Culture, Environment and Health in the Yucatan Peninsula : A Human Ecology Perspective

This book adopts a human ecology approach to present an overview of the biological responses to social, political, economic, cultural and environmental changes that affected human populations in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, since the Classic Maya Period. Human bodies express social relations, and we can read these relations by analyzing biological tissues or systems, and by measuring certain phenotypical traits at the population level. Departing from this theoretical premise, the contributors to this volume analyze the interactions between ecosystems, sociocultural systems and human biology in a specific geographic region to show how changes in sociocultural and natural environment affect the health of a population over time. This edited volume brings together contributions from a range of different scientific disciplines – such as biological anthropology, bioarchaeology, human biology, nutrition, epidemiology, ecotoxicology, political economy, sociology and ecology – that analyze the interactions between culture, environment and health in different domains of human life, such as: * The political ecology of food, nutrition and health * Impacts of social and economic changes in children’s diet and women’s fertility * Biological consequences of social vulnerability in urban areas * Impacts of toxic contamination of natural resources on human health * Ecological and sociocultural determinants of infectious diseases __Culture, Environment and Health in the Yucatan Peninsula – A Human Ecology Perspective__ will be of interest to researchers from the social, health and life sciences dedicated to the study of the interactions between natural environments, human biology, health and social issues, especially in fields such as biological and sociocultural anthropology, health promotion and environmental health. It will also be a useful tool to health professionals and public agents responsible for designing and applying public health policies in contexts of social vulnerability. Front Matter ....Pages i-xiii Introduction (Hugo Azcorra, Federico Dickinson)....Pages 1-8 The Thin Broken Line. History, Society, and the Environment on the Yucatan Peninsula (Luis Alfonso Ramírez-Carrillo)....Pages 9-36 Front Matter ....Pages 37-37 Globalization and Children’s Diets: The Case of Yucatan, Mexico (Barry Bogin, Hugo Azcorra, María Luisa Ávila-Escalante, María Teresa Castillo-Burguete, Maria Inês Varela-Silva, Federico Dickinson)....Pages 39-63 Growth Stunting and Low Height-for-Age in the Yucatan Peninsula (Maria Inês Varela-Silva, Samantha Sanchez, Barry Bogin, Federico Dickinson, Hugo Azcorra)....Pages 65-75 The Urban Maya from Yucatan; Dealing with the Biological Burden of the Past and a Degenerative Present (Hugo Azcorra, Barry Bogin, Maria Inês Varela-Silva, Federico Dickinson)....Pages 77-96 A Critical Biocultural Perspective on Tourism and the Nutrition Transition in the Yucatan (Thomas Leatherman, Alan H. Goodman, J. Tobias Stillman)....Pages 97-120 Effect of Salaried Work in Cities and Commercial Agriculture on Natural Fertility in Rural Maya Women from the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico (Allan Ortega-Muñoz, Francisco D. Gurri)....Pages 121-135 Agricultural Transformation and Ontogeny in Rural Populations from the Yucatan Peninsula at the turn of the Century: Studying Linear Enamel Hypoplasias and Body Composition in Adolescents (Francisco D. Gurri)....Pages 137-157 Hydration, Lactation, and Child Health Outcomes in Yucatec Maya (Amanda Veile, Sunny Asaf, Erik Otárola-Castillo, Karen L. Kramer)....Pages 159-176 Patterns of Activity and Somatic Symptoms Among Urban and Rural Women at Midlife in the State of Campeche, Mexico (Lynnette Leidy Sievert, Laura Huicochea-Gómez, Diana Cahuich-Campos, Daniel E. Brown)....Pages 177-194 Front Matter ....Pages 195-195 Environmental and Cultural Stressors in the Coastal Northern Maya Lowlands in Pre-Hispanic Times (Andrea Cucina)....Pages 197-216 History of Health and Life of Pre-Hispanic Maya Through Their Skeletal Remains (Lourdes Márquez Morfín, Patricia Olga Hernández Espinoza)....Pages 217-242 Crossing the Threshold of Modern Life: Comparing Disease Patterns Between Two Documented Urban Cemetery Series from the City of Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico (Vera Tiesler, Julio Roberto Chi-Keb, Allan Ortega Muñoz)....Pages 243-256 Front Matter ....Pages 257-257 Health and Well-being in the Yucatan Peninsula Revisited with a Human Ecology Perspective (Hugo Laviada-Molina, Oswaldo Huchim-Lara, Nina Méndez-Domínguez)....Pages 259-276 Hair Mercury Content in an Adult Population of Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, as a Function of Anthropometric Measures and Seafood Consumption (Sally López-Osorno, Flor Árcega-Cabrera, José Luís Febles-Patrón, Almira L. Hoogesteijn)....Pages 277-291 Tackling Exposure to Chagas Disease in the Yucatan from a Human Ecology Perspective (Carlos N. Ibarra-Cerdeña, Adriana González-Martínez, Alba R. Valdez-Tah, Claudia Guadalupe Chi-Méndez, María Teresa Castillo-Burguete, Janine M. Ramsey)....Pages 293-309 Conclusions (Federico Dickinson, Hugo Azcorra)....Pages 311-314 Back Matter ....Pages 315-336 "This book adopts a human ecology approach to present an overview of the biological responses to social, political, economic, cultural and environmental changes that affected human populations in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, since the Classic Maya Period. Human bodies express social relations, and we can read these relations by analyzing biological tissues or systems, and by measuring certain phenotypical traits at the population level. Departing from this theoretical premise, the contributors to this volume analyze the interactions between ecosystems, sociocultural systems and human biology in a specific geographic region to show how changes in sociocultural and natural environment affect the health of a population over time. This edited volume brings together contributions from a range of different scientific disciplines - such as biological anthropology, bioarchaeology, human biology, nutrition, epidemiology, ecotoxicology, political economy, sociology and ecology - that analyze the interactions between culture, environment and health in different domains of human life, such as: The political ecology of food, nutrition and health Impacts of social and economic changes in children's diet and women's fertility Biological consequences of social vulnerability in urban areas Impacts of toxic contamination of natural resources on human health Ecological and sociocultural determinants of infectious diseases Culture, Environment and Health in the Yucatan Peninsula - A Human Ecology Perspective will be of interest to researchers from the social, health and life sciences dedicated to the study of the interactions between natural environments, human biology, health and social issues, especially in fields such as biological and sociocultural anthropology, health promotion and environmental health. It will also be a useful tool to health professionals and public agents responsible for designing and applying public health policies in contexts of social vulnerability." -- Prové de l'editor