Food taboos, malaria and dietary change: Infant feeding and cultural adaptation on a Papua New Guinea island†

Research supported by National Science Foundation, University of California, Berkeley Chancellor's Patent Fund and Department of Anthropology, and National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Public Health Service Fellowship.

Despite seemingly abundant food resources, child malnutrition is prevalent on Vanatinai (Sudest Island), Papua New Guinea according to government surveys. Cultural adaptations to new technology, new cultigens, and new political systems have resulted in changes in subsistence strategies from a greater reliance on the collection of wild foods to a heavy emphasis on cultivation of starchy tubers. These may have negatively affected the nutritional status of children and adults. Examination of infant and child feeding practices suggests that traditional taboos on consumption of animal protein by children under weaning age contribute to child malnutrition, but these taboos may be a cultural adaptation to an environment of endemic malaria. The evidence for an antagonistic relationship between host malnutrition and malaria and the policy implications of such a relationship are discussed.

Key Words:

• infant feeding
• malnutrition
• cultural adaptation
• traditional diet
• subsistence changes
• breastfeeding
• food taboos
• protein
• malaria
• Papua New Guinea

Notes

Research supported by National Science Foundation, University of California, Berkeley Chancellor's Patent Fund and Department of Anthropology, and National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Public Health Service Fellowship.