Planetary Health and Relationship in the Andes

Connections Between Nature, Mental Health, and Wellbeing -Research by Carlos Andres Gallegos-Riofrío

This storymap attempts to create a resource about the intersection of nature and human health in the Andes. The video source is from Carlos Andres Gallegos-Riofrío's presentation on "Andean visions for the wellbeing-nature nexus: An invitation for a Planetary Healthy Tinkuy." (Dec 2022)


(December 2nd, 2022, in Burlington, Vermont) Researcher Carlos Andres Gallegos-Riofrío starts his presentation by saying, “This is an invitation. Have an open mind for this.” He introduces several collaborations:

 In the  first study  he presents, Carlos Andres et al. (2022) explore two trends - nature’s effects on mental health/wellbeing and behavioral research in globally non-representative societies. The authors assessed 174 peer-reviewed studies on mental health/wellbeing connections with nature; findings show “a Western-World bias: over-representation of White participants; ethnicity overlooked (62% of studies do not report participants' ethnicity); narrow views of mental health/wellbeing; and nature operationalized largely as greenspace and forests.” (Gallegos-Riofrio et al., 2022) 

Carlos Andres begins by discussing the limited field of research about mental health and connections to nature in the Global South.

 The systematic assessment drew a lot of attention in media.

"Part of the problem is we are not acknowledging that we think differently across the world."

 Carlos Andres introduces the concept of the Ethnosphere- the planet's complex cultural web. Most of the time, studies that explore realities about mental health/nature connections focus on one segment of the sphere. The challenge is to move beyond focusing on the same segments and consider other cosmologies in different parts of the world, especially in under-represented geographies. 

The Ethnosphere is a rich entanglement of cultures.

Representation of the Ethnosphere

 In the  second study  he presents, Carlos Andres questions whether mental health conditions are expressed differently across varying populations. By studying aging in Indigenous groups of the Ecuadorian Highlands, he finds that identity is based on one's contribution to the community.  

Indigenous ways of thinking are expressed empirically, concretely in actions- "When you are in the community, when you are in that interaction, you are in the doing...you're always a companion, you're even a companion by the mountains."

Conclusions show differences in nature/mental health connections in communities that are eco-communalist rather than individualistic or egocentric:

  • community as a protective factor, lots of community time
  • vigorous lifestyles (constant exercise)
  • most populations work the land by engaging some time with agricultural work

 Depression in the context of Indigenous communities- "either you stand up, or the community will raise you up, for good or for bad."

Eco-communalist group (I is included in we)

How do we share the study's information to the Andean communities?

 Carlos Andres has a promotion plan- to recognize epistemological injustice in public health work by creating something totally accessible for Latin Americans. The most complex task is to return the information to Indigenous communities through transmedia storytelling. 

Study 3 Preliminary Findings

 Carlos Andres's current study is a Delphi style in which a panel of 17 experts analyzes different constructs in three rounds- identity, culture, mental health, wellbeing, depression, anxiety, and stress. Twenty focus groups (n=103) formed interviews with Kichwa and Quechua speakers in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru to study community-based views. Interviews are paired with a discourse analysis of 57 sources, including websites, reports, articles, and books; the source must tap into at least two of the constructs they were analyzing: ex, cosmovision and wellbeing, to fit the inclusion criteria. In round 3, the panel will have the final task of analyzing the results of the first two rounds. 

Delphi Style Study

 Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru are three countries that represent Andean cultures; all the study populations are from these countries and are Kichwa or Quechua speakers. Language is central to understanding life in the Andes because core values are woven into their words. Carlos Andres explains the relationship between emotion, cognition, and behavior for the Andeans and rejects a mind-body dualistic divide. 

For Andeans, the three realms (emotion, cognition, behavior) always have to become something tangible- there is always a behavior happening.

The Andean Region

Emotion, cognition, and behavior interact in concrete actions that connect nature and health in the Andean region. Actions determine the health of communities: the way the ecosystem is managed influences their diets and way of life.

Understanding Andean life through language:

"Everything is relationship, everything is process."

  • Pachamama: Pachamama is not one thing; Mother Earth
  • Apus and other entities: spirits of the mountains
  • Consciousness: (rituals, e.g., pagati)
  • Ecological cues/biomarkers, intercropping, company (varieties)
  • Sense of community: inherent in their cosmovision, embodiment of experiences (learning, ancestors' intervention), customary institutions, language
  • maki-cha-n-ni-y-ta (your mine hand): you hurt your hand, my hand, I feel your pain because we are connected

They have really efficient ways of intercropping, or company...They are growing potato, but they don't have one variety of potato. They have ten different varieties of potato, and they are planting all together. Because they are saying, this is a community, they have to be in relationship, they have to be together.

Intercropping ten varieties of potatoes ensure their resilience to pests and environmental phenomena.

Understanding Relationship in Latin America is Critical for Sustainability Science | A Relational Turn

Depression in Andean cultures appears differently

Idioms of Distress

  • Llaki- sad, blue
  • Llakichik- detriment, damage
  • Llakichiy- exploitation
  • Llakichik wallpariykuna- ways of exploitation
  • Llakichipacha- The Colony

In the context of history, depression comes from Llakichik, something major affecting the territory.(Painting by Ecuadorian artist Oswaldo Guayasamin)

The balance between ecosystem and human health is crystal clear in their view; everything is about creating balance.

  • Pacha: balancing, harmony/health (alli pacha), vital energy (ainy or randy = relational, reciprocal, redistributive)
  • Pachamama is at the core:
    • Chakra = micro-level
    • Landscape (pacha, alpa or ashpa mama) = mezzo-level (ecosystems and geographic phenomena)
    • Mother Nature = macro-level (planet, biosphere)
    • Universe/Time = cosmological-level

Sources of distress stem from an inability to take care of life and tend to the land (ex., life during COVID-19).

Takeaways

Learning from both Western and Indigenous worlds, there are opportunities for tinkuy, exchange with reciprocity, and contributions to a planetary health discourse.

3 Studies Mentioned | Modernization

  • The communities do not necessarily understand mental health as a compartmentalized construct, but it is becoming a problem (a cognitive entity).
  • The hegemony of knowledge: current research uses a limited spectrum of tools to interpret reality for millions.
  • Modernization: Urban lifestyles are associated with higher mental health issues. How will threats of urbanization impact communities highly integrated within their ecological agroecosystems?

References:

 Gallegos-Riofrío, C. A. (2022, December 2nd). Andean visions for the wellbeing-nature nexus: An invitation for a Planetary Healthy Tinkuy. [Powerpoint slides]. Gund Institute, University of Vermont.  

 Gallegos-Riofrío, C. A. et al. (2022). Chronic deficiency of diversity and pluralism in research on nature's mental health effects: A planetary health problem. Current Research in Environmental Sustainability, 4.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crsust.2022.100148   

 Waters, W.F., Gallegos-Riofrío, C.A. Aging, Health, and Identity in Ecuador’s Indigenous Communities. J Cross Cult Gerontol 29, 371–387 (2014).  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10823-014-9243-8  

 The systematic assessment drew a lot of attention in media.

Representation of the Ethnosphere

Eco-communalist group (I is included in we)

Delphi Style Study

The Andean Region

Intercropping ten varieties of potatoes ensure their resilience to pests and environmental phenomena.

3 Studies Mentioned | Modernization