| During the past 30 years, the magnitude of environmental, economic and political change taking place in Amazonia have profound impact on the social, economic, nutritional and health status of native populations. Caboclos, the native Amazon peasant, practice an economy based on multiple resource use, including agriculture, fishing, hunting, management and extraction of forest products. These activities of subsistence and economy have been directly and/or indirectly affected by the changes taking place in the region as a whole. Some of these effects can be observed in changes in land use and in the strategies of subsistence and economy of these rural populations. Others, however, need to be understood at the level of social organization and biological adaptation of these populations. This study investigates the relationships between land use and nutritional status among Caboclo populations on Marajo Island, Para, Brazil. Different land use and patterns of subsistence and economy are compared. Nutritional status is assessed through food intake surveys and anthropometric measurements of physical growth and development. Changes in land use are assessed through ethnographic research and data from remote sensing analysis. The study presents and discusses qualitative and quantitative data collected in different field seasons between 1989 and 1994. The results show that indeed land use changes affect food availability and security at the household and population levels. Overall, however, the study populations present signs of chronic malnutrition. Food with high energetic content is seasonally available. In addition, sanitary conditions and health services are also limited. Interestingly enough, the incidence of malnutrition is not biased towards any specific category, such as gender, age group or landownership. Nevertheless, factors such as social organization, land tenure and household decision-making processes are important dimensions to understand land use and nutritional status variations among and within populations. |
