South American Indians Research Articles

Epidemiology of Gallbladder Disease: Cholelithiasis and Cancer

Diseases of the gallbladder are common and costly. The best epidemiological screening method to accurately determine point prevalence of gallstone disease is ultrasonography. Many risk factors for cholesterol gallstone formation are not modifiable such as ethnic background, increasing age, female gender and family history or genetics. Conversely, the modifiable risks for cholesterol gallstones are obesity, rapid weight loss and a sedentary lifestyle. The rising epidemic of obesity and the metabolic syndrome predicts an escalation of cholesterol gallstone frequency. Risk factors for biliary sludge include pregnancy, drugs like ceftiaxone, octreotide and thiazide diuretics, and total parenteral nutrition or fasting. Diseases like cirrhosis, chronic hemolysis and ileal Crohn's disease are risk factors for black pigment stones. Gallstone disease in childhood, once considered rare, has become increasingly recognized with similar risk factors as those in adults, particularly obesity. Gallbladder cancer is uncommon in developed countries. In the U.S., it accounts for only ~ 5,000 cases per year. Elsewhere, high incidence rates occur in North and South American Indians. Other than ethnicity and female gender, additional risk factors for gallbladder cancer include cholelithiasis, advancing age, chronic inflammatory conditions affecting the gallbladder, congenital biliary abnormalities, and diagnostic confusion over gallbladder polyps.

Amazonian Exchanges: Txema's Lessons With Outboard Engines, Mosquito Nets and Images

Abstract: This article provides an ethnographic analysis of lessons given by an Amazonian Indian elder called Txema concerning transactions of objects and images. Txema has lived until 1978 in the Amazon as a hunter and farmer in very small communities spread in the forest mainly avoiding conflict with non-indigenous people. The Matis established contact with the Brazilians in 1978 and now Txema deals with British TV crews and researchers. This paper brings detailed information on how Txema transacts many objects like outboard engines and mosquito nets for images and care. Values are discussed in those transactions. Drawing an ethnographic description as the way to achieve reflection, this paper tries to show a close approach to what kind of transformation a lot of industrialized objects provoke in an indigenous community. Material culture exchanges are closely related to values and Txema teaches us what is valuable for this elder Amazonian man.

The population genetics of quechuas, the largest native south american group: Autosomal sequences, SNPs, and microsatellites evidence high level of diversity

Elucidating the pattern of genetic diversity for non-European populations is necessary to make the benefits of human genetics research available to individuals from these groups. In the era of large human genomic initiatives, Native American populations have been neglected, in particular, the Quechua, the largest South Amerindian group settled along the Andes. We characterized the genetic diversity of a Quechua population in a global setting, using autosomal noncoding sequences (nine unlinked loci for a total of 16 kb), 351 unlinked SNPs and 678 microsatellites and tested predictions of the model of the evolution of Native Americans proposed by (Tarazona-Santos et al.: Am J Hum Genet 68 (2001) 1485-1496). European admixture is <5% and African ancestry is barely detectable in the studied population. The largest genetic distances were between African versus Quechua or Melanesian populations, which is concordant with the African origin of modern humans and the fact that South America was the last part of the world to be peopled. The diversity in the Quechua population is comparable with that of Eurasian populations, and the allele frequency spectrum based on resequencing data does not reflect a reduction in the proportion of rare alleles. Thus, the Quechua population is a large reservoir of common and rare genetic variants of South Amerindians. These results are consistent with and complement our evolutionary model of South Amerindians (Tarazona-Santos et al.: Am J Hum Genet 68 (2001) 1485-1496), proposed based on Y-chromosome data, which predicts high genomic diversity due to the high level of gene flow between Andean populations and their long-term effective population size.

The experiences of Indigenous people in health care encounters in Western settings and contexts: A systematic review of qualitative evidence.

