Intergenerational influences of hunger and community violence on the Aboriginal people of Western Australia: A review

There is a consensus in the literature that hunger and community violence inaugurates adverse health impacts for survivors and for their descendants. The studied cohorts do not include Western Australian Aboriginal people, although many experienced violence and famine conditions as late as the 1970s. This article describes the pathways and intergenerational impacts of studied cohorts and applies these to the contemporary Western Australian context. The authors found that the intergenerational impacts, compounded by linguistic trauma, may be a contributor to current health issues experienced by Aboriginal people, but these are also contributing to the resurgence in population numbers

Famine food of vegetal origin consumed in the Netherlands during World War II

Background: Periods of extreme food shortages during war force people to eat food that they normally do not consider edible. The last time that countries in Western Europe experienced severe scarcities was during World War II. The so-called Dutch famine or Hunger Winter (1944-1945) made at least 25,000 victims. The Dutch government took action by opening soup kitchens and providing information on wild plants and other famine food sources in "wartime cookbooks." The Dutch wartime diet has never been examined from an ethnobotanical perspective. Methods: We interviewed 78 elderly Dutch citizens to verify what they remembered of the consumption of vegetal and fungal famine food during World War II by them and their close surroundings. We asked whether they experienced any adverse effects from consuming famine food plants and how they knew they were edible. We identified plant species mentioned during interviews by their local Dutch names and illustrated field guides and floras. We hypothesized that people living in rural areas consumed more wild species than urban people. A Welch t test was performed to verify whether the number of wild and cultivated species differed between urban and rural citizens. Results: A total number of 38 emergency food species (14 cultivated and 21 wild plants, three wild fungi) were mentioned during interviews. Sugar beets, tulip bulbs, and potato peels were most frequently consumed. Regularly eaten wild species were common nettle, blackberry, and beechnuts. Almost one third of our interviewees explicitly described to have experienced extreme hunger during the war. People from rural areas listed significantly more wild species than urban people. The number of cultivated species consumed by both groups was similar. Negative effects were limited to sore throats and stomachache from the consumption of sugar beets and tulip bulbs. Knowledge on the edibility of famine food was obtained largely by oral transmission; few people remembered the written recipes in wartime cookbooks. Conclusion: This research shows that 71years after the Second World War, knowledge on famine food species, once crucial for people's survival, is still present in the Dutch society. The information on famine food sources supplied by several institutions was not distributed widely. For the necessary revival of famine food knowledge during the 1940s, people needed to consult a small group of elders. Presumed toxicity was a major reason given by our participants to explain why they did not collect wild plants or mushrooms during the war

A Long History of Dearth and Mortality

UID/HIS/04209/2019 UIDB/04209/2020 UIDP/04209/2020 IF/00631/2014/CP1221/CT0004In this interview, Cormac Ó Gráda recalls how he arrived at the topic of famine, starting from economics and the historical Irish case, and how, later on, he started working the subject in other geographic areas. At the same time, Ó Gráda defines the concept of famine, shares his opinion concerning the debate over the causes of famine throughout history (nature vs. society), and identifies some of its effects on population, such as mortality or related diseases. He discusses the long-term effects on health and how food-related diseases have evolved. As for the future, the scholar mentions the prospect of food shortages in coming decades.publishersversionpublishe

De gezonde levensloop: een geschenk van vele generaties

Er is weinig wat mensen zo interesseert als hun levensloop.Hoe lang kunnen we gezond leven en met een helder hoofd? Het beste advies is zeker om je ouders goed te kiezen. Je ouders leveren niet alleen je genen, je moeder ook het warme huis in haar buik. Zijn ze rijk, ben jij het ook. Voordeel bouwt zich op over een hele levensloop, net zo goed als nadeel. In De gezonde levensloop: een geschenk van vele generaties leest u daarom veel over sociale ongelijkheid in gezondheid, maar ook over wat de Hongerwinter deed met een vrucht in de baarmoeder, of hoe je prille jeugd en je schooltijd je kansen bepalen op een gezonde oude dag. Het is geen oproep tot nihilisme: hoe meer kansen kinderen krijgen, hoe langer en hoe gezonder zij zullen leven.