Database Formatting:

http://www.unc.edu/~ndfernan/database/DbTest.xlsx

i. Transposing all nutritional information
ii. Looking up unknowns

Godoy and Cárdenas - Markets and Health of Indigenous People: A Methodological Contribution

Godoy and Cárdenas conducted a study on Mojeña Indians and Yuracarè to determine whether they could find a standpoint on the debate between the effects of markets and acculturation hurt, help, or produce ambiguous effects on the health of indigenous people as they integrate themselves into market economies.

The three positions that most scholars take are:

• Negative - "markets undermine the health of indigenous people because it leads to the introduction of new diseases and changes in diet,work patterns, and subsistence practices; loss of land and natural resources and a reduction in the biological and ecological complexity of the environments"
• Positive - "greater participation increases health because it raises income and education, thereby allowing households to buy modern medical services and improve their nutrition and hygiene"
  
• Ambiguous - "the morbidity of indigenous people may change over time and may vary depending on the degree and nature of a person's integration to the market"

Godoy explains that there are several reasons for the divergent views on this topic. An example is that isoloated poorer villagers may be more willing to work even when they are ill and more likely to underreport feeling ill - with higher income and greater paricipation in the market health, expectations rise and people are more likely to report illness and seek treatment. One of the major reasons for ambiguity though, may be attributed to the failure to distinguish between acculturation and integration when studying morbidity on variables. Godoy asserts that though related, acculturation and integration do not overlap in full and can be defined in different ways - thereby bearing a different relation to morbidity.

The study:
The Mojeña and Yuracarè are among the largest lowland indigenous groups in Bolivia - and contain more variance in socioeconomic attributes than the smaller groups.

Market integration was measure in nine different ways: 1) share of rice sold, 2) share of maize sold, 3) wage labor, 4) use of credit 5) use of chemicals in farming 6) use of a modern rice seeders, 7) village-to-town distance, 8) number of government and non-government institutions in the village, and 9) number of teachers and health in workers in the village

Conclusions:
Godoy and Cárdenas found that the relation between markets and health to be nonlinear and complex . They conclude that though their evidence suggests that the definition of integration to the nonvillage economoy matters, that "irrespective of how integration to the market is defined, markets seems to have little effect on health, after controlling for a broad range of socioeconomic covariates."

Godoy, Ricardo and Marina Cardenas. 2000 Markets and the Health of Indigenous People: A Methodological
Contribution. Human Organization 59(1):117-125.

Database Formatting:

Project Scope Statement

This system will be used to aid in the research project known as the Ecuador Project (http://www.unc.edu/humanbiolab). This goal of this project is to examine the effects of market integration on the health of seven indigenous groups from Amazonian Ecuador. This particular system will be used in the nutritional aspect of this study. The idea of making this system is to be able to evaluate nutritional health of individuals by evaluating the nutritional content of their first daily meal. On a larger scale this system will provide the means to make comparisons of nutritional health among the seven communities.

Upon completion this system will not only allow the user to be able to evaluate the nutritional intake of individuals, families, households and communities but also to make hypothetical nutritional situations for each of these categories (i.e.; examining the difference in protein intake of each individual in household 7, of community 2, if one egg is added to each person’s first daily meal).

E-R Diagram:

The Basics:

Who are Indigenous Peoples?

• According to current estimates- over 250 million people in 70 countries of the world are listed as indigenous peoples.

• People range from Indian groups of the Amazon Rainforest to the Sami in the higher reaches of Northern Europe to the Aborigines in the Australian outback
• Comprise 4% of global population

• UN uses a flexible multi-factored definition of an indigenous person consisting of four criteria
• Pre-existence
• Non-dominance
• Cultural difference
• Self-identification

• "Indigenous peoples" refers mainly to those groups of people who were earlier describes as "tribal societies"
• Originally societies living in a small area
• Having no central political authority
• Dependent agriculture, swiddening, nomadic livestock breeding or hunting/gathering

• This description no longer reflects the present day realities of indigenous communities, as there is hardly any difference in the lifestyle of many indigenous peoples and the great mass of small farmers
• Indigenous peoples are also residents of urban centers and slum areas
• Reject the term "tribe" as a colonially loaded term

• Until a few decades ago, states reserved the right to determine what could be classified as "indigenous"
• Now, many non profits and other organizations acknowledge the need to also recognize "indigenousness" as a matter of subjective perception

Haller, Tobias. "Introduction." Fossil Fuels, Oil Companies, and Indigenous Peoples: Strategies of Multinational Oil Companies, States, and Ethnic Minorities ; Impact on Environment, Livelihoods and Cultural Change / Tobias Haller, Eds. .... [et Al.]. Wien: Lit, 2007. Print

MI and Indigenous Health

• Two contrasting perspective on markets and health of indigenous peoples:

1. Improves health through access to higher incomes, formal education, and health care services
1. Income and education are associated with ability to smooth consumption, purchase medical services, treat illness promptly, and maintain proper sanitary conditions
2. Markets can also function as a safety net for fluctuating dietary intakes during seasonal short falls in resource availability
3. Increase in household income can augment individual energy intake through improved access to food
2. Market economies are detrimental to health of indigenous populations because market expansion is accompanied by increased disease and dietary alternation
1. Ecological approaches suggest that traditional societies have adapted to their environments in ways that maintains good health and nutrition
2. Greater integration into a market economy and exposure and assimilation into a dominant society can result in shifts in modes of subsistence, decision-making about resource use, and access to health-related goods and services
3. Exposure to acculturative forces (formal education, language skills of dominiant society, frequency of contact) can result in adoption or reject of new values and preferences

• Important to remember: in most places, people are not controlling or determining their own relationship with the market economy and are therefore in a disadvantageous position

Byron, Elizabeth M. MARKET INTEGRATION AND HEALTH: THE IMPACT OF MARKETS AND ACCULTURATION ON THE SELF-PERCEIVED MORBIDITY, DIET, AND NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF THE TSIMANE’ AMERINDIANS OF LOWLAND BOLIVIA. Diss. UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA, 2003.

Health Effects of Market Integration

Objectives:
Market integration produces mixed effects on well-being and conservation in indigenous populations. There are two basic perspectives on the relationship between market integration and indigenous health. The first is that integration into a market economy brings plentiful benefits such as education, and social services that improve health. The second focuses on detriments market integration causes on health by focusing on the change it brings to the environment that these populations have adapted to in order to maintain good health and nutrition.

Research on the impact of market integration on the health of indigenous populations is important because health is a standard and classic indicator of human welfare and robustness of the society (Godoy).

During the extent of this course, I will be working continuously on the specific case sample of the Ecuador Project. This will consist of data analysis examining the health effects market integration has brought to seven indigenous populations in Amazonian Ecuador. Furthermore, this course will act as an independent study on the effects of market integration on indigenous health specifically through human growth, nutritional status, and development as a result of changes MI brings to traditional ecological knowledge of indigenous peoples, and their use of renewable natural resources.

Books:

Wien; Berlin: Lit 2007:

Fossil fuels, oil companies, and indigenous peoples: strategies of multinational oil companies, states, and ethnic minorities; impact on environment, livelihoods and cultural change

McMichael, Phillip 2009:

Development and social change: a global perspective