Review question/objective The objective of this review is to analyse and synthesise the best available evidence on the experiences of Indigenous people who engage in health care encounters in Western settings and contexts. The review question is: What are the experiences of Indigenous people engaged in health care encounters in Western settings and contexts? Inclusion Criteria Types of Participants Studies including two groups of participants, regardless of age or gender, will be considered for this systematic review. The first group is persons of Indigenous descent from the following countries and continents appearing most frequently in the literature: North America, South America, New Zealand, Australia, and Scandinavian countries. These countries include peoples such as First Nations, Native Americans, Metis, Inuit, North American Indians, South American Indians, Inca, Maori, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia, and Sapmi. This list is not exhaustive, and any Indigenous population identified in a study will be included. Indigenous populations who immigrate to new countries will be excluded, given that immigrant status can confound Indigenous status. The second group of participants to be considered for inclusion is health care providers who work in Western settings and context, including, but not limited to, nurses, physicians, nutritionists, midwives, social workers, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, and respirologists. Phenomena of Interest The phenomenon of interest is the experience of Indigenous people in health care encounters in Western health care settings and context. Health care encounters refer to any interactions between an Indigenous person and a health care provider within the scope of Western health care services. All reasons for health encounters will be considered. Context The context will be Indigenous persons seeking health care services in Western settings and context. These services may be located within urban, rural, or remote health care settings where Western health care services are delivered.

The experiences of Indigenous people in health care encounters in Western settings and contexts: A systematic review of qualitative evidence

Review question/objective The objective of this review is to analyse and synthesise the best available evidence on the experiences of Indigenous people who engage in health care encounters in Western settings and contexts. The review question is: What are the experiences of Indigenous people engaged in health care encounters in Western settings and contexts? Inclusion Criteria Types of Participants Studies including two groups of participants, regardless of age or gender, will be considered for this systematic review. The first group is persons of Indigenous descent from the following countries and continents appearing most frequently in the literature: North America, South America, New Zealand, Australia, and Scandinavian countries. These countries include peoples such as First Nations, Native Americans, Metis, Inuit, North American Indians, South American Indians, Inca, Maori, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia, and Sapmi. This list is not exhaustive, and any Indigenous population identified in a study will be included. Indigenous populations who immigrate to new countries will be excluded, given that immigrant status can confound Indigenous status. The second group of participants to be considered for inclusion is health care providers who work in Western settings and context, including, but not limited to, nurses, physicians, nutritionists, midwives, social workers, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, and respirologists. Phenomena of Interest The phenomenon of interest is the experience of Indigenous people in health care encounters in Western health care settings and context. Health care encounters refer to any interactions between an Indigenous person and a health care provider within the scope of Western health care services. All reasons for health encounters will be considered. Context The context will be Indigenous persons seeking health care services in Western settings and context. These services may be located within urban, rural, or remote health care settings where Western health care services are delivered.

Enhancing efficacy of Mexican fruit fly SIT programmes by large‐scale incorporation of methoprene into pre‐release diet

AbstractThe juvenile hormone analogue, methoprene, has been documented to accelerate the development of reproductive competence and sexual signalling of Caribbean (Anastrepha suspensa), the Mexican (Anastrepha ludens), the South American (Anastrepha fraterculus) and West Indian (Anastrepha obliqua) tephritid fruit flies. The incorporation of methoprene into sterile fly release protocols at fly emergence and handling facilities is a key step required for large‐scale application of the technology to field release strategies. The goal of our study was to develop a method to supply, in large scale, methoprene to sterile Mexican fruit flies for release in the current Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) programme in Mexico. In field cage tests, the isolation index of sterile males after treatment with methoprene was reduced, increasing the percentage of mating between laboratory sterile males and wild females. In laboratory trials, males fed a diet containing 0.05% or 0.1% methoprene mated 4‐day earlier than untreated control males. In a pilot area tested in 3500 ha to measure the impact of the sterile releases when methoprene was supplied, no adult wild flies were detected and no larvae were found after sampling more than 330 kg of fruit both in the treated and untreated blocks. Based on the results obtained in this study, we recommend the incorporation of the methoprene on adult diet to improve the Mexican fruit fly male sexual performance when release in the field, contributing to the increase in the cost‐effectiveness of the SIT programme.

