The 1998 El Niño significantly reduced garden productivity in the
Upper Orinoco region in Venezuela. Consequently, parents were forced to
allocate food carefully to their children. Nutrition data collected from village
children combined with genealogical data allowed the determination of which
children suffered most, and whether the patterns of food distribution
accorded with predictions from parental investment theory. For boys, three
social variables accounted for over 70% of the variance in subcutaneous fat
after controlling for age: number of siblings, age of the mother’s youngest
child, and whether the mother was the senior or junior co-wife, or was
married monogamously. These results accord well with parental investment
theory. Parents experiencing food stress faced a trade-off between quantity
and quality, and between investing in younger versus older offspring. In
addition, boys with access to more paternal investment (i.e. no stepmother)
were better nourished. These variables did not account for any of the
variance in female nutrition. Girls’ nutrition was associated with the size of
their patrilineage and the number of non-relatives in the village, suggesting
that lineage politics may have played a role. An apparent lack of relationship
between orphan status and nutrition is also interesting, given that orphans
suffered high rates of skin flea infections. The large number of orphans being
cared for by only two grandparents suggests that grooming time may have
been the resource in short supply.
Introductio
