B A Piperata
Biographic Data
| ID | 94935 |
|---|---|
| NAME | B A Piperata |
| GIVEN NAMES | B A |
| FAMILY NAME | Piperata |
| SIGNATURE | PIPERATA B A |
| AFFILIATIONS | The Ohio State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7392-4517 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 41 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 252 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 41 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Biocultural Determinants of Mothers' Complementary Feeding Decisions in the Urban Brazilian Amazon
OBJECTIVE: Complementary feeding (CF) occurs during a critical period of infant growth and development with life-long health implications. Despite international efforts, there remains significant variation in the adequacy of complementary diets across settings. In Brazil, there is marked variation in adherence to CF guidelines and infant growth outcomes, with the north (Amazon) lagging other regions of the country. This study aimed to characteriz…
Between Two Worlds
Globally, household food security is commonly measured using standardized instruments emphasizing food access. Many such instruments, including the one used in Brazil (E scala Brasileira de Insegurança Alimentar - EBIA), are derived from the US Household Food Security Survey Module (HFSSM). However, the use of such instruments among non-Western populations has been questioned. Our goal was to understand how Indigenous residents of Parque das Trib…
Planning to Work as an Applied Medical Anthropologist? The Advantages of a Broad and Strategic Methodological Toolkit
Applied medical anthropologists work in a variety of settings. This diversity of career paths is exciting as it allows anthropological theory and method to influence many spheres of society that impact people's everyday lived health. Success in this wide arena requires an inclusive and broad way of thinking about ethnography that incorporates multiple ways of thinking and the ability to employ a range of methodological tools. This short piece pro…
Ethnographic methods
American anthropology is engaged in significant self-reckonings that call for big changes to how anthropology is practiced. These include (1) recognizing and taking seriously the demands to decolonize the ways research is done, (2) addressing precarious employment in academic anthropology, and (3) creating a discipline better positioned to respond to urgent societal needs. A central role for ethnographic methods training is a thread that runs thr…
Measuring food insecurity
Ethnographic Methods Training Norms and Practices and the Future of American Anthropology
American Anthropology is engaged in significant self-reckonings that call for big changes to how anthropology is practiced. These include (1) recognizing and taking seriously the demands to decolonize the ways research is done; (2) addressing precarious employment in academic anthropology; and (3) creating a discipline better positioned to respond to urgent societal needs. A central role for ethnographic methods training is a thread that runs thr…
Variation in Food and Nutritional Stability Among Amazonian Populations Living in a Context of Dramatic Seasonal Flooding
Teaching Ethnographic Methods
Ethnography is a core methodology in anthropology and other disciplines. Yet, there is currently no scholarly consensus on how to teach ethnographic methods—or even what methods belong in the ethnographic toolkit. We report on a systematic analysis of syllabi to gauge how ethnographic methods are taught in the United States. We analyze 107 methods syllabi from a nationally elicited sample of university faculty who teach ethnography. Systematic co…
Hey child, why were you born when the world is almost over?”
Biocultural Strategies for Measuring Psychosocial Stress Outcomes in Field-based Research
The goal of assessing psychosocial stress as a process and outcome in naturalistic (i.e., field) settings is applicable across the social, biological, and health sciences. Meaningful measurement of biology-in-context is, however, far from simple or straightforward. In this brief methods review, we introduce theoretical framings, methodological conventions, and ethical concerns around field-collection of markers of psychosocial stress that have em…
Food Insecurity, Nutritional Inequality, and Maternal-Child Health
Food insecurity, a significant contributor to nutritional inequality, disproportionately affects women and children in low- and middle-income countries. The magnitude of the problem has inspired research on its impacts on health, especially on nutritional status and, more recently, mental well-being. Current research is dominated by surveillance-type studies that emphasize access, one of food security's four dimensions. Findings are inconclusive …
Characterization of the gut microbiota of Nicaraguan children in a water insecure context
OBJECTIVES: The gut microbiota varies across human populations. The first years of life are a critical period in its development. While delivery mode and diet contribute to observed variation, the additional contribution of specific environmental factors remains poorly understood. One factor is waterborne enteric pathogen exposure. In this pilot study, we explore the relationship between household water security and the gut microbiota of children…
Tranquility is a child with a full belly