Sexual dimorphism in permanent teeth of modern Greeks

Sex determination is considered an important step in reconstructing the biological profile of unknown individuals from a forensic context. Forensic anthropologists have long used teeth as an additional tool for sex determination as they resist postmortem destruction. In this case the use of population-specific data is necessary since sexual dimorphism varies between different populations. Currently there are no odontometric standards for determining sex in Greek populations. The purpose of this study is to examine the degree of sexual dimorphism in permanent teeth of modern Greeks. A total of 839 permanent teeth in 133 individuals (70 males and 63 females) from the Athens Collection were examined. Mesiodistal and buccolingual crown and cervical diameters of both maxillary and mandibular teeth were measured. It was found that males have bigger teeth than females and in 65 out of 88 dimensions measured, male teeth exceeded female teeth significantly (P<0.05). Canines were the most dimorphic teeth followed by first premolars, maxillary second premolar and mandibular second molar. Although other teeth were also sexually dimorphic they did not have a statistically significant difference in all dimensions. The most dimorphic dimension was buccolingual cervical diameter followed by buccolingual crown diameter. A comparison of sexual dimorphism in teeth between different populations showed that it differs among different groups. European population groups presented the highest degree of sexual dimorphism in teeth whereas Native South Americans the lowest.

Research Spotlight: Spooky action at a distance, for earthquakes

On 27 February 2010 a magnitude 8.8 earthquake rocked millions of Chileans from their slumber, but the South American people weren't the only ones so affected. New research by Peng et al. suggests that the trembling off the Chilean coast could have triggered a swarm of shallow earthquakes nearly 10,000 kilometers away in central California. The team identified four earthquakes with magnitudes of 2 or higher, with the largest of the group being a M 3.5 quake that rattled the Coso geothermal field. The affected region is plagued by small earthquakes, but when the authors calculated the chance of a swarm so neatly following the Chilean earthquake, they inferred that the two seismic events were probably connected. The authors also saw a cluster of deep, low‐frequency earthquakes along the Parkfield‐Cholame section of the San Andreas Fault that also appeared to be influenced by the Chilean event. The researchers suggest that the timing of the California earthquakes was affected by the arrival of Love waves—horizontal surface movement that would have traveled out from the epicenter of the Chilean earthquake, pushing already stressed faults over the edge. (Geophysical Research Letters, doi:10.1029/2010GL045462, 2010)

Variability in salt tolerance of native populations of Elymus scabrifolius (Döll) J. H. Hunz from Argentina

AbstractElymus scabrifolius is a native C3 South American grass species. It is valued as forage species adapted to various environments in Argentina and is also a potential source of traits for wheat‐breeding programmes. Efficient utilization of native genetic resources requires extensive collection and characterization of available material. The purpose of this study was to identify and characterize variability in salt tolerance within E. scabrifolius populations in Argentina. Specimens of E. scabrifolius were collected from a wide range of soils in Argentina, and most populations were found in saline environments with high sodium levels. Intraspecific variability in salt tolerance was estimated, and its relation to the salinity level of the populations’ natural environment was assessed. A principal component analysis based on growth data distinguished lines from saline and non‐saline habitats only under salt conditions. Results suggest that selecting under stressed environments is a reasonable strategy for breeding E. scabrifolius. Lines of saline origin had higher biomass under both control and saline conditions, suggesting that higher gains from selection would be obtained if germplasm from this origin was used, and tillering may be the most useful indirect selection criterion for improving salt tolerance. The association between salt tolerance, ion content and osmotic adjustment was also assessed. Salt‐sensitive lines accumulated high sodium levels in leaves. However, osmotic adjustment did not correlate with the maintenance of leaf elongation rates under salinity in the genotypes included in this study.

