Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Biodiversity, food consumption and ecological niche dimension: a study case of the riverine populations from the Rio Negro, Amazonia, Brazil

  • Published:
Environment, Development and Sustainability Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this study we perform an ecological analysis of the resources use in the diet of the ribeirinho populations of the Barcelos municipality, Rio Negro, Amazonas, Brazil. Data on food composition, seasonality, and origin took place during three field trips between 1999 and 2000. Data were gathered based on structured interviews and observations from a total of 320 meals of 114 randomly selected families and 164 fishing trips. The staple food of the studied populations is based on fish and manioc, although the food niche amplitude can vary according to the factors such as the access to imported food items, resources seasonality, and socio-economic conditions. The migration to urban centers along with the changes in subsistence activities (reduction of small-scale agriculture and specialization in commercial fishing) may result in changes in the food habits of ribeirinho populations from Rio Negro.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. This study is derived from a doctoral research project carried out by the first author in the municipality of Barcelos (Rio Negro), which includes an analysis of the use of natural resources among ribeirinho populations (Silva 2003).

References

  • Adams, C. (2002). Estratégias adaptativas de duas populações caboclas (Pará) aos ecossistemas de várzea estuarine e estacional: uma análise comparative. Doctoral Thesis. São Paulo University, São Paulo.

  • Adams, C., Murrieta, R. S. S., & Neves, W. A. (Eds.). (2006). Sociedades Caboclas Amazônicas: modernidade e invisibilidade. São Paulo: Annablume/FAPESP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adams, C., Murrieta, R. S. S., & Sanches, R. A. (2005). Agricultura e alimentação em populações ribeirinhas das várzeas do Amazonas: novas perspectivas. Ambiente e Sociedade, 3(1), 1–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Batista, V. S., Inhamuns, A. J., Freitas, C. S. C., & Freire-Brasil, D. (1998). Characterization of the fishery in river communities in the low Solimões/high Amazon region. Fisheries Management and Ecology, 5, 219–435.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bayley, K. D. (Ed.). (1982). Methods of social research. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bayley, P. B., & Petrere, M. Jr. (1989). Amazon fisheries: Assessment methods, current status, and management options. In D. P. Dodge (Ed.), Proceedings of the International Large River Symposium. Can. Spec. Publ. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 106, 385–398.

  • Beckerman, S. (1993). Major patterns in indigenous Amazonian subsistence. In Hladick C. M. et al. (Eds.), Tropical forests, people and food. Biocultural interactions and applications to development (pp. 411–424). Paris: UNESCO/Parthenon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Begossi, A. (1992a). The use of optimal foraging theory to understand fishing strategies: A case from Sepetiba Bay (State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). Human Ecology, 20(4), 463–475.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Begossi, A. (1992b). Food taboos at Búzios Island (Brazil): Their significance and relation to folk medicine. Journal of Ethnobiology, 12(1), 117–139.

    Google Scholar 

  • Begossi, A. (1996). Use of ecological methods in ethnobotany: Diversity indices. Economic Botany, 50(3), 280–289.

    Google Scholar 

  • Begossi, A., & Braga, B. (1992). Food taboos folk medicine among fishermen from the Tocantins River (Brazil). Amazoniana, 12(1), 101–118.

    Google Scholar 

  • Begossi, A., & Richerson, P. J. (1992). The animal diet of families from Búzios island: An optimal foraging approach. Journal of Human Ecology, 3(2), 433–458.

    Google Scholar 

  • Begossi, A., & Richerson, P. J. (1993). Biodiversity, family income and ecological niche: A study on the consumption of food animals at Búzio Island. Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 30, 51–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Begossi, A., Silvano, R. A. M., Amaral, B., & Oyakawa, O. T. (1999). Uses of fish and game by inhabitants of an extractive reserve (Upper Juruá, Acre, Brazil). Environment, Development and Sustainability, 1, 1–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bernard, H. R. (1994). Research methods in anthropology: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. London: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernard, H. R., Killworth, P. D., Kronenfeld, D., & Sailer, L. (1984). The problem of informant accuracy: The validity of retrospective data. Annual Review of Anthropology, 13, 495–517.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Castro, F. (2000). Fishing accords. The political ecology of fishing intensification in the Amazon. Doctoral Thesis. Indiana University, Indiana.

  • Cerdeira, R. G. P., Ruffino, M. L., & Isaac, V. J. (1997). Consumo de pescado e outros alimentos nas comunidades ribeirinhas do lago Grande de Monte Alegre. Acta Amazonica, 27(3), 213–227.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chao, N. L., Petry, P., Prang, G., Sonneschien, L., & Tlusty, M., (2001). Conservation and management of ornamental fish resources of the Rio Negro Basin, Amazonia, Brazil. Manaus: Editora da Universidade do Amazonas.

