Field Studies of Nutrition and Behavior

AAAS Symposium * 27 December 1969

In the SL1 ixVVl i, adaptaLtion. and de-velopmiienit of huLmnIa societies. behavioraffecting nutrition is of fuLndlarnentalsiaguifillce. Yet, in spite ot tthis factor.there haxve been fewv field stuLdies of suchbehavior, especially of stuLdies relatingthe behavior to its physicall and bioticas well as social setting. These investi-gations arc needed both for the con-tribuLtions they can m-ake to our gen-eral uLn1derst'anding of humLnan ecologyand evolution antd for the pr1acticalimplications they have for specificeconomic developmenit and anti-povertyprograms. The papers in the sympo-sium on "Field Stulies of Nutritiona-nd Behavior' report on some of thefew field studies that have heen maderecently in primitive, peasant. anid de-veloping societies around the world andare intenided to illustrate the utility ofsuLch research from both theoretical andpractical standpoints.

AlthouLgh the speakers in the sym-posiuLm are formally identified as an-thropologists, geographers, nutritionists,and meedical scienltists, all of their

Above: Meat distribtition among theKarimojong of Uganda. [Neville Dyson-Huidson. Johns Hopkins University]

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ieis arC, properly speking ceCO-logical, that is, they focus LIpOIn therelationis between livinig organisms (hu-man beinigs) and their environmients.ThuLs, the cultutral anthropologists andgeographers in the symposiu1m arc conl-cerned not with cultUres themselves. butrather with human popul-zations as coIml-ponents of ecosystems and biotic comil-munities. When cuLltural practices suLchas infanticide and earth eating are dealtwith, they are treated not as exoticexpressionis of essetntially inexplicablecUltural values or interests but ratheras features of a people's relations withthe other ecosystemic components fromwhich they draw the energy a.nd ma-terials LIpOIl which their biological suLr-vival and success and economnic devel-opment depend.The focus of the papers is more on

popLilations than otn individUAls. WViththis focus, it becomes possible to 'makesense" of muLch social or cuLltuLral be-havior related to nutrition, behaviorwhich might seem senseless or irrationialif analyzed with reference to the nuLtri-tional requirements of individuLals alone.Consideration of certaini practices ofthe Maring people of New Guinea can

scrse to illUstraIte this. Nlany Mlaringmen inherit, as part of aI complex of

aical",C'1 formlaIIle, a taboo on eatingsome of the wild animals hunted inthe forest. Fromia clinical staindpoinit."we woLild jUdge application of thistahoo to a man sUffelring from an ad-varnced tropical ullcer to be unsoundand irrational. The exclusioll of a

souLrco of high-quality protein fromhis dict, which otherwise contalins onlyrelati-x ely smnall amounts of proteini andUsaVllV from vegetable rather than ani-mal sources, would be to his nutritionalcdisadv.antage, delaying if not prevent-ing his recovery. But viewing the opera-tioin of the taboo in the context of pro-teinl needs and shortages for the popu-lationi as a whole, we see that the pro-scription on the men's consumption ofhLunted gaame has the beneficial effectof making more of the scarce animialprotein available to categories of peoplewho especially need it: women, who areliikelv to be either lactating or preg-nant, and growing children. In othercases, perhaps particularly under con-(litions produced by rapid change indevifteloping societies (as, for example. inthe Brazilian plantations described in

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one of the symposium papers), an in-adequate diet for growing children maybe the result of having to allocate adisproportionate amount of the limitedavailable food to adult male wage-earners in order to sustain their per-formance on physically demanding jobscreated by new technologies.The papers in the symposium are,

for the most part, the products of multi-disciplinary research. There may comea day when the study of the interactionof cultural, environmental, and humanbiological variables in ecosystems in-cluding human populations will consti-tute a distinct discipline, but, as long asapproximately the present division oflabor in the sciences prevails, the vali-dation or invalidation of hypothesessuch as are put forward in the sym-posium papers will require the co-ordinated collection of data on diversevariables by workers from a variety offields. The papers themselves attest tothe feasibility of such coordinated, mul-tidisciplinary research on problems ofnutrition in relation to behavior andindicate the kinds of advances in knowl-edge to which the research can lead.