Monte Roraima na América do Sul, Venezuela: Destino Mundial do Turismo de Natureza

The objective of paper was to analyze and describe the investigations accomplished in Ve- nezuela in the base of National Park Canaima in (2007) in the indigenous community of Paraytepuy de Roraima (South America). The methodology studies the book of visitations of Roraima Mount, in the years from 2002 to 2003, 2005 to 2006 and 2006 to 2007. In this period it was made the walk to Roraima Mount top in the company of the guides and indigenous loaders Pemon Taurepang. Ap- proximately 3.500 people visit Roraima Mount a year. The South American peoples have 45,70% of the visitations, European 38,48%, American North 5,12%, Asian 4,12% and Oceanic 1,03%. The terrestrial access to Roraima Mount is only accomplished by Venezuela.

The Union of South American Nations, the OAS, and Suramérica

Since the mid-20th century, the Organization of American States (OAS) has been the premier supranational organization governing the affairs of South America. In 2008, however, the sway of the OAS in South America was checked by the creation of a new regional organization – the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR). The creation of UNASUR was in reaction to many perceived failures of the OAS. Although the OAS has worked to provide opportunities for South Americans and a point of justice apart from the continent’s various nations – some of whom which have visited great suffering on their own people – the OAS’s detractors feel, inter alia, that the OAS has not properly mitigated gargantuan income gaps among the citizenry, is too weak to manage South American affairs without intervention by external international organizations, and is too complacent with the over-reach of U.S. influence. The signing of the 2008 Constitutive Treaty which established UNASUR and created a uniform South American government, presidency, and financial system may usher in a new era of South American development and regional patriotism. But UNASUR is far from perfect, and ultimately it is under-equipped to manage a conflict should one arise between it and the OAS - the reigning matriarch in a land of mothers. For the sake of understanding how UNASUR might have to interact with the OAS and how states will have to balance their domestic responsibilities with these new regional priorities, this article will conduct a comparative analysis of the two organizations. It will analyze each bodies’ respective histories, purposes, political jurisdictions, policies on interactions with third-parties, and conflict resolution mechanisms while analyzing possible consequences for legal friction and overlap. The article will conclude by stating its position on whether or not, because of the pre-existence of a similarly-situated institution, UNASUR can really benefit the South American people.

Living without psychiatrists in the Andes: Plight and resilience of the Quichua (Inca) People

There is an estimated 30 million indigenous peoples in South America. Most of them live in the Andes. Regional states and governments neglect their health care needs and exclude them from the conventional Western health services in general and mental health care in particular. This review first describes this population's current situation of social exclusion, poverty and poor health. The problem of mental health care inequities in the region is illustrated through the case of the Quichua people. Indeed, for the population of over 5 million Quichua people in Ecuador, there are no psychiatric services. There are no culturally sensitive services offered in the Quichua language. The doctor–Quichua patient communication is poor and interactions are loaded with prejudice. The review provides a rationale for the Quichuas' reluctance to seek medical doctors in Ecuador. Finally, traditional healers' contribution to the mental health care of indigenous peoples is stressed, as well as their preference for a form of medical pluralism, mainly combining both traditional Quichua medicine and Western medicine. Woeful inequalities and inaccessibility to psychological and biomedical psychiatric care still widely affect the children of the sun in the Pacific Rim.

Amazonian Native Youths and Notions of Indigeneity in Urban Areas

The indigenous presence in urban areas of Amazonia has become more visible as Indian populations have negotiated their own spaces and acted in new contexts previously reserved for the dominant society. This article looks at ways in which today's young Indians in an urban area define and interpret their new cultural and social situations, drawing from research conducted with Apurinã, Cashinahua and Manchineri youths in Rio Branco, a city in Acre state, Western Brazil. These young people occupy a variety of “native” and “non-native” habituses and develop their notions of indigeneity within complex social networks as part of their strategy for rupturing the otherness associated with indigeneity. The text contributes to the discussion on the theory of practice and identity politics, as well as embodiment. Young Indians in urban Amazonia constitute their agencies in multiple ways and use various embodiments based in the practices and knowledge of their native groups and those of urban national and global society. The young natives break with the image of Lowland South American Indians as peoples uncontaminated by urban influences and help promote new interactions between native populations in the reserve and the city.

