Anthropology Corner: Health and Wellbeing

So a while ago, actually a really long time ago now, I wrote about some of my work with the Agta. Observing children is only one part of my research, the rest of the time I run around after the same children attempting to get anthropometric data.  

Anthropometrics simply refers to the measuring of people (thanks Wikipedia) and basically means that on three different occasions now I measured height, weight and skin-fold thickness for all the children and adults we meet.  For children, this is particularly important as a measure of their growth and development. Skin-fold thickness is also a great measure of fatness and malnutrition. With this data, we are able to understand the physical status of the population, compare this to other populations worldwide and to try and understand the causes of any abnormalities. 

Anthropometry has been used by biological anthropologists for many years as it is easy to conduct in different field situations. Even so, it is often challenging trying to find a good spot you can be sheltered from the burning sun or pouring rain which also contains a flat, hard surface and big enough to move people around in. Actually, I don't think we have ever managed to find all three, and often we send kids running all over the shop trying to find big pieces of wood (or rice grinders, benches, cutting boards...when needs must!) for the weight scale.   

But health is composed of main more things than simple height and weight. With an individual's anthropometrics it might be clear that they are malnourished and stunted but it is not clear why. This might be because they simply are not eating enough, or they have a parasitic infection (basically intestinal worms) or a bacterial infection such as TB.  So even with all the limitations caused by a lack of infrastructure, we are currently working on conducting blood, sputum and even stool tests to try and really understand the Agta's health. Working with the local medical services we are helping to screen individuals with some key diseases, primarily TB, worms and anemia, and facilitating their access to treatment.  

This is something I am really happy to be involved in, as for me it's important to directly help the population which does so much for me (I mean where would my Ph.D. be without them!). Hunter-gatherers have been a quintessential component in the development of Anthropology. However, there are now less than 50 hunter-gatherer groups remaining worldwide, and those which have survived are often referred to as fourth-world peoples: they lack socio-political and economic representation in developing nations and are increasingly marginalised in terms of access to resources and health care.  So to help change this, I am more than happy to be kicked by the occasional child (it's OK they forgive me again once the lollipops come out!).

That's all folks,

Wasabi

Anthropology corner: the endangered, tree hugging primitive.

While I was writing the previous article on Agta fashion, trying to say something witty about the archetypal tribal man or women in modern-day conception, I realised that stereotypes are an interesting and reflective topic itself.

What is the image of a hunter-gatherer for most people? I think in part it is based on the native American's we learn about in school and watch in the movies. This is the reason for the 'tree-hugging' title; the message often is that foraging people are at one with nature, in-tune with their environment, friendly with all living creatures because this is what they rely on as their daily bread.   I don't know about all the different groups in the world (and it really is important not to make assumptions) but certainly, the Agta do not conform to this image. They may rely on the surrounding environment for fish, birds, pigs, rice, fruits, and yams etc. but this doesn't mean they won't extract these items with force.  

For instance, birds are kept alive for a long time once they are caught, handed around as playthings for all the children to interact with. This is actually very hard to watch...and you find yourself wondering why are they not more sentimental to the creatures they rely on. My best explanation is that they can't afford to be; food is constrained, meat is limited and takes a great time and energy to procure. Imagine walking for 3 hours to Tesco's only to come back with enough for one day so you will have to hear right back tomorrow. I guess then no part of the animal can be wasted, you can't see the bird as a friend, or be a fussy eater cause it looks too much like the thing it is (most westerners, including me I think suffer from this problem - mash it, process it so we can disassociate from it).  So maybe, this heavy handling of animals is wrapped up in the idea that animals are food, to be dominated by humans.

Collection of hunted wild pig jaws

Of course, this doesn't mean that the Agta don't want to protect their food sources. They dislike non-Agta overexploitation of the environment (which is often illegal in the national park, such as electric or poison fishing) as it heavily reduces their yields. But the Agta are also sometimes living on the knife-edge with no food stored facing unpredictable conditions. Therefore, their first concern is survival and increasing their food intake however they can. 



So, why endangered? Recently there was a photography booķ called "Before They Pass Away" which featured different hunter-gatherer populations from all around the world. The premise is here that it is important to visually document these cultures before they are lost forever in the mists of globalisation and acculturation.   The tagline itself states "Jimmy Nelson forces us to see, to understand and to remember before they pass away" referring to these peoples as "the last resorts of natural authenticity".  

