R Brooke Thomas
Biographic Data
| ID | 79960 |
|---|---|
| NAME | R Brooke Thomas |
| GIVEN NAMES | R Brooke |
| FAMILY NAME | Thomas |
| SIGNATURE | THOMAS R B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Massachusetts Amherst |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 300 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 20 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1970 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
History and Legacy of Andean Research in Nuñoa, Peru
The high‐altitude town and associated political district of Nuñoa, Peru, has served as an anthropological field research site for more than 60 years. The earliest studies were initiated by Paul T. Baker and his students from Penn State University in 1962. He supervised and guided research for over a decade, with a focus on the adaptation of the resident Quechua Natives to high‐altitude hypoxia and cold. These studies included physiological resear…
In memoriam
Geoffrey Ainsworth Harrison (1927-2017)
Tourism and the Transformation of Daily Life Along the Riviera Maya of Quintana Roo, Mexico
En el espacio de menos de dos décadas, los habitantes de Quintana Roo han tenido que enfrentar cambios radicales ocasionados por el turismo de masas. El turismo se ha convertido en la industria dominante y esto ha puesto en marcha un ciclo de desarrollo turístico y de migración masiva de otras partes de México y del exterior. Una región que no hace mucho tiempo se consideraba el territorio más marginal de la nación, hoy atrae millones de turistas…
A Half Century of High‐Altitude Studies in Anthropology
Until 50 years ago, high-altitude terrestrial research was conducted largely within the realm of environmental physiology, where interests were focused on physiological mechanisms and mountain exploration. Scientists from the United States, Europe, and Peru had developed sophisticated physiological models of adaptation and acclimatization to the hypoxia of high altitude, but very little research had been conducted on permanent residents, particul…
Paul Thornell Baker
Anthropology for the Next Generation
Socioeconomic change and patterns of growth in the Andes
Changes in the pattern of growth over a 20‐year period are described for a combined rural and semi‐urban population in the District of Nunoa (Puno) in the southern Peruvian Andes. Over the past two decades, Andean regions have experienced many socioeconomic changes, including the implementation of agrarian reform policies and increased integration into a market economy. Local changes in Nunoa have included improved transportation networks, new ma…
White Public Space and the Construction of White Privilege in U.S. Health Care
On Seeking Common Ground between Medical Ecology and Critical Medical Anthropology
Contributions of nutrition versus hypoxia to growth in rural Andean populations
Previous research on diet and nutrition among peasant agriculturalists in the Andes has produced inconsistent results. As a consequence it has been difficult to determine the extent to which nutritional factors contribute to the slowed, prolonged growth and resultant small adult body size that is characteristic of these highland populations. The study examines patterns of diet and growth in the rural highland community of Nuñoa, Peru (elevation 4…
Changing dietary patterns in the Peruvian Andes
This study examines the effect of seasonality and socioeconomic differentiation on food consumption and dietary change in the southern highlands of Peru. Nutritional data were collected by means of food weighing on a sample of 33 households (n=179) from the town of Nuñoa. Comparisons with previously‐reported data for this community indicate that the composition of the diet has changed markedly since the 1960s while the energy content has not. Sea…
Biocultural perspectives on stress in prehistoric, historical, and contemporary population research
Stress, a concept addressing the consequences of disruptive events on individuals and populations, can be a useful integrative idea. The stress process has much in common with its sister concept of adaptation. However, where adaptation focuses on "adaptive" or positive consequences, stress redresses an imbalance by focusing on the costs and limits of adaptation. In this paper we first review the interdisciplinary roots of the stress concept. Whil…
Anthropometric survey of high-altitude Bolivian porters
This paper presents the results of an anthropometric survey of 138 rural Aymaran high-altitude males who were working as porters in La Paz, Bolivia (3700 m). All subjects were measured for stature, weight, upper arm circumference, and triceps skinfolds. The body size and composition of the porters were then compared to an Aymaran rural population from the Bolivian highlands, and urban mestizo labourers from La Paz. The porters were smaller than t…
Work performance of high-altitude Aymara males
The sample for this study consisted of 28 Aymara males between the ages of 15 and 43 years. The subjects were rural high-altitude natives who were temporarily working as porters in La Paz, Bolivia (3700 m). Mean VO2max was 46 X 5 ml/kg/min. There was a significant negative relationship between VO2max and age in adult porters . However, there was also a significant positive relationship between maximal work output and age and a significant negativ…
Social Responses During Severe Food Shortages and Famine [and Comments and Reply]
Although emergency food shortages and famines have been a prominent part of human experience for thousands of years and recur somewhere on our planet almost annually, data describing behavioral and organizational responses are few and scattered. Generalizations, when not speculative, tend to be vague and frequently contradictory. Practical, humanistic, and scientific concern with how people respond when overtaken by nutritional catastrophe provid…