119 Mitochondrial DNA mutations found in native Central and South American samples provide evidence for mitochondrial adaptation to new environments

119 Mitochondrial DNA mutations found in native Central and South American samples provide evidence for mitochondrial adaptation to new environments

ADHD and the DRD4 exon III 7-repeat polymorphism: an international meta-analysis

We sought to elucidate the relationship of ADHD (Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) to the DRD4 exon III VNTR 7R allele worldwide using analytic techniques and to relate these findings to the field of cultural neuroscience. To focus on a potential moderating role of race/ethnicity, we excluded over 30 papers that have explored the relationship between the DRD4 7R and ADHD but had unclear or lax racial-ethnic inclusion criteria. The papers in this meta-analysis were only included if a single race made up 95% or more of their sample. We searched for and translated papers not published in English, and found a significant difference in the relationship of ADHD and DRD4 7R in people of European-Caucasian (Odds ratio 1.635, Z = 3.936, P < 0.00001) and South American (Odds ratio 2.407, Z = 3.317, P = 0.001) descent vs people of Middle Eastern ancestry (Odds ratio 0.717, Z = -2.466; P = 0.014). We also examined the moderating effect of differing ADHD diagnoses, subject recruitment, control recruitment and male to female ratio. Finally, we consider the implications of these data for cultural neuroscience.

Cover Essay: Window Within a Mirror

I don’t know whether you feel the way I do, butwhen I am in these hothouses and see the strangeplants from exotic lands it seems to me that I amentering a dream. I feel like a quite different person.Henri RousseauOur cover art, celebrating this special section on Bio-geography, is Exotic Landscape—Fight between a Gorilla andan Indian—an unexpected play on biogeography by theFrench Post-Impressionist painter Henri Rousseau. Thisfamous painting is part of a series of 26 jungle-themedworks by Rousseau, starting with his spectacular Surprise in1891—a stunning portrait of a tiger stalking an unknownprey during a tropical downpour.The mysterious beauty of these images exposes themyth behind the often-quoted ‘‘naivety’’ of Rousseau’swork. They reveal a depth of technical understanding and amasterly technique that he developed specifically throughthe series. In one of his last renderings of the jungle theme,The Dream (1910), Rousseau used over 50 shades of greenalone. The diversity of colors, textures, and shades which heuses to portray the hidden layers of the tropical rainforestsuggests a person who has spent considerable time in theseecosystems, sketching and studying form and function.Indeed, Rousseau himself actively helped build this myth,stating that he took part in the French expeditionary forcesent to secure the coronation of the Hapsburg Maximilianas Emperor of Mexico. However, evidence indicates that,during this time, Rousseau was actually in a jail in Franceand then volunteered in Angers. The long-standing debateon his true whereabouts continues to this day.In Exotic Landscape, Rousseau inadvertently reveals thetruth. This painting is not one that recreates vivid memo-ries of military action in the subtropics. Here, a gorillafights mano-a-mano with a South American Indian. Thesecharacters, juxtaposed from two different continents, battleamong a hodgepodge of tropical vegetation: Classicalgreenhouse foliage from the formal gardens of VictorianEurope. In this painting, the African endemic Sansevieriagrows with Agave from the Americas and banana plantsfrom Asia. In an interview published in 1910, Rousseauconfessed a particular fondness for the greenhouses of theJardin des Plantes, with their colonial collections of diversebotanical specimens. What of the menagerie that Rousseauplaced in these magical gardens? Here, he draws on sol-diers’ stories, colonial reports, and a series of magazinearticles and photographs, some of which he copies directlyinto his work.However, Rousseau, perhaps not as naive as manycritics thought at the time, sees beyond the neat borders ofthe greenhouses where he found his inspiration. Ratherthan referring to nature with the romanticism of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Henri Rousseau sees violence, darkness,and struggle set against the overbearing heat of the tropicalsun. His miniaturized figures give the suggestion that theirmoment of battle is just one tiny fragment of time in a landdominated by the creeping growth of vegetation. He por-

