https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-09/uoh-maa090920.php
News Release 9-Sep-2020
University of Helsinki
The diets of hunter-gatherers are changing at a fast pace, as in the contemporary world, they are increasingly being deprived of their access to land and natural resources and urged to adapt to sedentary lifestyle. An interdisciplinary study from the University of Helsinki brings forth the underlying causes of food and nutrition insecurity among a San group in Namibia.
The Khwe San tribe living in North-East Namibia, are still among the few so-called "bushman" groups, who reside on their ancestral land. However, their contemporary diet includes surprisingly little food from their surrounding environment, but mostly consists of maize meal transported from far away.
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The transitioning food system of a former hunter-gatherer group posed an interesting challenge for Heim to conceptualize and analyse food environment and food choices among the Khwe, as such studies in rural settings of low- and middle-income countries are extremely rare. The Khwe reside in a national park, where trophy hunting by foreigners are a common practice but the Khwe, who lived in the area for centuries, are banned of hunting and restricted in gathering. These conditions have contributed to a dietary transition, diverging from their traditional diets based on wild berries, tubers, mushrooms, insects and game meat. Yet, the transition did not follow the common pattern of a foraging society shifting into agricultural society.
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Today, the Khwe are trapped in a vicious cycle of malnutrition due to a dysfunctional local food system, in which they have no agency over food sources and are deprived of accessing their natural food resources on their traditional lands. These living conditions raise concerns regarding the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the human right to food.
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The monetary income received from the government or earned as wages is spent in the informal markets, supplementing the diets with packaged foods, sugary sodas and alcohol.
The modern foods that provide convenience, enhanced taste and larger bulk have suppressed the appetite for traditional foods, at least among the younger generation. Yet Heim's interviews with elderly revealed that the shift in preference away from traditional foods has been strongly influenced by historical events between the 1970-90s, when the easy reach for modern foods and the contested access to the surrounding natural resources made knowledge transfer about traditional food obsolete. Today, there is a serious risk of long-evolved Khwe knowledge around traditional foods disappearing as the Khwe elders pass away without having transmitted their knowledge and skills to the younger generations.
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