  • Chernela, J. (1985). Indigenous fishing in the Neotropics: The Tukanoan Uanano of the blackwater Uaupés River basin in Brazil and Colombia. Interciência, 10(2), 78–86.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chernela, J. (1989). Managing rivers of hunger: The Tukano of Brazil. Advances in Economic Botany, 7, 238–248.

    Google Scholar 

  • Colding, J., & Folke, C. (1997). The relations among threatened species, their protection, and taboos. Conservation Ecology, 1(1), 1–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diegues, C. (2002). Povos e águas: inventário de áreas úmidas brasileiras. São Paulo: NUPAUB/USP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dufour, D. L. (1983). Nutrition in the Northwest Amazon: Household dietary intake and time-energy expenditure. In Hames, R. B., & Vaqueros, W. T. (Eds.), Adaptative responses of native Amazonians (pp. 329–355). New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dufour, D. L. (1987). Insects as food: A case study from the Northwest Amazon. American Anthropologist, 89, 383–397.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dufour, D. L. (1992). Nutritional ecology in the tropical rain forests of Amazonia. American Journal of Human Biology, 4, 108–207.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dufour, D. L. (1994). Diet and nutritional status of Amazonian peoples. In Amazonian Indians from prehistory to present (pp. 151–175). Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

  • Dufour, D. L., & Teufel, N. I. (1995). Minimum data sets for the description of diet and measurement of food intake and nutritional status. In E. F. Moran (Ed.), The comparative analysis of human societies: Toward common standards for data collecting and reporting (pp. 97–127). Boudler: Lynne Riener Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Emmons, L. H. (1990). Neotropical rainforest mammals: A field guide. Chicago: Chicago Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Emperaire, L. (2000). A floresta em jogo: o extrativismo na Amazônia Central. São Paulo: Ed. Unesp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fabré, N. N., & Alonso, J. C. (1998). Recursos ícticos no Alto Amazonas: sua importância para as populações ribeirinhas. Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Série Zoologia, 14(1), 19–55.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferreira, E. J. G., Zuanon, J., Forsberg, B. R., Goulding, M., & Briglia-Ferreira, S. R. (2007). Rio Branco - Peixes, Ecologia e Conservação de Roraima (Vol. 1, 201 p). Lima: Wust Ediciones.

  • Ferreira, E. J. G., Zuanon, J. A. S., & Santos, G. M. (1998). Peixes Comerciais do Médio Amazonas. Brasília: Edições IBAMA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitzgerald, S., Gibson, R. S., Portocarrero, L., Quan De Serrano, L., Vasquez, A., Zepeda, E., Lopes, C. Y., & Solomons, N. W. (1992). Food consumption patterns and dietary diversity of pregnant women living in a peri-urban area of Guatemala city. Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 27, 4–45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • German, L. A. (2004). Ecological praxis and blackwater ecosystems: A case study from the Brazilian Amazon. Human Ecology, 32(6), 653–683.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giugliano, R., Giugliano, L. G., & Shrimpton, R. (1981). Estudos nutricionais das populações da Amazônia, Várzea do Solimões, 1981. Acta Amazônica, 11(4), 773–788.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giugliano, R., Shrimpton, R., Arkol, D., Giugliano, L. G., & Petrere, M. (1984). Estudos nutricionais das populações rurais da Amazônia II, Rio Negro. Acta Amazônica, 14(3–4), 427–449.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goulding, M. (1980). The fishes and the forest: Exploitations in Amazonian Natural History. Berkeley: Univ. California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goulding, M., Carvalho, J. L., & Ferreira, E. G. (1988). Rio Negro: Rich life in poor water. Hague: SBP Academic Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hanazaki, N., & Begossi, A. (2000). Fishing and niche dimension for food consumption of caiçaras from Ponta do Almada (Brazil). Human Ecology Review, 7(2), 52–62.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hanazaki, N., & Begossi, A. (2003). Does fish still matter? Changes in the diet of two Brazilian fishing communities. Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 42, 279–301.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hanazaki, N., Leitão-Filho, H. F., & Begossi, A. (1996). Uso de recursos na Mata-Atlântica: o caso da Ponta do Almada (Ubatuba, Brasil). Interciência, 21(6), 268–276.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hardesty, D. L. (1975). The niche concept: Suggestions for their use in human ecology. Human Ecology, 3, 71–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holmes, R., & Clark, K. (1992). Diet, acculturation and nutritional status in Venezuela’s Amazon territory. Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 27, 163–187.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ibarra, M., & Stewart, J. D. (1989). Longitudinal zonation of sandy beache fishes in the napo river basin, eastern Ecuador. Copeia, 2, 364–381.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leonardi, V. (1999). Os historiadores e os rios. Brasília: Editora da Universidade de Brasília.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leonard, W. R., & Thomas, R. B. (1988). Changing dietary patterns in the Peruvian Andes. Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 21, 245–263.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lieberman, L. S. (1986). Nutritional anthropology at the household level. In S. A. Quandt & C. Ritenbaugh (Eds.), Training manual in nutritional anthropology. Washington, D.C.: American Anthropological Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lowe-McConnell R. H. (1987). Ecological studies in tropical fish communities. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Magurran, A. E. (1988). Ecological diversity and its measurement. London: Croom-Helm Limited.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCay, B. J. (1978). System ecology, people ecology and the anthropology of the fishing communities. Human Ecology, 6, 397–422.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McGrath, D. G., Castro, F, Futemma, C., Amaral, B. D., & Calabria, J. (1993). Fisheries and the evolution of resource management on the lower Amazon floodplain. Human Ecology, 21(2), 167–195.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meira, M. (1994). O tempo dos patrões. Cadernos de Pesquisa, Belém, MPEG, no.2.