It's true that the world is smaller, increasing levels of education and globalisation mean you can find coke everywhere and the similarity between peoples is increasing. However, the concept that it is only the extremely exotic which is authentic, seems to me problematic. It is a form of Orientalism, or the creation of the strange 'other', which removes the actual people from view.  

Bonding over football

The Agta, like parents worldwide, want their children to have better chances and lives than their own. For them, this means education and integration with the rest of Philippine society.  These two things drastically increase key development measures such as life expectancy and health and wellbeing, so not such a bad choice right.  So in part, the people beneath these endangered exotic layers are actively seeking to become more like their farming neighbors because simply put, their life chances are better.  However, this doesn't mean the Agta will be lost forever except for an appearance in a few bits of obscure anthropological texts.  Our project is titled 'resilience' for just this reason; populations are dynamic and change is continuous but change doesn't mean extinction.  The conversation about endangered peoples often lacks this perceptive, the idea that people actively are able to integrate into society, change with the times but continue to differentiate themselves, and take pride in their own history and diversity.   Just because they don't continue to plaster themselves with paint or mount war raids on neighboring groups doesn't mean the peoples will be lost forever.  The work of a fellow anthropologist, Tessa Minter, with the Agta argues this point extremely well and demonstrates the importance of removal of such stereotypes as they have real impact on future development, health, and land right policies in the real world. 

Homework

So to the last stereotype - the primitive. Western culture has been built upon ideals of natural, innate progression. We started as stupid cavemen, made some fire and some wheels, then some tools and a few more things now deep underground, til one day we got intelligent enough to realize that the best way to live is within societies so we created modern day civilization, in the form of nation states and so forth. The implication of all this is the concept of the primitive, individuals who simply aren't advanced or intelligent enough to create a 'higher culture', thus are separated from the rest of humanity.  

Such perspectives are horrible and lead to foraging people's like the Agta to be referred to as 'not people' but more animal.   My field of study specifically examines how people adapt in and function in different environments. The one essential point here is that there is no natural progression - evolution doesn't necessarily make things more complex or civilized. Rather evolution simply optimizes the best solution which is wholly dependent on the environmental context.   

Family from Canaipan

So it is never appropriate to refer to groups such as the Agta as primitive, rather their social systems and their behavior is simply a product of the environment they live in.  For example, I study childcare and how this is shared with the whole community. Children spent their younger years being looked after by a whole array of individuals, from close family members to just older kids in camp. This is interesting as families in the west are isolated and are not so reliant on social networks for child support. We have wealth, infrastructure and a state instead. My point here is that it is the environment and the needs which arise from which dictate our behavior; an Agta moving to England other than being very cold, would be lively to change how they raise their children.  The difference that exists between people is in part a result of such influences. 

For me, these are the three key stereotypes which living with the Agta has completely dispelled in my mind. Living with the Agta creates a sense of normality, of people sharing life with people which are often lost or ignored. 

That's all folks,

Wasabi

Speak

For Tristan.

I remember being puzzled when I discovered on my very first day of engineering school that the first three days were entirely dedicated to a seminar on communication. Even more so, when during the first hour I learnt for the first time that while words matter, 70% of actual communication is expressed  by the body. Fast forward a few years later and I like this idea a lot. This sort of physical telekinesis that links us and the agreeable feeling not being a machine simply transmitting a flux of perfectly formulated data. The space for interpretation, guessing and imagination. With hindsight I am not sure on how this figure of 70% was ever calculated and at the same time convinced that there is quite some latitude in non-verbal communication. A simple example would be to watch kids meeting and playing together at the park. Or me playing with kids in a camp called Djabbut. The game was then called how many photos can we take before getting tired and the answer is at least 500. So to make this first answer short and clear, I am amazed at how much communication is possible without using a single word.

photo by Marinel, 7.

I have two great examples here to share with you.
The first one is very straightforward. In a camp called Kaniapan, there is a girl about 8 to 10 which is called Monika, or Awet depending who you ask. I noticed at first how much she was staring at us and finally found out that she is deaf. Nonetheless, we had a good time playing to catch all sort of animal in the camp in glass bottles, laughing at the horrible faces we had in photos we took and going on adventures around the camp.