The South American camelids

One of the most significant differences between the New World's major areas of high culture is that Mesoamerica had no beasts of burden and wool, while the Andes had both. Four members of the camelid family--wild guanacos and vicunas, and domestic llamas and alpacas--were native to the Andes. South American peoples relied on these animals for meat and wool, and as beasts of burden to transport goods all over the Andes. In this book, Duccio Bonavia tackles major questions about these camelids, from their domestication to their distribution at the time of the Spanish conquest. One of Bonavia's hypotheses is that the arrival of the Europeans and their introduced Old World animals forced the Andean camelids away from the Pacific coast, creating the (mistaken) impression that camelids were exclusively high-altitude animals. Bonavia also addresses the diseases of camelids and their population density, suggesting that the original camelid populations suffered from a different type of mange than that introduced by the Europeans. This new mange, he believes, was one of the causes behind the great morbidity of camelids in Colonial times. In terms of domestication, while Bonavia believes that the major centres must have been the puna zone intermediate zones, he adds that the process should not be seen as restricted to a single environmental zone. Bonavia's landmark study of the South American camelids is now available for the first time in English. This new edition features an updated analysis and comprehensive bibliography. In the Spanish edition of this book, Bonavia lamented the fact that the zooarchaeological data from R. S. MacNeish's Ayacucho Project had yet to be published. In response, the Ayacucho's Project's faunal analysts, Elizabeth S. Wing and Kent V. Flannery, have added appendices on the Ayacucho results to this English edition. This book will be of broad interest to archaeologists, zoologists, social anthropologists, ethnohistorians, and a wide range of students.

The journal of Lourens Lourenszoon and his 1618-1625 stay among the Arocouros on the lower Cassiporé River, northern Amapá Sate, Brazil

The journal of Lourens Lourenszoon is a brief original description of his observations of seven years among the Arocouro Indians. He gives a detailed description of his stay among these Indians and their way of life. The arrival of many European traders on the Guiana coasts at the beginning of the 17th century form the starting point of intensive trading activities between European seafarers and South American Indians at the lower Oyapock River. European-made ware and tools from this early historic period have been found at late precolonial and protohistoric archaeological sites forming archaeological evidence of contacts between the Dutch and the Indian tribes of what is now eastern French Guiana and northern Amapá state, in Brazil. The journal of Lourens Lourenszoon mentions that various Indian tribes are part of a political alliance under the leadership of the Arocouros. Eventually, this alliance vanished during the 17th century due to continuing warfare and decimation of several ethnic groups. The remnants of these populations grouped together and gave birth to the present day Palikur.

Life histories, blood revenge, and reproductive success among the Waorani of Ecuador

The Waorani may have the highest rate of homicide of any society known to anthropology. We interviewed 121 Waorani elders of both sexes to obtain genealogical information and recollections of raids in which they and their relatives participated. We also obtained complete raiding histories of 95 warriors. An analysis of the raiding histories, marital trajectories, and reproductive histories of these men reveals that more aggressive warriors have lower indices of reproductive success than their milder brethren. This result contrasts the findings of Chagnon [Chagnon N (1988) Science 239:985-992] for the Yanomamo. We suggest that the spacing of revenge raids may be involved in the explanation of why the consequences of aggressiveness differ between these 2 warlike lowland South American peoples.

Antimalarials and the fight against malaria in Brazil

Malaria, known as the "fevers," has been treated for over three thousand years in China with extracts of plants of the genus Artemisia (including Artemisia annua, A. opiacea, and A. lancea) from which the active compound is artemisin, a sesquiterpene that is highly effective in the treatment of the disease, especially against young forms of the parasite. South American Indians in the seventeenth century already used an extract of the bark of chinchona tree, commonly named "Jesuits' powder." Its active compound was isolated in 1820 and its use spread all over the world being used as a prophylactic drug during the construction of the Madeira-Mamoré railroad in the beginning of the twentieth century. During the 1920s to the 1940s, new antimalarial drugs were synthesized to increase the arsenal against this parasite. However, the parasite has presented systematic resistence to conventional antimalarial drugs, driving researchers to find new strategies to treat the disease. In the present review we discuss how Brazil treats Plasmodium-infected patients.