XVIII. Global Change/Global Health

Session Type: 
Oral
Session Date and Time: 
Friday, 10 May, 2019 - 10:15 to 12:15
Location: 
Geography 101
Session Organizer(s): 

The Global Change/Global Health session presents work in which global change and human health are viewed as interconnected phenomena. At the intersection of global change analyses and global health studies, these papers frame global change and human health as direct and indirect causes and consequences of each other. Human responses to the continuous transformations in the Earth’s atmosphere, ocean, and land involve biopsychosocial shifts in human communities. Papers may consider one of the major threads through which global change connects to global health, such as: (1) the health related causes and consequences of environmental change; (2) spatiotemporal processes of health; (3) the phenomenology of climate, environmental, and lifestyle changes; (4) critical analyses of global change and global health initiatives; (4) theoretical and methodological contributions to global change and global health studies; (5) global flows of people and ideas related to environments and wellbeing; (6) emerging ethical debates about global climate, health, political and social restructurings; (7) human and environmental relationships to new technologies, and the relevance for wellbeing; and (8) global change and global health in relationship to global conflicts. In addressing these most important convergences between global change and global health, the papers in this session contribute to public debates and informing public policies about the human dimensions of global change.

Time Abstract
10:30am
Author(s):
Currey
, Robin C. D. - Green Mountain College
Halpin
, Jennifer
Mahoney
, Colin M.
Valentine
, Laura
Skinner
, Taryn D.
Alden
, Micah A.
Abejon
, Danica
Flaherty
, Sean C.
Van Hoesen
, John G.

77% of Kyrgyzstan’s fruits and berries and 52% of its vegetables come from home gardens that average only 0.10 hectares. Local food systems and home gardens are looked to as a possible solution to food insecurity in both urban and rural environments in the United States as local food systems may increase access to healthy foods and improve dietary diversity. Yet models of what localized food systems should look like for a sustainable food system are sparse. This presentation demonstrates a new geospatial mapping survey and a food system model from Kyrgyzstan that illustrates what can be planted and raised in home gardens to meet household nutritional needs, with a focus on linking agricultural diversity and nutritional diversity.

10:45am
Author(s):
Lucio Cruz
, Claudia Yarim - UAEH
Monzalvo Hernández
, Lizeth - UAEH
Zuñiga Hernández
, Martha Azucena - UAEH
Pacheco-Trejo
, Jaime - UAEH
Aquino Torres
, Eliazar - UAEH
Prieto Méndez
, Judith - UAEH

The bay leaf is an important non-woody resource in several Mexican regions, and it is sold in markets during all year. Usually it is not cultivated, thus the natural populations are facing several problems because it is extracted illegally. Also, little is known about the distribution, and propagation of some species.

In the present project we collected vegetative, and reproductive Litsea samples from individuals of two different agreoecosystems, located in the Mexican state of Hidalgo. The samples were taken for taxonomic identification, seed propagation experimentation, and asexual propagation air layering, and hardwood cuttings.

Like result, we identified two Litsea species, L. pringlei and L. schaffneri.

The air layering method looks like a good option to propagate the species of Litsea studied.

11:00am
Author(s):
Quinlan
, Marsha B. - Washington State University, Department of Anthropology

Animal keeping provides obvious nutritious and social benefits to humans while also creating financial cost and additional disease risks. Dog-keeping attitudes and behaviors are important to understand because even the poorest people on Earth live with dogs, apparently outweighing the benefits of dog partnership with their personal and health costs. Yet, little anthropology addresses domestic dogs.  I present results of pilot research conducted among small-holder family farmers from two southern Guatemalan communities, one indigenous K’iche’ Mayan village, and a mixed-heritage Ladino village. Mixed methods data include quantitative survey results of two cognitive tests, the Animal Attitude Scale-5, and the Satisfaction with Life -5, and demographic questions about the respondent and his/her farm.  Participant-observation and a dozen in-depth, qualitative interviews in each community inform farm lifeways, with a specific focus on human-animal interaction, particularly ethnozoology of dogs.

11:15am
Author(s):
Ragosta
, Summer - Surfing Medicine International 501(c)(3)
Harris
, Ivelyn - Jamaican Maroons
Gyakari
, Ntim
Otoo
, Emmanuel
Asase
, Alex - University of Ghana at Legon

Message from S. Ragosta: I plan to co-present this research, published in Ethnobiology Letters, with the second author, Ivelyn Harris:

An ethnomedicinal study was initiated with herbalists in coastal Central Region Ghana to explore how cancer is defined, diagnosed, and treated within a traditional Fante-Akan context. The participatory, service-oriented investigation included international collaboration with herbalists and traditional plant experts. Ten cancer ethnopharmacopoeia plants were identified, most of which are species considered native to tropical Africa. Fante Akan herbalists listed various types of cancers they treat with herbal remedies, along with ethnomedicinal descriptions of disease etiology, diagnoses, and treatments. The most common cancer type mentioned was “breast cancer.” Topical application was the most often cited method of administering remedies. 

 

11:30am
Author(s):
Sato
, Yasuaki - Osaka Sangyo University

In Central Uganda, people make their livelihoods by intensively using bananas as a principal starchy food, alongside a wide variety of other crops. In recent years, their rich food culture has been at risk from the influence of a cash economy and reduction in banana production. It is essential to understand how parental generations can hand their food knowledge (health, techniques, manners, and thoughts) down to their children. This study describes the current state of children’s dietary habits. Focusing on senior pupils at a primary school, diet surveys were conducted, students’ lunch boxes were recorded and their drawings of home dining scenes were collected. These revealed that primary school education is separated from home in terms of diet. We need to develop ways to incorporate traditional knowledge into the food education of schools.

11:45am
Author(s):
Olson
, Elizabeth - Southern Utah University
12:00pm
Author(s):
Rapinski
, M.
Sit
, V.
Ouellet
, C.
Lamothe
, L.
Saïas
, T.
Haddad
, P.
Davy
, D.
Cuerrier
, A.

Developing culturally appropriate healthcare services is recognised as beneficial to tackling the rise of chronic diseases, namely among the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas. However, Indigenous participation in local healthcare services varies considerably between the Canadian and French healthcare system, namely due to structural, administrative and political differences. To understand how this affects access to Indigenous medicines in Indigenous communities throughout Québec (Canada) and French Guiana (France), our objective was to develop a mixed-method approach to analysing how these are defined and described by healthcare staff and users. Using interviews from Québec, we demonstrate our approach to combining quantitative and qualitative methods, applying numerical ecology to results obtained from thematic analyses. We believe that the method developed herein can be upscaled to include diverse communities and parameters, thus allowing to better understand how local involvement in different healthcare systems affect the development of culturally appropriate services.