ANDREW P. VAYDACHTERRY LOWMAN-VAYDA

Columbia University,New York, New York

Field Studies of Nutrition and Be-havior among African Bushmen,Richard B. Lee (Harvard University).

Prey Size and Food Avoidanceamong the Senoi Semai of Malaya,Robert K. Dentan (State Universityof New York, Buffalo).

Social Responses to the LimitedAvailability of Protein among theGadio Enga of New Guinea, MarkD. Dornstreich (Columbia Univer-sity).

Some Eflects of Maternal andChild Feeding Practices among theMaring of New Guinea, GeorgedaBuchbinder (Columbia University).

Geophagy among the Ewe Peopleof Ghana, Donald E. Vermeer(Louisiana State University).

The Distribution of Food Re-sources in the Herding Economy ofthe Karimojong of Uganda, V. R.

Dyson-Hudson (Johns Hopkins Uni-versity) and Neville Dyson-Hudson(Johns Hopkins University).

A Field Model for PredictingChildhood Malnutrition in Develop-ing Countries, Arlene Fonaroff(Georgetown University) and L.Schuyler Fonaroff (University ofMaryland).

The Ecology of Malnutrition in aRural Community in Tanzania, JohnR. K. Robson (University of Mich-igan).

Technological Change and CaloricCosts in Northeastern Brazilian SisalPlantations, Daniel R. Gross (HunterCollege) and Barbara A. Underwood(Columbia University).

Intervention and Naturalistic Ap-proaches in Field Studies of Nutri-tion and Behavior, Herbert G. Birch(Albert Einstein College of Medi-cine, Yeshiva University).

Hunger and Malnutrition AAAS Symposium * 26-29 December 1969 * Boston

26 DecemberArranged by Jean Mayer (Harvard

School of Public Health).Introduction and Survey, Jean

Mayer:Panel Discussion: Joaquin Cravi-

oto (Hospital de los Enfermatos dela Nutricion, Mexico City); ArnoldSchaefer (HEW) and Charles E.Goodell (U.S. Senator, New York).

27 December

Surveillance of the State of Nu-trition, Roger Revelle (HarvardSchool of Public Health).

Panel Discussion: John H. Brown(New York State Department ofHealth); Mark Hegsted (HarvardSchool of Public Health); and H. L.Sandstead (Vanderbilt University).

Nutrition and Degenerative Dis-eases, Fredrick J. Stare (HarvardSchool of Public Health).

Panel Discussion: Jules Hirsch(Rockefeller University); Albert Kat-tus (University of California, LosAngeles); Ancel Keys (University ofMinnesota).

28 December

Nutritional Problems of SpecialGroups within the United States andRelated Territories, Robert S. Har-ris (M.I.T.).

Panel Discussion: William J.Darby (Vanderbilt University); HelenGer Olson (Indian Health Service,Silver Spring, Maryland); and NevinS. Scrimshaw (M.I.T.).

Nutritional and Economic Prob-lems of the Aged and the Sick,Charles Glenn King (Columbia Uni-versity).

Panel Discussion: Jack Geiger(Tufts University School of Medi-cine); Willard Krehl (University of

Iowa College of Medicine); andDonald Watkin (Veterans Adminis-tration Hospital), West Roxbury,Massachusetts).

29 December

Food Habits and the Economiesof Food Distribution, Colston E.Warne (Amherst College).

Panel Discussion: George Bran-dow (Pennsylvania State University);James Carmen (Consumers' ResearchInstitute); and Johanna T. Dwyer(Harvard School of Public Health).The Changing Significance of

Food, Margaret Mead (AmericanMuseum of Natural History).

Roundtable Discussicn: NormanDesrosier (National Biscuit Com-pany); Robert Choate (National In-stitute of Public Affairs); and EffieEllis (Ohio State Department ofHealth).

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Field Studies of Nutrition and BehaviorAndrew P. Vayda and Cherry Lowman-Vayda

DOI: 10.1126/science.166.3910.1312 (3910), 1312-1313.166Science 

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