indians of lowland Bolivia. University of Columbia,

  • Zycherman, A. (2015). Shocdye' as world. Food, Culture & Society, 18(1), 51–69. https://doi.org/10.2752/175174415x14101814953684.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) / ERC grant agreement n° FP7-261971-LEK. We thank the Baka, the Punan Tubu, and the Tsimane’ for their hospitality and collaboration during fieldwork. In addition to the authors, A. Ambassa, R. Duda, F. Moustapha, and E. Simpoh collected data in Cameroon; V. Cuata, P. Pache, M. Pache, I. Sánchez, and S. Huditz in Bolivia; and S. Hadiwijaya, L. Napitupulu, and D. Suan in Indonesia. We thank them all. We also thank CIFOR for logistical assistance during field-work, A. Pyhälä for database management, and C. Vadez-Reyes for research assistance. This work contributes to the “María de Maeztu Unit of Excellence” (MdM-2015-0552).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain

    Victoria Reyes-García

  2. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellatera, Barcelona, Spain

    Victoria Reyes-García, Sandrine Gallois & Maximilien Gueze

  3. Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA-UAB) ICTA-ICP, Edifici Z Carrer de les Columnes, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, E-08193, Bellaterra, Cerdanyola del Vallès-Barcelona, Spain

    Victoria Reyes-García

  4. Department of Geography and African Studies Program, Pennsylvania State University, 314 Walker Building, University Park, PA, 16801, USA

    Bronwen Powell

  5. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Leipzig, Germany

    Isabel Díaz-Reviriego

  6. Global Change and Conservation (GCC), Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS), Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, FI-00014, Helsinki, Finland

    Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares

  7. Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Research Programme, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares

  8. Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands

    Sandrine Gallois

Authors
  1. Victoria Reyes-García
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Bronwen Powell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Isabel Díaz-Reviriego
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Sandrine Gallois
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Maximilien Gueze
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Victoria Reyes-García.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interests

The authors declare they have no conflict of interests.

Electronic supplementary material

ESM 1

(DOCX 16 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Reyes-García, V., Powell, B., Díaz-Reviriego, I. et al. Dietary transitions among three contemporary hunter-gatherers across the tropics. Food Sec. 11, 109–122 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-018-0882-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-018-0882-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation