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Protein Deficiency and Tribal Warfare in Amazonia: New Data

1979/03/02 by Napoleon A. Chagnon, Raymond Hames · 2 citations
Health Professions · Arts and Humanities · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Indigenous Health and Education #Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Amazon rainforest #Amazonian #Competition (biology) #Geography #Development economics #Biology #Ecology #Economics

paper · doi:10.1126/science.570302

openalex publication_date 1979/03/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23

Abstract

Increasing numbers of anthropological studies about native Amazonian warfare and demographic practices attempt to explain these phenomena as competition over or a response to scarce game animals and other sources of high-quality protein. Recently completed field research among the Yanomamö Indians living at the Venezuela-Brazil border indicates that their protein intake is comparable to that found in highly developed industrialized nations and as much as 200 percent more than many nutritional authorities recommend as daily allowances. Recent data on other Amazonian tribes likewise fails to indicate a correlation between protein intake and intensity of warfare patterns.

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