  • Moran, E. F. (1974). The adaptative system of the Amazonian caboclo. In C. Wagley (Ed.), Man in the Amazon (pp. 139–159). Gainesville: University of Flórida Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moran, E. F. (1991). Human adaptative strategies in Amazonian blackwater systems. American Anthropologist, 9(3), 361–381.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moran, E. F. (1993). La ecologia humana de los pueblos de la Amazonia. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murrieta, R. S. S. (1998). O dilema do papa-chibé: consumo alimentar, nutrição e práticas de intervenção na ilha de Ituqui, baixo Amazonas, Pará. Revista de Antropologia USP, 41(1), 97–145.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murrieta, R. S. S. (1999). Food consumption and subsistence in three caboclo populations on Marajó Island, Amazonia, Brazil. Journal of Human Ecology, 27(3), 455–475.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murrieta, R. S. S. (2001). Dialética do sabor: alimentação, ecologia e vida cotidiana em comunidades ribeirinhas da Ilha de Ituqui, Baixo Amazonas, Pará. Revista de Antropologia USP, 44(2), 39–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murrieta, R. S. S., Adams, C., Bakri, M., Strumpf, R., & Sousa, P. S. (2006). Caboclo household food intake in two Amazonian ecosystems: A comparative analysis. Journal of Physical Anthropology, 129(42), 135–136.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murrieta, R. S. S., & Dufour, D. L. (2004). Fish and farinha: Protein and energy consumption in Amazonian rural communities on Ituqui island, Brazil. Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 43, 231–255.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oliveira, A. G. (1995). O mundo transformado: Um Estudo da Cultura de Fronteira no Alto Rio Negro. Belém: Coleção Eduardo Galvão, Museu Emilio Goeldi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Padoch, C., Ayres, J. M., Pinedo-Vasquez, M., & Henderson A. (Eds.). (1999). Varzea: diversity, development, and the conservation of Amazonia´s whitewater floodplains. New York: New York Botanical Garden Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parker, E. P. (1985). The Amazon Caboclo: historical and contemporary perspective. Studies in Third World societies (Vol. 32). Williamsburg: College of William and Mary.

  • Pelto, G. H., & Pelto, P. J. (2000). Diet and delocalization: Dietary changes since 1750. In: A. H. Goodman, D. F. Dufour, & G. H. Pelto (Eds.), Nutritional anthropology: Biocultural perspectives on food and nutrition (pp. 269–278). California: Mayfield Publishing Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pezzuti, J. (2004). Tabus alimentares. In A. Begossi (Org.), Ecologia de Pescadores da Amazônia e da Mata Atlântica (pp. 87–145). São Paulo: Ed. Hucitec.

  • Rebêlo, G., & Pezzuti, J. (2000). Percepções sobre o consumo de quelônios na Amazônia. Sustentabilidade e alternativas ao manejo ambiental. Ambiente e Sociedade, 6/7, 85–104.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ribeiro, B. G. (1995). Os índios das águas pretas. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rocha, Y. R., Yuyama, L. K. O., & Nascimento, O. P. (1993). Perfil nutricional de pré-escolares e escolares residentes em Palmeiras do Javari, AM. Acta Amazônica, 23(1), 9–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Santos, R. (1980). História economica da Amazonia (1800–1920). São Paulo: T. A.