Fitting Monika's new green bracelet.

Number two is a bit closer to you, especially if you are using the mobile version of our blog. Angry birds, Doodle Jump, Flow Free, Flappy bird... Despite being as young as 5 and having a style of life as different as could be from ours, I can tell you that it takes about 10 seconds for the kids, and adults alike, to get to grips with my phone. I also happily shared it for them to make photos and video clips. The one way to make a whole camp laugh is the slo-mo video mode where I get footage of kids and me doing all sorts of jumps and acrobatic stunt.

Captivating screen.

So, answering the first question communication with no words is possible. Of course understanding simple things like the aim of the trip you are gladly invited to join is a plus. The one thing that is complicated is that in the place we work people use mostly a dialect called Paranan, with no book or dictionary available, as there are only 1500 speakers. Most of them also understand Tagalog, which is the main Filipino language. After now 7 months, I must say that my skills in Tagalog are pretty awful. I guess the mixed language environment pushed me to a strategy where I learnt quite a few everyday words and expression, but I do not know which language they belong to. Nor do I understand anything about constructing a sentence. Despite this, I can go around greeting people in the morning with a nice 'Mapiya Dimadimang' reproduced here by adults and kids respectively.

I can carry on asking how was the night fishing, if they wish to share a cup of coffee and their plans for the day. Where it may get a bit awkward for me is when then we are having our cups filled with the warm beverage and I want to carry the discussion. Let's see, I can tell them the coffee is hot, but I guess they have figured that out by now, or should I simply say good morning again? Well, the good thing here is that, the Agta don't expect you to interact based on the ground of physical proximity, and in French the concept awkward do not really exists, so you can relax and enjoying watching the camp activity quietly.

Of course sometime this isn’t enough, either the Agta start to chat you and fully expect you to answer or when you actually need to express more complicated thoughts than ‘here is your coffee’.  This is where our Team of Translator came in handy.

Ate Christe, Girly and Aima

It took some time and effort to find them, but I must say they are doing a great job. For translation of course but also by helping us understanding the local traditions and organising our trips to different camps.  They  negotiate prices in shops and convince people to welcome us in their camps when it is our first trip there. We share all the good as well as the difficult situations together and I must say that I will miss our companions when we leave.

Medical survey at Didikeg

Time to cook dinner

Ok, I must admit it, the lost in translation effect is real and comes into play often unexpectedly. One night we were in Cauayan city in our Favorite Restaurant, Amorfino. And as often when back in town our appetite was about half what it was when in England. And because I love those Cheese-stuffed chilies of their I explained that I wanted to order only a small plate of them, being ready to pay the full but not to waste those tasty starters. She asked me quite a few times to repeat what I was after. I repeated one more time: a small plate of chilies.
And here we are twenty minutes later with a waitress very proud to bring me a big full plate of very small chillies…

I must agree I digressed a bit here so as a conclusion to this article I share here more audio clips in order to share with you the happy sounding language of Palanan.

Anin : Awesome, sick bro, amazing.


Asus: Dammit, WTF?, whoops.


And finally, some extracts of conversation. The first about how cool my recorder was and the second about medical matters.

With love,

Wasabi.

Diving in Bohol and Other Underwater Adventures

It’s not all work for Wallace and I as we recently took a week’s holiday in Bohol, a smaller island in the south of the Philippines.

Bohol is well known for its chocolate hills, named due to their brown colouring which occurs at only one time during the year. We arrived during the wrong season, so just lots of green hills (and a typhoon somewhere nearby which brought wind and rain to make the motorcycle ride an adventure) but I guess ‘hump shaped green hills’ isn’t such a tourist grabbing name.  

It’s also equally famous for the native tarsiers, which according to one postcard are “the smallest monkeys in the world”. Sadly neither these points are true, being that tarsiers are primates not monkeys (all monkeys are primates but not vice versa, a sticking point for any biological anthropologist so please excuse the lecture!). Also I am sure the pygmies marmoset is smaller (please google image as super cute). However tarsiers are very rare and very cool to see in nature.  Unfortunately due to an accidental 7 hour motorcycle ride, with multiple wrong turns and Wallace wanting to take the ‘new and unexplored route’ to the tarsiers, we didn’t get to see any.  So with extremely sore bums we had only the postcards to see what real life tarsiers looks like. But, our sadness was not too great as the main reason we came to Bohol was due to first class dive sites. A perfect setting for our first oceanic diving experience.