Skin temperatures at the nape in infants at high altitude
Skin temperatures were measured on three Quechua Indian infants resident at 4,000 meters above sea level in Peru. Nape temperatures were warmer than other skin sites, suggesting that the brown adipose tissue associated with non‐shivering thermogenesis is metabolically active despite the reduced oxygen availability at high altitude. The question of the role of non‐shivering thermogenesis in infant thermoregulation under the covariant stresses of h…
Local cold exposure of Andean Indians during normal and simulated activities
Thermal responses of Andean Indians were measured during several customary tasks associated with cold exposure in the highlands of southern Peru. These included surface temperature measurements of women while they washed clothing in the river and similar measurements of men while they constructed a diversion channel in the same river. A third test measured the effects of alcohol consumption on body temperatures during light activity. Women mainta…
Dung as an essential resource in a highland Peruvian community
Physical Anthropology
Biocultural perspectives on stress in prehistoric, historical, and contemporary population research
Stress, a concept addressing the consequences of disruptive events on individuals and populations, can be a useful integrative idea. The stress process has much in common with its sister concept of adaptation. However, where adaptation focuses on "adaptive" or positive consequences, stress redresses an imbalance by focusing on the costs and limits of adaptation. In this paper we first review the interdisciplinary roots of the stress concept. Whil…
Social Responses During Severe Food Shortages and Famine [and Comments and Reply]
Although emergency food shortages and famines have been a prominent part of human experience for thousands of years and recur somewhere on our planet almost annually, data describing behavioral and organizational responses are few and scattered. Generalizations, when not speculative, tend to be vague and frequently contradictory. Practical, humanistic, and scientific concern with how people respond when overtaken by nutritional catastrophe provid…
White Public Space and the Construction of White Privilege in U.S. Health Care
Socioeconomic change and patterns of growth in the Andes
Changes in the pattern of growth over a 20‐year period are described for a combined rural and semi‐urban population in the District of Nunoa (Puno) in the southern Peruvian Andes. Over the past two decades, Andean regions have experienced many socioeconomic changes, including the implementation of agrarian reform policies and increased integration into a market economy. Local changes in Nunoa have included improved transportation networks, new ma…
On Seeking Common Ground between Medical Ecology and Critical Medical Anthropology
Geoffrey Ainsworth Harrison (1927-2017)
Tourism and the Transformation of Daily Life Along the Riviera Maya of Quintana Roo, Mexico
En el espacio de menos de dos décadas, los habitantes de Quintana Roo han tenido que enfrentar cambios radicales ocasionados por el turismo de masas. El turismo se ha convertido en la industria dominante y esto ha puesto en marcha un ciclo de desarrollo turístico y de migración masiva de otras partes de México y del exterior. Una región que no hace mucho tiempo se consideraba el territorio más marginal de la nación, hoy atrae millones de turistas…
Skin temperatures at the nape in infants at high altitude
Skin temperatures were measured on three Quechua Indian infants resident at 4,000 meters above sea level in Peru. Nape temperatures were warmer than other skin sites, suggesting that the brown adipose tissue associated with non‐shivering thermogenesis is metabolically active despite the reduced oxygen availability at high altitude. The question of the role of non‐shivering thermogenesis in infant thermoregulation under the covariant stresses of h…
Local cold exposure of Andean Indians during normal and simulated activities
Thermal responses of Andean Indians were measured during several customary tasks associated with cold exposure in the highlands of southern Peru. These included surface temperature measurements of women while they washed clothing in the river and similar measurements of men while they constructed a diversion channel in the same river. A third test measured the effects of alcohol consumption on body temperatures during light activity. Women mainta…
Physical Anthropology
Physical Anthropology
Dung as an essential resource in a highland Peruvian community
Skin temperatures at the nape in infants at high altitude
Skin temperatures were measured on three Quechua Indian infants resident at 4,000 meters above sea level in Peru. Nape temperatures were warmer than other skin sites, suggesting that the brown adipose tissue associated with non‐shivering thermogenesis is metabolically active despite the reduced oxygen availability at high altitude. The question of the role of non‐shivering thermogenesis in infant thermoregulation under the covariant stresses of h…
Local cold exposure of Andean Indians during normal and simulated activities
Thermal responses of Andean Indians were measured during several customary tasks associated with cold exposure in the highlands of southern Peru. These included surface temperature measurements of women while they washed clothing in the river and similar measurements of men while they constructed a diversion channel in the same river. A third test measured the effects of alcohol consumption on body temperatures during light activity. Women mainta…
