April 26, 2007

Anthropologist finds health risk in globalization

Maternal knowledge about plants closely linked to health of Bolivian children

By Pat Tremmel

A new Northwestern study shows that maternal knowledge about plants is closely linked to health outcomes for indigenous children in Bolivia as cultural and economic conditions associated with globalization threaten such knowledge.

The study shows that maternal knowledge about plants and their uses predicts good health outcomes for Tsimane’ children. The Tsimane’ are a horticulturalist and foraging society living in Amazonian Bolivia.

The Tsimane’ use plants from local sources for firewood, construction, tools, food and medicine. But as they come into contact with commercial goods and services their knowledge and use of local plants decreases.

The mothers with less knowledge of local plants were more likely to have children with compromised health.

Parents among the Tsimane’ were tested about their knowledge of local plants, and the health of their children was assessed through measurements of a blood marker of immune function and skin-fold thickness and height to indicate growth and nutritional status. Children with low body-fat stores, for example, have the highest risk for subsequent infection and growth faltering.

“While globalization presents many opportunities for people around the world, the loss of adaptive cultural resources for protecting health may come at a significant cost,” concludes Thomas McDade, associate professor of anthropology and faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern and lead author of the study.

“Maternal Ethnobotanical Knowledge is Associated with Multiple Measures of Child Health in the Bolivian Amazon” was published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The co-investigators are McDade, Viki Reyes-Garcia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; Paulina Blackinton, Northwestern; Susan Tanner; University of Georgia; Tomas Huanca, Brandeis University; and William Leonard, Northwestern.

“Plants are a central part of the Tsimane’ ethnomedical tradition,” McDade said. “They are important sources of nutrition, and may have direct pharmacological properties that prevent or treat common ailments, while commercial foods and medicines are expensive and difficult for the Tsimane’ to procure.”

The study confirms research that shows strong associations of maternal knowledge with child health in low-income settings.

McDade is associate director of Cells to Society (C2S): The Center on Social Disparities and Health, a part of Northwestern’s Institute for Policy Research (IPR). C2S is reaching across Northwestern’s two campuses and a number of social, life and biomedical disciplines to offer a 21st century look at how biological, social and cultural dynamics intersect and affect health throughout the lifespan.