Re: [xmca] moral life of babies

[Martin Packer <packer@duq.edu>]

On May 15, 2010, at 6:22 PM, mike cole wrote:

> Any idea of the infant mortality rate among the Kogi? Seems like it might be a little difficult to make it past a couple of months! (Among the Kpelle when i worked in Liberia it was about 50%, but that owing to high levels of malaria and nasty water, and of course, no money to buy prophylactic medicines. Extreme poverty makes for very different imaginaries.
> mike

I don't know the infant mortality rate, but it would be interesting to know how such events are understood. I have heard the infant malnutrition rate is high. But the cause of that seems to be not poverty of the life style per se, but accommodations forced on the Kogi. Their territory has been reduced so that now they have only high mountain terrain to farm. And they have been somehow convinced to consume foodstuffs that are not part of their traditional cultivation, and which have lower nutritional value.

Martin
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