Rainy Season Food Behavior of Selected Families in a Miskito Indian Village in East Nicaragua

The availability, distribution, and consumption of food by a group of Miskito Indians during Nicaragua's rainy season were studied. Field research was conducted in July and August of 1976 in the small east coast village of Kakabila.

Field study methods included observation, participant observation, and key informant interviewing. Demographic data were collected on the entire village population, and a week each was spent with four families in home observation. A case analysis approach was used to present data obtained from observation of the four cooperating families.

Cassava was identified as the core food in the diet of cooperating families. Other important foods in the diet were fish, green bananas, breadfruit, coconut milk, coconut water, and mangoes. The family plantation (farm) was the source of the largest percentage of total servings of food for each family observed (mean= 39%). Other frequently served foods were obtained from village grocery stores, fishing, village fruit trees, and loans, gifts, or purchases of food from other villagers.

It was hypothesized that the day to day, seasonal rains during Nicaragua's rainy season would alter both the source of those foods consumed and the kinds of food consumed by the Miskito villagers. This hypothesis, however, was not confirmed. Out of 28 days of observation in village homes, only on two days were the seasonal rains severe enough to alter the main source of food for two or more meals. However, even when the main source of food was altered, the basic foods eaten at a meal did not always change.

Food behavior data such as were gathered in this project can be used in planning and implementing various nutrition education programs, supplemental feeding programs, and programs to change traditional agricultural practices such as have been projected for rural areas of Nicaragua.