The Project

The Shuar Health and Life History Project, directed by Drs. Larry Sugiyama and Josh Snodgrass of the University of Oregon, is an interdisciplinary collaborative research effort that involves faculty and graduate students from several universities, Ecuadorian health providers, and Shuar colleagues. The project focuses on Shuar and non-indigenous Ecuadorians (Colonos) from the Morona-Santiago region of Ecuador. For more info on the field site, click here.

Traditionally forager-horticulturalists, Shuar currently experience a wide range of market integration (economic development) across their territory. This provides an important opportunity for addressing how economic, social, and dietary changes associated with market integration affect life history tradeoffs, and how those tradeoffs affect health. It allows examination of particular aspects of market integration, predicted life history changes, and actual behavior and health across a wide range of conditions within the same ethnic group. Simultaneously, comparison of Upano Valley Shuar, who are currently more market integrated, with their Colono neighbors provides an opportunity to examine these same variables among people from a different cultural background living under similar socio-ecological conditions. For more information on Shuar, click here.

The Shuar Health and Life History Project is conducted in collaboration with the UCSB Center for Evolutionary Psychology's Human Universals Project, the Shuar Federation, the Ecuadorian Health Ministry Hospital in Sucúa, Ecuador, as well as several colleagues at universities in the US, including Northwestern University (Dr. Thom McDade and graduate student Paula Tallman), Harvard University (graduate students Heather Shattuck-Faegre & Sam Urlacher), and Yale University (Dr. Rick Bribiescas).

The goals of the Shuar Health and Life History Project are threefold. First, we are investigating how cultural and economic changes in the region affect health and well-being. One component of this research focuses on growth and nutritional status in Shuar children. We have compared Shuar children to other populations and examined risk factors for poor growth. Our results are described in Blackwell et al. 2009.


Another area of research is skeletal health and risk for osteoporosis. This research, led by recent Ph.D. Felicia Madimenos, has examined the reproductive and lifestyle factors that influence bone mineral density. Results of this research are detailed in a recent paper in the Archives of Osteoporosis (Madimenos et al. 2011), were recently presented at the Human Biology Association meeting in Minneapolis, MN (Madimenos et al. 2011), and are described in a paper just published in the American Journal of Human Biology (Madimenos et al. 2012). This research was profiled recently on the Scientific American blog. It provides a nice summary of the article and also describes the Shuar project as “well known within anthropology for its rigorous methodology and outreach with local participants. It’s also an interdisciplinary site that seems to be great for tackling both biological and cultural anthropology questions.” Here's the link.


We are also looking at the effects of social change on other chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and examining the role of physical activity, chronic psychosocial stress, and diet in shaping disease patterns among Shuar. We have a paper coming out soon in Annals of Human Biology (Liebert et al. in press) that describes the effects of market integration (i.e., the suite of social and cultural changes that occur with economic development) on cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, concentrating on how factors like proximity to town and consumption of market foods shape risk markers such as blood pressure, lipids, and glucose. The study provides evidence that market integration among Shuar is not a uniformly negative process but instead produces complex cardiovascular and metabolic health outcomes.

Second, we are using the branch of evolutionary biology known as life history theory to better understand the tradeoffs between different branches of immune function in Shuar children, and to use this information to better understand how energy is allocated to competing priorities such as maintenance, growth, and reproduction. These findings have been detailed in a series of publications by recent Ph.D. Aaron Blackwell in the American Journal of Human Biology (Blackwell et al. 2010) and PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases (Blackwell et al. 2011).


Further, we’ve investigated relationship between markers of immune function/inflammation (e.g., immunoglobulin E and C-reactive protein [CRP]) and several measures of cardiovascular and metabolic health (e.g., fasting glucose and lipids). This research suggests important tradeoffs between immune responses and different aspects of cardiovascular and metabolic health. This research was recently presented at the annual meeting of the Human Biology Association meetings by graduate student Melissa Liebert (Liebert et al. 2011). We have also been collaborating with Thom McDade and Paula Tallman on an NSF-funded ecological immunology project that investigates CRP variability within the context of this non-industrialized, high infectious disease environment. The findings are described in a recent article in the American Journal of Human Biology (McDade et al. 2012), and were the subject of a news piece in Science. These results have important implications for research on inflammation and diseases of aging globally, as well as for scientific understandings of the regulation of inflammation. Graduate student Tara Cepon is expanding this research by examining how parasite burden structures life history trade-offs, and how shifting patterns of infectious disease exposure alter risk for allergies and autoimmune diseases. A full listing of presentation and publications can be found here.

Tara Cepon preparing a fecal sample for analysis of parasitic worms

Finally, we seek to provide health information to participants and community partners in order to assist in targeting prevention and treatment efforts. Our research is conducted in collaboration with Ecuadorian medical colleagues and the Shuar Federation.


We facilitate delivery of health information to participants, the Shuar Federation, and local medical providers in three ways: 1) individual health results are provided and explained to each participant; 2) evidence of pathology is conveyed to local medical workers if the participant desires, and assistance provided with acquisition of treatment if necessary and feasible; and 3) overall research results and interpretation are presented to Ministry of Health colleagues, the Shuar Federation Health directorate, and participant community meetings in order to contribute to public health policy.