Moving beyond a snapshot to understand changes in the well-being of native Amazonians : panel evidence (2002-2006) from Bolivia

Forces such as the opening of trade, globalization, multinational corporate resource extraction, urbanization, acculturation, and colonization catalyze economic, ecological, and sociocultural change, which can threaten the well-being and habitat of native Amazonians. Understanding these forces is of paramount importance to improve the well-being of native Amazonians and to foster the conservation of biological diversity, yet most analyses of these forces rely on cross-sectional data. Though adequate to describe the association between variables at one point in time, cross-sectional data do not allow one to estimate changes in well-being over time. We collected data annually during five consecutive years (2002-2006, inclusive) from a foraging and farming society of native Amazonians in Bolivia (Tsimane') to estimate annual rates of change for seven indicators of adult well-being. Indicators encompassed both objective and subjective measures of well-being that included economic, health, psychological, and social dimensions that overlap well with Tsimane' notions of well-being. The annual rate of change in the inflation-adjusted (hereafter real) value of food consumption (+6.35%), body mass index (+0.71%), and incidence of anger (−10.40%) show significant improvements over time, but the annual rate of change in the self-reported number of recent ailments (+7.35%) shows a significant deterioration. Trends in other indicators of well-being (smiles, real wealth, social relations) show positive but insignificant rates of change. Results did not vary by sex and were consistent when using other indicators of well-bein

The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease: Current Knowledge and Potential Mechanisms

Epidemiologic and clinical research has provided a large body of evidence supporting the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD), but there has been a relative dearth of mechanistic studies in humans due to the complexity of working with large, longitudinal cohorts. Nonetheless, animal models of undernutrition have provided substantial evidence for the potential epigenetic, metabolic, and endocrine mechanisms behind DOHaD. Furthermore, recent research has explored the interaction between the environment and the gastrointestinal system by investigating how the gut microbial ecology may impact the capacity for nutrient processing and absorption in a manner that may limit growth. This review presents a summary of current research that supports the concept of DOHaD, as well as potential mechanisms and interactions that explain how nutrition in utero and during early childhood influences lifelong health

Moving beyond a snapshot to understand changes in the well-being of native Amazonians : panel evidence (2002-2006) from Bolivia

Forces such as the opening of trade, globalization, multinational corporate resource extraction, urbanization, acculturation, and colonization catalyze economic, ecological, and sociocultural change, which can threaten the well-being and habitat of native Amazonians. Understanding these forces is of paramount importance to improve the well-being of native Amazonians and to foster the conservation of biological diversity, yet most analyses of these forces rely on cross-sectional data. Though adequate to describe the association between variables at one point in time, cross-sectional data do not allow one to estimate changes in well-being over time. We collected data annually during five consecutive years (2002-2006, inclusive) from a foraging and farming society of native Amazonians in Bolivia (Tsimane') to estimate annual rates of change for seven indicators of adult well-being. Indicators encompassed both objective and subjective measures of well-being that included economic, health, psychological, and social dimensions that overlap well with Tsimane' notions of well-being. The annual rate of change in the inflation-adjusted (hereafter real) value of food consumption (+6.35%), body mass index (+0.71%), and incidence of anger (−10.40%) show significant improvements over time, but the annual rate of change in the self-reported number of recent ailments (+7.35%) shows a significant deterioration. Trends in other indicators of well-being (smiles, real wealth, social relations) show positive but insignificant rates of change. Results did not vary by sex and were consistent when using other indicators of well-bein

Human's cognitive ability to assess facial cues from photographs : a study of sexual selection in the Bolivian Amazon

Background: Evolutionary theory suggests that natural selection favors the evolution of cognitive abilities which allow humans to use facial cues to assess traits of others. The use of facial and somatic cues by humans has been studied mainly in western industrialized countries, leaving unanswered whether results are valid across cultures. Methodology/Principal Findings: Our objectives were to test (i) if previous finding about raters' ability to get accurate information about an individual by looking at his facial photograph held in low-income non western rural societies and (ii) whether women and men differ in this ability. To answer the questions we did a study during July-August 2007 among the Tsimane', a native Amazonian society of foragers-farmers in Bolivia. We asked 40 females and 40 males 16-25 years of age to rate four traits in 93 facial photographs of other Tsimane' males. The four traits were based on sexual selection theory, and included health, dominance, knowledge, and sociability. The rating scale for each trait ranged from one (least) to four (most). The average rating for each trait was calculated for each individual in the photograph and regressed against objective measures of the trait from the person in the photograph. We found that (i) female Tsimane' raters were able to assess facial cues related to health, dominance, and knowledge and (ii) male Tsimane' raters were able to assess facial cues related to dominance, knowledge, and sociability. Conclusions/Significance: Our results support the existence of a human ability to identify objective traits from facial cues, as suggested by evolutionary theory