Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0042/00422.txt

Text File | 1991-06-24 | 26KB | 425 lines

$Unique_ID{COW00422}
$Pretitle{266}
$Title{Bolivia
Chapter 7A.   Living Conditions}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Thomas E. Weil}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{housing
percent
rural
urban
traditional
construction
altiplano
diet
public
available}
$Date{1974}
$Log{}
Country:     Bolivia
Book:        Bolivia, A Country Study
Author:      Thomas E. Weil
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1974

Chapter 7A.   Living Conditions

     Bolivians live under physical conditions that range from those
experienced in the world's highest mining camps to those in the jungles of the
Amazon Basin. Culturally, their life-styles are reflected both by the patios
of the aristocratic old city of Sucre and by the mud hutments of the
Altiplano. By income, the population formerly included both the tin barons,
who enjoyed the most conspicuous wealth in South America, and a rural majority
that had the continent's lowest per capita income.

     The social and economic change precipitated by the Revolution of 1952 has
been uneven in its impact, but it has tended to alter living conditions in the
countryside and to accelerate migration to the cities, where the transplanted
countrypeople live under profoundly different conditions.

     In the early 1970s the food and housing of the majority, urban as well as
rural, had improved somewhat since 1952 but remained well below the average
for Latin America. The campesinos (peasants) were beginning to adopt modern
dress but continued to show a fondness for colorful traditional costumes.

     Where available, motion pictures were the most popular of the relatively
few recreational outlets. In the countryside, however, the dullness of
everyday life was still relieved principally by the feasting and dancing that
accompanied the traditional village fiesta. In both country and town, most of
the limited income was spent on food. Incomes were somewhat higher than before
1952, however, and the variety of things purchased has been increasing.

     Some of the country's worst endemic diseases had been brought under
control, but poor nutrition and environmental sanitation as well as a lack of
awareness of modern medical practices militated against further improvement in
health conditions. A social security program provided extensive coverage, but
the level of benefits paid was low, and the rural people had yet to be
included in its benefits. Public social programs, such as those concerned with
health, welfare, and housing, were carried on by a proliferation of small
agencies serving such occupational groups of clients as miners, factory
workers, and teachers. Similar services were brought to rural areas by the
National Community Development Program.

Diet and Nutrition

     Estimates of caloric intake per capita during the 1960s varied from less
than 1,800 to slightly over 2,000 calories daily. According to one 1968 survey
conducted by a government agency, the average was 1,890 calories for the
country as a whole and showed slight regional variation. The national average
included forty-nine grams of protein per day, of which only fifteen-less than
an ounce-were of animal origin. Animal protein consumption in the Altiplano
was slightly less than that in the other regions.

     The average diet appears to have improved somewhat in recent years.
According to one source, between 1958 and 1964 caloric and protein consumption
were each up by more than 10 percent. The average caloric intake during the
late 1960s, however, appears to have been only about 80 percent of that
recommended by the United National Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO),
and the protein intake was deficient by a narrower margin.

     In some of the communities in the Antiplano over half the intake by
weight is in the form of potatoes, and most of the remainder is in the form of
grains, such as barley and quinoa. Green vegetable consumption is minimal, and
the scanty meat consumption consists largely of the flesh of superannuated
llamas, domesticated guinea pigs, and fish from Lake Titicaca. In the Yungas
and the Valles corn, wheat, and potatoes are the principal staples; and green
vegetable, fruit, and meat consumption is somewhat heavier and more varied
than in the highlands. In both the Altiplano and the intermediate regions a
large proportion of the protein is derived from beans. In the Oriente,
however, beef, pork, and some chicken make up an important part of the diet.
Meat not infrequently appears at all of the day's meals. Lowland staples
consist principally of cassava, rice, plantains, and bananas.

     Because of a lack of storage and shipment facilities, only small amounts
of fresh fruits, dairy products, and meat reach small town markets. More
variety is available in the cities where, in addition, fish from Lake Titicaca
or the Pilcomayo River are available as important protein supplements. The
average working-class family in La Paz, however, must devote half or more of
its expendable income to food purchases (see Patterns of Living and Leisure,
this ch.).

     In urging the public health authorities to expand their studies in
nutrition, a La Paz newspaper in 1971 attributed many of the country's social
and economic problems to quantitative and qualitative food deficiency and
estimated that two-thirds of the population suffered from some degree of
malnutrition. The proportion seems excessive, but malnutrition is known to be
widespread, particularly among children. A 1965-68 government survey found
that 38 percent of the rural children under the age of fifteen suffered
malnutrition of the first grade (10 to 25 percent under normal weight), 17
percent suffered second grade malnutrition (25 to 40 percent underweight), and
4 percent suffered malnutrition of the third grade (40 percent or more under
normal weight).

     In many parts of the country the foods are badly lacking in some
nutrients. Iron, thiamine, and ascorbic acid are present in adequate
proportions, but a 1964 study showed the quantity of vitamin A to be about 40
percent under FAO standards, riboflavin to be less than half, and calcium to
be not much more than one-fourth of the standards recommended by the FAO. In
addition a 1962 survey by the Interdepartmental Nutrition Committee for
National Development found that endemic goiter resulting from iodine
deficiency was widespread, particularly in the Oriente. Countrywide, it was
reported to affect 15.4 percent of the population under the age of fifteen and
10.5 percent in older age brackets. The scattered information available,
however, indicated a gradual improvement in the diet during the 1950s and
1960s. The land reform program had given farmers the opportunity to produce
more food both for their own consumption and for sales that made possible the
purchase of previously unavailable diet supplements. The improvement was
limited, but an increase in the height and weight of army conscripts since the
early 1950s indicated either higher levels of caloric consumption, a general
improvement in the quality of the diet, or both.

     The potatoes that make up most of the Altiplano diet are frequently
preserved by conversion into chuno, a processed form of the vegetable that has
been popular since Inca times and has acquired an almost religious
significance. Produced by dehydration and a primitive kind of freeze-drying,
chuno emerges as a hard lump about the size of a walnut. It keeps
indefinitely, and some eaters find its distinctive flavor attractive. A
similar product, tunta, is more costly because it requires a month of careful
preparation. Both are popular in cities as well as in the countryside, but by
1970 the price of chuno in La Paz had risen to the equivalent of US $0.30 a
pound; and the price of a pound of tunta, the equivalent of US $1.20, had
removed it from the tables of most consumers.

     In the cattle country of the lowlands, beef is the major element in the
diet to almost the same extent that potatoes are staples in the rural
highlands. With the exceptio