Socio-economic causes and cultural explanations of childhood malnutrition among the Chagga of Tanzania.
This study provides an in-depth analysis of the complexity of factors involved in selective child survival among the Chagga people of Mt Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Carried out during the first of a series of post-independence economic crises, the study analyzes the impact of fluctuations in world economy, ecological stresses, demographic pressures, and class formation in creating conditions of poverty and lessening the ability of many Chagga to provide adequate care for their children. Qualitative and quantitative information are given from a follow-up study of families whose children were placed in a nutrition rehabilitation program during the drought of 1972-73. Four cases from that study further demonstrate the impact of macroeconomic forces on individuals and provide material for analyzing a complex pattern of cultural beliefs which made up part of the Chagga people's explanations for child malnutrition.
Howard
M
M
Department of Anthropology and Sociology, Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware 43015.
D002648:Child; D003469:Culture; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D009748:Nutrition Disorders / Q000208:ethnology*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013636:Tanzania / Q000453:epidemiology