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Show 102 Mexico, D.F., pp. 3-8. Written in Spanish and English. Quintana, Epaminondas (Guatemala), "Ingente Problema del Maiz in su Aspecto Agricola y Nutritivo," America Indigena, IV No. 3 (April, 1944), Mexico, D.F., pp. 129-132. English Summary: Without judging the enormous advantages which the cultivation of maize had in the pre-Columbian cultures of America, Dr. Quintana points out some of the serious consequences of the continued use of maize as an exclusive food base. He proposes certain modifications which, while maintaining the use of maize as a primary food, would lead to other important changes: prevent erosion on lands cultivated by present methods; avoid the extinction of forests; open the way for the introduction of new plants; stop the unproductive waste of time of the Indian and civilize him in the sense of improving his diet, his civic spirit, and his culture. 1949 Castro, Josue de (Brasil), "A Fome Mundial E 0 Neo-Malthusianismo," America Indigena, IX, No. 4, (October, 1949), pp. 284-298. English Summary: "From a standpoint of scientific observation it has been proved today that almost two-thirds of the world's population live in a permanent state of hunger." In the face of this fact which is so important, for the well-being of humanity, few are the scientists who have devoted themselves to the study of the problem. Josue de Castro is one of those exceptions: to him we owe, among other works, the excellent Geografia da Fome, of which we published a chapter in America Indigena, IX, p. 113. In the present article he treats the following question: "Is it possible that the calamity of hunger is a natural phenomenon, inherent to life itself, something as fatal as death, or can it be a social plague created by man himself?" At the same time that it reveals facts which are frequently unsuspected, this article is also a sedative for the disquieting ideas created by Malthus and those whom the author calls neo- Malthusians. There has existed, and indeed still exists, an environment of prejudice around this subject. The alarmist notions are not only owed to the famous English economist, but also to the present-day defender of today's social, and especially economic, organization. Their vested interests, which are great and deep-rooted in regions where frequently hunger is also predominant, lead them to justify as fatalism this social calamity, perhaps the greatest of all. The growth of the population being conditioned by political and social factors, and not being, from another viewpoint, an invariable phenomenon independent of the social facts, the thesis |