In very south of the island of Bohol, connected by two bridges, is the tiny Panglao Island. This was our base for 9 days, as it had both a home reef you could freely snorkel on and lots of dive boats you can travel to Balicasag Island on. This is a marine reserve, its highlights being loads and loads of fish, eels, turtles and beautiful undamaged reefs (see pictures!).

We did 5 dives at Balicasag, going to 21 metres down the sea wall (accidentally of course as our PADI open water qualification only allows us to go to 18 metres, oh no!).  We were a bit nervous at first, being that we hadn’t dived since October, which was in a murky 8 metre lake near London. The idea of suddenly diving off the sea wall, with 35 metres between you and the sea floor is, concerning.

 However, the beauty of the drop is astounding, you dive in the clearest of waters so you can always see the surface sun and the sealife soon takes all your concerns away.

For our final dive, we had overcome our fears and did a night dive. It really was like exploring a whole new sea, all the species change and you really can’t see beyond your flashlight beam (hence no pictures, sorry). You definitely don’t want to fall too far beyond your local guide then, just one massive black expanse of nothing!  Yet the bioluminescence which occurs at night-time is wonderful; you just move your hand through the water, with the flashlights off, and the water is suddenly full of lights, like underwater fireflies. 

Overall we saw loads of crazy animals, like the frog fish (again please google image), moray eels (see below), fat lipped fish, cornet fish, scorpion fish (no touching as seriously poisonous and painful) and lots of different (and kind of minging) types of sea worms! 

The only thing missing were sharks, those who know me know my love (obsession…) with sharks so I was sad when none appeared during our dives.

However, I wasn’t too sad as we had previously, back in our April tour of the Philippines, snorkelled with a whale shark in Donsol (the very southern tip of Luzon).   This was slightly more crazy, and less relaxed than hanging with turtles in Bohol. Firstly, there are like 100 other tourists diving into the water at the same time. The water is pretty murky (which is actually the massive amount of plankton which attracts the whale sharks to Donsol, whale sharks being of course mainly non-meat eating and behaving more like, you got it, whales!), and as you put your head into the water very little is visible but your guide is dragging you along knowing something you don’t. At this point you are kinda stressed as even if whale sharks won’t eat you they are massive, some as big as 18 metres and are officially the largest fish in the sea. And this is a massive thing you can’t see. Until suddenly you put your head under the water and you do see it, like RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU.

 This was definitely a swearing occasion for me as its massive mouth, scooping up millions of plankton, was open around 3 metres in front of me.    But after this mild first panic, suddenly all my love of sharks came back to me and I got to swim along with it for a good few minutes. It was bliss and wonderful to be alongside such a beauty of a fish.

 This was only ruined when all the other tourists caught up with us and pushed and kicked to get a closer view.  It’s sad really that’s this is how we have to witness such a creature, and this is how some people are.  But it’s still worth it when you have those few minutes along with the ‘gentle giant’, as its referred to in Donsol.

Finally, in the theme of sealife, we have just returned from a couple of weeks at a coastal camp in Palanan. This place is an extremely stereotypical tropical beach. This got green forests and palm trees, white beach situated on a big lagoon which acts as a sheltered breeding ground for many baby fish (many, many tiny nemos, otherwise of course known as clown fish). It is has a large underwater cliffs, the path the boats follow to come in the bay. Like the Grand Canyon underwater, it forms a big contrast of shallow and deep water, and is home to some big fish, including massive moray eels (lucky only witness once already caught as apparently they have an extremely bad bite).

 So while we were not watching children, taking measurements or asking questions, we had our snorkel gear on and explored the reef. This place would make a beautiful diving spot, but I hope it isn’t sold out to tourism because then the Agta would be forced off their beach homes to be replaced by beach side villas. This is a very real threat as the politicians here are trying to buy up the beaches, to be ready for development as soon as the roads are built.  For me, I hope it stays just the way it is.

Love to all,

Wasabi.