Alimentation et anthropologie physique en Polynésie orientale

Résumé En

Complementing an anthropometric enquiry carried out in Maupiti — small island of the Society Islands — and in Tahiti, an evaluation of food consumption was implemented, based on a sample of Maupiti's population. The study shows that although the islanders of Mautipi consume imported food products, they partake of local traditional products to a large extent (Table I). The energy value of the diet and its nutrient composition covers or exceeds the theoretical needs of the adult (Table II) and there is a high level of proteins. These results are compared to various other evaluations of food consumption in French Polynesia (Table III). Certain anthropometric features due to food (weight, skinfolds) of Maupiti men and women, compared to those of Tahiti, can be put down to nutritional conditions, as well as the behaviour and different ways of life in the the two islands. In the past, the traditional diet must already have covered nutritional needs. This could explain some anthropological phenomena recently studied in Eastern Polynesia. For instance, in many parts of the world it has been established that there is a secular trend in height, which is considered partly due to improvement in food. This change in height has not come about among the Eastern Polynesians, probably because the right mesological conditions for attaining the maximum genetically-determined height had already been in place for a long time.