Life is hard, life is beautiful: Some perspectives on health and aging in Amazonian rural populations

Abstract

It is not easy to live in the Amazon. The difficulty of access to almost everything, from food to transport, makes life very hard in the vastness of the region. It has been called a Green Hell and a Counterfeit Paradise, yet people have adapted to it and survived for millennia. However, despite its demands, it is also wonderful to live and work in the Amazon, one of the most pristine and ecologically rich natural places on the planet. In this chapter some aspects of health and living conditions of Caboclo, rural peasants, in the state of Pará, are presented and discussed in relation to each other, to other Amazonian groups, to the overall Brazilian population, and to other Latin American peoples, with the aim of providing some information about how it is to live, work, and grow old in the Amazon. Data presented come from a large ongoing study initiated in 1996 contrasting the floodplain (várzea) and the upland (terra firme) areas, during the wet and dry seasons in northern Brazil. The groups investigated include people from the Caxiuanã National Forest, Portel, and of two communities living in the Ituqui Island, Santarém. Among other findings, the three groups present a high prevalence of undernutrition in children, and of obesity and hypertension in adults, indicative of their current epidemiological and nutritional transition, and causes for great public health concern since access to medical care continues to be one of the major challenges for the local communities.