History and Legacy of Andean Research in Nuñoa, Peru

Abstract

The high-altitude town and associated political district of Nuñoa, Peru, has served as an anthropological field research site for more than 60 years. The earliest studies were initiated by Paul T. Baker and his students from Penn State University in 1962. He supervised and guided research for over a decade, with a focus on the adaptation of the resident Quechua Natives to high-altitude hypoxia and cold. These studies included physiological research on exercise capacity and temperature regulation, surveys of nutrition and child growth, and a variety of other studies. Data collected during this period served as a baseline for many later studies. This Andean site, at 4000 m above sea level, continued to be a center of research in the 1980s under the direction of Brooke Thomas and his students from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. During this period, the theoretical perspectives shifted from one of environmental adaptation to altitude stresses to a combined environmental adaptation and political economy framework. At that time, an emphasis was placed on behavioral and cultural coping responses to the health of Indigenous families and the socioeconomic inequalities that had been built into the Nuñoa society. In the years that followed, a variety of studies were conducted by students and faculty from at least eight universities. This Nuñoa research served as a model for long-term field studies in human biology, contributed to the first overseas field experiences of many students, and led to the completion of more than 25 PhDs in high-altitude research.