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Culture, Environment and Health in the Yucatan Peninsula

A Human Ecology Perspective

  • Shows how social, political, economic, cultural and environmental changes affect human health over time

  • Adopts a human ecology approach to analyze the interactions between natural environment, human biology, health and social issues in the Yucatan Peninsula since the Classic Maya Period

  • Will be of interest to social and life scientists from fields such as anthropology, human biology and environmental health, as well as to public health researchers and practitioners

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Table of contents (17 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
  2. Introduction

    • Hugo Azcorra, Federico Dickinson
    Pages 1-8
  3. Living Conditions and Human Biology

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 37-37
    2. Globalization and Children’s Diets: The Case of Yucatan, Mexico

      • Barry Bogin, Hugo Azcorra, María Luisa Ávila-Escalante, María Teresa Castillo-Burguete, Maria Inês Varela-Silva, Federico Dickinson
      Pages 39-63
    3. Growth Stunting and Low Height-for-Age in the Yucatan Peninsula

      • Maria Inês Varela-Silva, Samantha Sanchez, Barry Bogin, Federico Dickinson, Hugo Azcorra
      Pages 65-75
    4. The Urban Maya from Yucatan; Dealing with the Biological Burden of the Past and a Degenerative Present

      • Hugo Azcorra, Barry Bogin, Maria Inês Varela-Silva, Federico Dickinson
      Pages 77-96
    5. A Critical Biocultural Perspective on Tourism and the Nutrition Transition in the Yucatan

      • Thomas Leatherman, Alan H. Goodman, J. Tobias Stillman
      Pages 97-120
    6. Hydration, Lactation, and Child Health Outcomes in Yucatec Maya

      • Amanda Veile, Sunny Asaf, Erik Otárola-Castillo, Karen L. Kramer
      Pages 159-176
    7. Patterns of Activity and Somatic Symptoms Among Urban and Rural Women at Midlife in the State of Campeche, Mexico

      • Lynnette Leidy Sievert, Laura Huicochea-Gómez, Diana Cahuich-Campos, Daniel E. Brown
      Pages 177-194
  4. Human Ecology from a Bioarchaeological Perspective

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 195-195
    2. History of Health and Life of Pre-Hispanic Maya Through Their Skeletal Remains

      • Lourdes Márquez Morfín, Patricia Olga Hernández Espinoza
      Pages 217-242
  5. Environment and Health

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 257-257
    2. Health and Well-being in the Yucatan Peninsula Revisited with a Human Ecology Perspective

      • Hugo Laviada-Molina, Oswaldo Huchim-Lara, Nina Méndez-Domínguez
      Pages 259-276
    3. Hair Mercury Content in an Adult Population of Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, as a Function of Anthropometric Measures and Seafood Consumption

      • Sally López-Osorno, Flor Árcega-Cabrera, José Luís Febles-Patrón, Almira L. Hoogesteijn
      Pages 277-291
    4. Tackling Exposure to Chagas Disease in the Yucatan from a Human Ecology Perspective

      • Carlos N. Ibarra-Cerdeña, Adriana González-Martínez, Alba R. Valdez-Tah, Claudia Guadalupe Chi-Méndez, María Teresa Castillo-Burguete, Janine M. Ramsey
      Pages 293-309

About this book

This book adopts a human ecology approach to present an overview of the biological responses to social, political, economic, cultural and environmental changes that affected human populations in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, since the Classic Maya Period. Human bodies express social relations, and we can read these relations by analyzing biological tissues or systems, and by measuring certain phenotypical traits at the population level. Departing from this theoretical premise, the contributors to this volume analyze the interactions between ecosystems, sociocultural systems and human biology in a specific geographic region to show how changes in sociocultural and natural environment affect the health of a population over time.  

This edited volume brings together contributions from a range of different scientific disciplines – such as biological anthropology, bioarchaeology, human biology, nutrition, epidemiology, ecotoxicology, political economy, sociology and ecology – that analyze the interactions between culture, environment and health in different domains of human life, such as:

  • The political ecology of food, nutrition and health
  • Impacts of social and economic changes in children’s diet and women’s fertility
  • Biological consequences of social vulnerability in urban areas
  • Impacts of toxic contamination of natural resources on human health
  • Ecological and sociocultural determinants of infectious diseases

Culture, Environment and Health in the Yucatan Peninsula – A Human Ecology Perspective will be of interest to researchers from the social, health and life sciences dedicated to the study of the interactions between natural environments, human biology, health and social issues, especially in fields such as biological and sociocultural anthropology, health promotion and environmental health. It will also be a useful tool to health professionals and public agents responsible for designing and applying public health policies in contexts of social vulnerability.  



Editors and Affiliations

  • Departamento de Ecología Humana, Cinvestav-Mérida, Centro de Investigaciones Silvio Zavala, Universidad Modelo, Mérida, Mexico

    Hugo Azcorra

  • Departamento de Ecología Humana, Cinvestav-Mérida, Mérida, Mexico

    Federico Dickinson

About the editors

Hugo Azcorra is a human biologist working in the the Department of Human Ecology at the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute in Merida, Mexico (Cinvestav-Merida). He is interested in the biology of populations during early stages of growth and development and how biological conditions are shaped by environmental factors and intergenerational influences. The most of his research have been focused on how chronic adverse living conditions experienced by Mayan populations from Yucatan have impacted their biological conditions. 

Federico Dickinson is a Mexican biological anthropologist and human ecologist with a Sc.D. from the Polish Academy of Sciences. Dr. Dickinson is the founder of the Department of Human Ecology at the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute in Merida, Mexico (Cinvestav-Merida), where he has developed his research lines on human growth in the last 33 years. 



Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Culture, Environment and Health in the Yucatan Peninsula

  • Book Subtitle: A Human Ecology Perspective

  • Editors: Hugo Azcorra, Federico Dickinson

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27001-8

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Medicine, Medicine (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-27000-1Published: 19 December 2019

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-27003-2Published: 17 January 2021

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-27001-8Published: 11 December 2019

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIII, 336

  • Number of Illustrations: 23 b/w illustrations, 25 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Biological and Physical Anthropology, Environmental Health

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access