Knowledge Tree
Tsimané people
Also known as: Tsimane people, Tsimane, Tsimané people
Facts (17)
Sources
The Evolution of Diet - National Geographic nationalgeographic.com 13 facts
measurementThe Tsimane tribe in Anachere, Bolivia, consists of approximately 90 members.
quoteLeonard, a co-leader of the Tsimane study, states: “What makes us human is our ability to find a meal in virtually any environment.”
accountAna Cuata Maito, a member of the Tsimane tribe in the Amazon of lowland Bolivia, prepares a porridge made of plantains and sweet manioc as a staple meal.
accountDeonicio Nate, a member of the Tsimane tribe, hunts for brown capuchin monkeys, coatis, peccaries, capybaras, and tapirs in the old-growth forest near Anachere.
claimTsimane people who consume market foods are more prone to diabetes than those who continue to rely on hunting and gathering.
claimThe Tsimane people of Bolivia obtain the majority of their food from the river, the forest, and fields or gardens carved out of the forest.
measurementThe Tsimane population exceeds 15,000 individuals, distributed across approximately one hundred villages along two rivers in the Amazon Basin near San Borja.
accountThe Tsimane people in Anachere hunt animals such as coatis, which are then cleaned and prepared for roasting over a fire.
accountJosé Mayer Cunay and his son Felipe Mayer Lero, members of the Tsimane people, maintain a garden with fruits and vegetables but still rely on hunting and fishing for sustenance because they consider garden produce alone insufficient to live on.
claimBiological anthropologist William Leonard of Northwestern University and doctoral candidate Asher Rosinger are leading a research team studying the Tsimane to document the composition of a rain forest diet.
claimResearchers are investigating how the health of the Tsimane people changes as they transition from a traditional diet and active lifestyle to trading forest goods for sugar, salt, rice, oil, dried meat, and canned sardines.
claimVarious hunter-gatherer groups rely on specific plant-based foods: the Kung on tubers and mongongo nuts, the Aka and Baka Pygmies on yams, the Tsimane and Yanomami Indians on plantains and manioc, and Australian Aboriginals on nut grass and water chestnuts.
claimStudies of foraging populations, including the Tsimane, Arctic Inuit, and Hadza, indicate that these groups traditionally did not develop high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, or cardiovascular disease.
From Giants to Jellyfish: The Evolution of Sleep Across Species bsj.studentorg.berkeley.edu Jan 1, 2025 2 facts
claimThe San and Tsimané groups regularly nap in the middle of the day, supporting the hypothesis that humans are biologically wired for a short period of sleep during the midafternoon dip in alertness.
measurementThe proportion of tribal people in the Hadza, San, and Tsimané groups who experience insomnia is far lower than the 10–30% chronic insomnia rate reported in industrial societies.
Ethnobotanical study of food plants used in traditional medicine in ... link.springer.com Nov 26, 2025 1 fact
referenceThe article 'Market economy and the loss of folk knowledge of plant uses: estimates from the tsimane’ of the Bolivian Amazon' was published in Current Anthropology in 2006.
Chronic inflammation in the etiology of disease across the life span nature.com Dec 5, 2019 1 fact
referenceKaplan et al. (2017) conducted a cross-sectional cohort study on coronary atherosclerosis in the indigenous Tsimane population of South America.