A growing body of literature identifies food insecurity (FI) as a critical social determinant of mental health. Across settings, quantitative studies report positive correlations between FI and mental distress, especially among women. Less understood are the pathways by which FI undermines women's mental well-being. To address this gap, we conducted six focus group discussions with 45 Nicaraguan mothers. Thematic analysis identified three themes …
Secular trends in adult stature among the Makushi of Guyana in the 20th Century
OBJECTIVE: This study describes secular trends in physical stature, Cormic Index (CI), and body mass index (BMI) of adult Makushi Amerindians born between 1910 and 1980, compares the stature of these Makushi adults to Makushi adults measured in 1921, and provides contextual data to inform the findings. METHODS: Pearson's correlation was used to assess the relationship between year of birth and physical stature, BMI, and CI for 231 females and 113…
Modos de vida dos ribeirinhos da Amazônia sob uma abordagem biocultural
pesquisa permanecem importantes
Reflections on nutrition in biological anthropology
Some 50 years ago, and befittingly at an AAPA dinner, Stanley Garn delivered the Presidential Address, which he titled Nutrition in Physical Anthropology. In his address, Garn predicted, “a concern with nutrition in its broadest sense, including the physical form of the dietary and the energy balance will occupy us more rather than less in the years to come, as we channel our interests to ascertain the directions of evolutionary and physiological…
Household food insecurity and child health
Food insecurity, the lack of consistent access to sufficient quality and quantity of food, affects an estimated 800 million people around the world. Although household food insecurity is generally associated with poor child nutrition and health in the USA, we know less about household food insecurity and child health in developing countries. Particularly lacking is research assessing how associations between household food insecurity and children…
Practicing International
Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Nancy Romero-Daza, David Himmelgreen, Alissa Ruth, Amber Wutich, Alexandra Brewis, Bonnie Taub, Reza Jarrahy, Cecilia Vindrola-Padros, Jennifer L. Syvertsen, Andy Guise, Jessica Healy-Profitós, Barbara A. Piperata, Mark Moritz, Jiyoung L…
Human Biology of the Amazon
For the first time, the Olympic Games will be held in South America. The 31st Olympiad will take place in Rio de Janeiro 120 years after the first games of the modern era were initiated in Athens
Amazonian foods and implications for human biology
Diets of subsistence-based Amazonian populations have been linked to local resources, but are changing with market penetration.To review the available data on traditional Amazonian foods and diets and evaluate their implications for human biology as a step toward understanding nutrition transitions in the region.This study used the Human Relations Area Files for information on the diets of Amerindian groups in the Amazon Basin from 1950 to the pr…
Food insecurity and maternal mental health in León, Nicaragua
Conditional Cash Transfers, Food Security, and Health
Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs have become an increasingly popular component of poverty-alleviation policies worldwide. The highly publicized success of Brazil's Bolsa Família program (BFP), the largest such program in the world, has become a model for CCT programs elsewhere, including in highly rural African nations. This is despite the dearth of information on the impact of the program in rural contexts. Drawing on a unique natural ex…
Maternal resources and household food security
Objective Women (especially mothers) are theorized as critical to reducing household food insecurity through their work and caregiver roles. The present study tests these assumptions, assessing how maternal economic and social resources are associated with food insecurity in households with young children. Design Data from a population-based sample of households was collected in León, Nicaragua ( n 443). Data include a newly validated measure of …
Muddying the Waters
In urban Maroua, Cameroon, improved drinking water sources are available to a large majority of the population, yet this water is frequently distributed through informal distribution systems and stored in home containers (canaries), leaving it vulnerable to contamination. We assessed where contamination occurs within the distribution system, determined potential sources of environmental contamination, and investigated potential pathogens. Gastroi…
Exploring the multidimensionality of stature variation in the past through comparisons of archaeological and living populations
Adult stature variation is commonly attributed to differential stress‐levels during development. However, due to selective mortality and heterogeneous frailty, a population's tall stature may be more indicative of high selective pressures than of positive life conditions. This article examines stature in a biocultural context and draws parallels between bioarchaeological and living populations to explore the multidimensionality of stature variati…
The nutrition transition in amazonia
The goal of this longitudinal study was to assess the impact of economic change and increased market integration on subsistence strategies, living conditions, growth, and nutritional status of Ribeirinhos living in the rural Amazon, Brazil. Data on weight, height, skinfolds, and circumferences, as well as data on economic strategies and living conditions were collected from 469 individuals in 2002 and 429 in 2009. Of these, 204 individuals were m…
Exploring the multidimensionality of stature variation in the past through comparisons of archaeological and living populations
Adult stature variation is commonly attributed to differential stress‐levels during development. However, due to selective mortality and heterogeneous frailty, a population's tall stature may be more indicative of high selective pressures than of positive life conditions. This article examines stature in a biocultural context and draws parallels between bioarchaeological and living populations to explore the multidimensionality of stature variati…
Nutritional status of Ribeirinhos in Brazil and the nutrition transition
Anthropometric and household data (size, composition, economic activity) were collected from a population of Ribeirinhos living in a rural setting in the eastern Amazon. Data are compared to international reference standards and to other Amazonian populations with the goals of increasing our understanding of the Amazon's largest ethnic group and identifying the relationship between changes in subsistence strategies and nutritional status. Data on…
Diversifying Incomes and Losing Landscape Complexity in Quilombola Shifting Cultivation Communities of the Atlantic Rainforest (Brazil)
Dietary inequalities of mother-child pairs in the rural Amazon
Amazonian foods and implications for human biology
Diets of subsistence-based Amazonian populations have been linked to local resources, but are changing with market penetration.To review the available data on traditional Amazonian foods and diets and evaluate their implications for human biology as a step toward understanding nutrition transitions in the region.This study used the Human Relations Area Files for information on the diets of Amerindian groups in the Amazon Basin from 1950 to the pr…
Forty days and forty nights
Conditional Cash Transfers, Food Security, and Health
Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs have become an increasingly popular component of poverty-alleviation policies worldwide. The highly publicized success of Brazil's Bolsa Família program (BFP), the largest such program in the world, has become a model for CCT programs elsewhere, including in highly rural African nations. This is despite the dearth of information on the impact of the program in rural contexts. Drawing on a unique natural ex…
Food insecurity and maternal mental health in León, Nicaragua
The use of biocultural data in interpreting sex differences in body proportions among rural amazonians
Variation in height and body proportions is relatively well‐understood at the inter‐population level, but less is known about intra‐population variation. This study explores intra‐population variation in body proportions among 172 (88 female; 84 male) adult rural Amazonians. We test the hypotheses that: (1) stunting is associated with changes in proportions and fatness; (2) the sexes express different proportions in response to similar environmen…
Biocultural Strategies for Measuring Psychosocial Stress Outcomes in Field-based Research
The goal of assessing psychosocial stress as a process and outcome in naturalistic (i.e., field) settings is applicable across the social, biological, and health sciences. Meaningful measurement of biology-in-context is, however, far from simple or straightforward. In this brief methods review, we introduce theoretical framings, methodological conventions, and ethical concerns around field-collection of markers of psychosocial stress that have em…
Ethnographic methods
American anthropology is engaged in significant self-reckonings that call for big changes to how anthropology is practiced. These include (1) recognizing and taking seriously the demands to decolonize the ways research is done, (2) addressing precarious employment in academic anthropology, and (3) creating a discipline better positioned to respond to urgent societal needs. A central role for ethnographic methods training is a thread that runs thr…
Food Insecurity, Nutritional Inequality, and Maternal-Child Health
Food insecurity, a significant contributor to nutritional inequality, disproportionately affects women and children in low- and middle-income countries. The magnitude of the problem has inspired research on its impacts on health, especially on nutritional status and, more recently, mental well-being. Current research is dominated by surveillance-type studies that emphasize access, one of food security's four dimensions. Findings are inconclusive …
Intra‐population variation in anemia status and its relationship to economic status and self‐perceived health in the Mexican Family Life Survey
Recently scholars have advocated for the use of a critical biocultural approach in bioarchaeology, where osteological and dental markers of stress are used to understand the broader biosocial context of past populations. However, the ability to accomplish this task rests on the assumption that ultimate‐level environmental stressors and well‐being in the past can be reconstructed from the prevalence of pathologies in skeletal collections. Here we …
Modos de vida dos ribeirinhos da Amazônia sob uma abordagem biocultural
pesquisa permanecem importantes
Reflections on nutrition in biological anthropology
Some 50 years ago, and befittingly at an AAPA dinner, Stanley Garn delivered the Presidential Address, which he titled Nutrition in Physical Anthropology. In his address, Garn predicted, “a concern with nutrition in its broadest sense, including the physical form of the dietary and the energy balance will occupy us more rather than less in the years to come, as we channel our interests to ascertain the directions of evolutionary and physiological…
Longitudinal study of breastfeeding structure and women's work in the Brazilian Amazon
It is well established that breast milk is the ideal food for infants and that breastfeeding has short‐ and long‐term health benefits for the mother and child. However, there is variation in breastfeeding patterns between populations. Women's work is thought to influence breastfeeding patterns and timing of supplementation and it is often assumed that women in subsistence‐oriented societies can more easily integrate their productive and reproduct…
Variation in Food and Nutritional Stability Among Amazonian Populations Living in a Context of Dramatic Seasonal Flooding
Anthropometric characteristics of pregnant women in Cali, Colombia and relationship to birth weight
Anthropometric dimensions were collected from 46 pregnant women living in Cali, Colombia to gain a better understanding of how poor, urban women deal with the demands of pregnancy and to identify relationships between maternal characteristics and infant birth weight. Height, weight, skinfold thicknesses (subscapular, suprailiac, thigh, calf, and triceps), and circumferences (hip, thigh, calf, and mid‐upper arm) were measured on all women. Infant …
Rural‐to‐urban migration in Latin America
Urbanization is an important demographic phenomenon, and in Latin America it transformed the settlement pattern from rural to predominantly urban in less than 50 years. Understanding the biological consequences of this change in settlement pattern is an important challenge for human biologists. One approach to understanding the effects of urban environments on human biology has been to study rural‐to‐urban migrants. In Latin America this research…
Diet, energy expenditure, and body composition of lactating Ribeirinha women in the brazilian amazon
Lactation is the most energetically demanding part of human reproduction; yet, compared with pregnancy, we know little about the strategies women in different settings employ to cope with these increased energy demands. This paper takes a biocultural approach and reports longitudinal data on the anthropometry, dietary intakes and energy expenditure of a sample of 23 rural, lactating Ribeirinha women living in subsistence‐based communities in the …
Nutritional status of Ribeirinhos in Brazil and the nutrition transition
Anthropometric and household data (size, composition, economic activity) were collected from a population of Ribeirinhos living in a rural setting in the eastern Amazon. Data are compared to international reference standards and to other Amazonian populations with the goals of increasing our understanding of the Amazon's largest ethnic group and identifying the relationship between changes in subsistence strategies and nutritional status. Data on…
Energy expenditure among farmers in developing countries
The trend toward overweight and obesity in developing countries is often assumed to be due, in part, to reductions in energy expenditure associated with the transition from agrarian to urban lifestyles. In this article we first review the published studies on energy expenditure in farming populations living in developing countries, populations generally assumed to have high levels of energy expenditure. To facilitate comparison we express energy …
Forty days and forty nights
Variation in maternal strategies during lactation
Compared to other mammals, human milk is dilute which lowers the relative daily cost of lactation allowing women greater flexibility in the strategies they use to meet the energy demands of lactation. These strategies include increasing dietary intake, reducing energy expenditure, and drawing on energy stores. Women are affected by the biosocial context in which they live, including norms regarding the sexual division of labor and diet and activi…
Nutrition in transition
OBJECTIVES: The goal of this study was to understand the relationship between economic change (wage labor, retirement, and the Bolsa Família program) and dietary patterns in the rural Amazon and to determine the extent to which these changes followed the pattern of the nutrition transition. METHODS: The study was longitudinal. The weighed-inventory method and economic interviews were used to collect data on dietary intake and household economics …
Nutritional status of Makushi Amerindian children and adolescents of Guyana
Makushi nutritional status may be explained by sex, age, relative isolation, family size, season of birth, dietary intake and infectious disease
Socioeconomic changes, ecology and nutrition transition in Quilombola communities from Southern Brazil
Longitudinal study of breastfeeding structure and women's work in the Brazilian Amazon
It is well established that breast milk is the ideal food for infants and that breastfeeding has short‐ and long‐term health benefits for the mother and child. However, there is variation in breastfeeding patterns between populations. Women's work is thought to influence breastfeeding patterns and timing of supplementation and it is often assumed that women in subsistence‐oriented societies can more easily integrate their productive and reproduct…
The nutrition transition in amazonia
The goal of this longitudinal study was to assess the impact of economic change and increased market integration on subsistence strategies, living conditions, growth, and nutritional status of Ribeirinhos living in the rural Amazon, Brazil. Data on weight, height, skinfolds, and circumferences, as well as data on economic strategies and living conditions were collected from 469 individuals in 2002 and 429 in 2009. Of these, 204 individuals were m…
The use of biocultural data in interpreting sex differences in body proportions among rural amazonians
Variation in height and body proportions is relatively well‐understood at the inter‐population level, but less is known about intra‐population variation. This study explores intra‐population variation in body proportions among 172 (88 female; 84 male) adult rural Amazonians. We test the hypotheses that: (1) stunting is associated with changes in proportions and fatness; (2) the sexes express different proportions in response to similar environmen…
Dietary inequalities of mother-child pairs in the rural Amazon
Diversifying Incomes and Losing Landscape Complexity in Quilombola Shifting Cultivation Communities of the Atlantic Rainforest (Brazil)
Muddying the Waters
In urban Maroua, Cameroon, improved drinking water sources are available to a large majority of the population, yet this water is frequently distributed through informal distribution systems and stored in home containers (canaries), leaving it vulnerable to contamination. We assessed where contamination occurs within the distribution system, determined potential sources of environmental contamination, and investigated potential pathogens. Gastroi…
Exploring the multidimensionality of stature variation in the past through comparisons of archaeological and living populations
Adult stature variation is commonly attributed to differential stress‐levels during development. However, due to selective mortality and heterogeneous frailty, a population's tall stature may be more indicative of high selective pressures than of positive life conditions. This article examines stature in a biocultural context and draws parallels between bioarchaeological and living populations to explore the multidimensionality of stature variati…
Intra‐population variation in anemia status and its relationship to economic status and self‐perceived health in the Mexican Family Life Survey
Recently scholars have advocated for the use of a critical biocultural approach in bioarchaeology, where osteological and dental markers of stress are used to understand the broader biosocial context of past populations. However, the ability to accomplish this task rests on the assumption that ultimate‐level environmental stressors and well‐being in the past can be reconstructed from the prevalence of pathologies in skeletal collections. Here we …
Maternal resources and household food security
Objective Women (especially mothers) are theorized as critical to reducing household food insecurity through their work and caregiver roles. The present study tests these assumptions, assessing how maternal economic and social resources are associated with food insecurity in households with young children. Design Data from a population-based sample of households was collected in León, Nicaragua ( n 443). Data include a newly validated measure of …
Household food insecurity and child health
Food insecurity, the lack of consistent access to sufficient quality and quantity of food, affects an estimated 800 million people around the world. Although household food insecurity is generally associated with poor child nutrition and health in the USA, we know less about household food insecurity and child health in developing countries. Particularly lacking is research assessing how associations between household food insecurity and children…
Practicing International
Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Nancy Romero-Daza, David Himmelgreen, Alissa Ruth, Amber Wutich, Alexandra Brewis, Bonnie Taub, Reza Jarrahy, Cecilia Vindrola-Padros, Jennifer L. Syvertsen, Andy Guise, Jessica Healy-Profitós, Barbara A. Piperata, Mark Moritz, Jiyoung L…
Human Biology of the Amazon
For the first time, the Olympic Games will be held in South America. The 31st Olympiad will take place in Rio de Janeiro 120 years after the first games of the modern era were initiated in Athens
Amazonian foods and implications for human biology
Diets of subsistence-based Amazonian populations have been linked to local resources, but are changing with market penetration.To review the available data on traditional Amazonian foods and diets and evaluate their implications for human biology as a step toward understanding nutrition transitions in the region.This study used the Human Relations Area Files for information on the diets of Amerindian groups in the Amazon Basin from 1950 to the pr…
Food insecurity and maternal mental health in León, Nicaragua
Conditional Cash Transfers, Food Security, and Health
Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs have become an increasingly popular component of poverty-alleviation policies worldwide. The highly publicized success of Brazil's Bolsa Família program (BFP), the largest such program in the world, has become a model for CCT programs elsewhere, including in highly rural African nations. This is despite the dearth of information on the impact of the program in rural contexts. Drawing on a unique natural ex…
Child Nutrition and Water Access (27 works) · Medicine (24 works) · Geography (23 works) · Biology (21 works) · Indigenous Health and Education (19 works) · Sociology (18 works) · Demography (14 works) · Ecology (14 works) · Environmental health (14 works) · Amazon rainforest (12 works)