Social Responses During Severe Food Shortages and Famine [and Comments and Reply]
Although emergency food shortages and famines have been a prominent part of human experience for thousands of years and recur somewhere on our planet almost annually, data describing behavioral and organizational responses are few and scattered. Generalizations, when not speculative, tend to be vague and frequently contradictory. Practical, humanistic, and scientific concern with how people respond when overtaken by nutritional catastrophe provid…
Anthropometric survey of high-altitude Bolivian porters
This paper presents the results of an anthropometric survey of 138 rural Aymaran high-altitude males who were working as porters in La Paz, Bolivia (3700 m). All subjects were measured for stature, weight, upper arm circumference, and triceps skinfolds. The body size and composition of the porters were then compared to an Aymaran rural population from the Bolivian highlands, and urban mestizo labourers from La Paz. The porters were smaller than t…
Work performance of high-altitude Aymara males
The sample for this study consisted of 28 Aymara males between the ages of 15 and 43 years. The subjects were rural high-altitude natives who were temporarily working as porters in La Paz, Bolivia (3700 m). Mean VO2max was 46 X 5 ml/kg/min. There was a significant negative relationship between VO2max and age in adult porters . However, there was also a significant positive relationship between maximal work output and age and a significant negativ…
Changing dietary patterns in the Peruvian Andes
This study examines the effect of seasonality and socioeconomic differentiation on food consumption and dietary change in the southern highlands of Peru. Nutritional data were collected by means of food weighing on a sample of 33 households (n=179) from the town of Nuñoa. Comparisons with previously‐reported data for this community indicate that the composition of the diet has changed markedly since the 1960s while the energy content has not. Sea…
Biocultural perspectives on stress in prehistoric, historical, and contemporary population research
Stress, a concept addressing the consequences of disruptive events on individuals and populations, can be a useful integrative idea. The stress process has much in common with its sister concept of adaptation. However, where adaptation focuses on "adaptive" or positive consequences, stress redresses an imbalance by focusing on the costs and limits of adaptation. In this paper we first review the interdisciplinary roots of the stress concept. Whil…
Contributions of nutrition versus hypoxia to growth in rural Andean populations
Previous research on diet and nutrition among peasant agriculturalists in the Andes has produced inconsistent results. As a consequence it has been difficult to determine the extent to which nutritional factors contribute to the slowed, prolonged growth and resultant small adult body size that is characteristic of these highland populations. The study examines patterns of diet and growth in the rural highland community of Nuñoa, Peru (elevation 4…
On Seeking Common Ground between Medical Ecology and Critical Medical Anthropology
White Public Space and the Construction of White Privilege in U.S. Health Care
Socioeconomic change and patterns of growth in the Andes
Changes in the pattern of growth over a 20‐year period are described for a combined rural and semi‐urban population in the District of Nunoa (Puno) in the southern Peruvian Andes. Over the past two decades, Andean regions have experienced many socioeconomic changes, including the implementation of agrarian reform policies and increased integration into a market economy. Local changes in Nunoa have included improved transportation networks, new ma…
Anthropology for the Next Generation
Paul Thornell Baker
A Half Century of High‐Altitude Studies in Anthropology
Until 50 years ago, high-altitude terrestrial research was conducted largely within the realm of environmental physiology, where interests were focused on physiological mechanisms and mountain exploration. Scientists from the United States, Europe, and Peru had developed sophisticated physiological models of adaptation and acclimatization to the hypoxia of high altitude, but very little research had been conducted on permanent residents, particul…
Tourism and the Transformation of Daily Life Along the Riviera Maya of Quintana Roo, Mexico
En el espacio de menos de dos décadas, los habitantes de Quintana Roo han tenido que enfrentar cambios radicales ocasionados por el turismo de masas. El turismo se ha convertido en la industria dominante y esto ha puesto en marcha un ciclo de desarrollo turístico y de migración masiva de otras partes de México y del exterior. Una región que no hace mucho tiempo se consideraba el territorio más marginal de la nación, hoy atrae millones de turistas…
Geoffrey Ainsworth Harrison (1927-2017)
In memoriam
History and Legacy of Andean Research in Nuñoa, Peru
The high‐altitude town and associated political district of Nuñoa, Peru, has served as an anthropological field research site for more than 60 years. The earliest studies were initiated by Paul T. Baker and his students from Penn State University in 1962. He supervised and guided research for over a decade, with a focus on the adaptation of the resident Quechua Natives to high‐altitude hypoxia and cold. These studies included physiological resear…
Sociology (10 works) · Geography (8 works) · Biology (6 works) · Citation (6 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Demography (6 works) · Library science (6 works) · High Altitude and Hypoxia (5 works) · Medicine (5 works) · Ecology (4 works)