    Google Scholar 

  • Santos, G. M. (1986/87). Composição do pescado e situação da pesca no Estado de Rondônia. Acta Amazônica, 16/17(suppl.), 43–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Santos, E. V., & Coimbra, C. E. A. Jr. (1998). On the (un-)natural history of the Tupi Mondé Indians: Bioanthropology and change in the Brazilian Amazon. In A. H. Goodman & T. Leatherman (Eds.), Building a new biocultural synthesis: Political-economic perspectives on human biology. Ann. Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.

  • Santos, G. M., Jegu, M., & De Merona, B. (1984). Catálogo de Peixes comerciais do Baixo Tocantins. Eletronorte/CNPq/INPA.

  • Sick, H. (1985). Ornitologia Brasileira. Brasília: Editora Universidade Brasília.

    Google Scholar 

  • Silva , A. L. (2003). Uso de Recursos por Ribeirinhos do Médio Rio Negro. Doctoral Thesis. São Paulo University, São Paulo.

  • Silva, A. L., & Begossi, A. (2004). Uso de Recursos por Ribeirinhos do Médio Rio Negro. In A. Begossi (Org.), Ecologia de Pescadores da Amazônia e da Mata Atlântica (pp. 87–145). São Paulo: Ed. Hucitec.

  • Silva, H. P., James, C. D., & Crews, D. E. (2006). Blood pressure, seasonal blood fat, heart rate, and ecological differences in Caboclo populations of the Brazilian Amazon. American Journal of Human Biology, 18, 10–22.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Silva, A. L., Tamashiro, J. Y., & Begossi, A. (2007). Ethnobotany of the Riverine Populations from the Rio Negro, Amazonia (Brazil). Journal of Ethnobiology, 27(1), 43–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Silvano, R. (2004). Pesca artesanal e ictiologia. In A. Begossi (Org.), Ecologia de Pescadores da Amazônia e da Mata Atlântica (pp. 187–222). Ed. Hucitec, São Paulo.

  • Silvano, R. A. M., Silva, A. L., Ceroni, M., & Begossi, A. (2007). Contributions of ethnobiology to the conservation of tropical rivers and streams. Aquatic Conservation, 1–19 (available on http://www.interscience.wiley.com).

  • Sioli, H. (1985). Amazonia. Rio de Janeiro: Ed. Vozes.

    Google Scholar 

  • Siqueira, A. D. (1997). The ecology of food and nutrition: patterns of land use and nutritional status among caboclo populations on Marajó Island, Pará, Brazil. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Indiana University, Indiana.

  • Smith, N. J. H. (1981). Man, fishes and the Amazon. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zar, J. H. (1996). Biostatistical analysis (3rd ed.). London: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We thank FAPESP for a doctoral scholarship grant (98/06027-6) and for financial support for fieldwork (98/16160-5). Thanks to G. M. dos Santos and J. A. S. Zuanon (INPA) for fish species identification and E. Z. F. Setz (UNICAMP) for revision to the mammal identification. We thank in particular Rui Murrieta (São Paulo University) for constructive suggestions on Andréa Leme da Silva’s doctoral thesis, and criticisms on earlier drafts of this article. Special thanks for David and Fabiana O’Beggan for extensive English review. We are deeply grateful to the people of Barcelos, Carvoeiro, Piloto, and Cumaru for their kind cooperation that not only made this study possible, but a most incredible learning experience. One of the authors (AB) thanks CNPq for a 1B productivity scholarship.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology, Universidade Estadual Júlio Mesquita Filho, Rio Claro, SP, Brazil

    Andréa Leme da Silva

  2. Rua Madalena Barbosa Ferreira, 281, Campinas, SP, 13096-430, Brazil

    Andréa Leme da Silva

  3. Fisheries and Food Institute, Rua Coronel Quirino, 1636, Campinas, SP, 13025-002, Brazil

    Alpina Begossi

  4. Fisheries Management and Training Program, CAPESCA-PREAC-UNICAMP, Campinas, Brazil

    Alpina Begossi

Authors
  1. Andréa Leme da Silva
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Alpina Begossi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andréa Leme da Silva.

Additional information

Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.

Appendix

Appendix

Appendix 1 Frequency of food items consumed per family—number 41 to 50 shows rural families
Full size table

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

da Silva, A.L., Begossi, A. Biodiversity, food consumption and ecological niche dimension: a study case of the riverine populations from the Rio Negro, Amazonia, Brazil. Environ Dev Sustain 11, 489–507 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-007-9126-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-007-9126-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation