Food sharing networks in a multi-ethnic, predominantly indigenous peri-urban community in the Brazilian Amazon

Social networks have long supported access to food among rural Indigenous and non‑Indigenous agrarian populations. As increasing numbers of rural Indigenous and agrarian households migrate to urban areas, questions arise about how these social networks shape food access in peri‑urban and urban settings where cash‑based markets predominate. Some researchers argue that, as Indigenous and agrarian households migrate to peri‑urban and urban settings, economic capital (“buying power”) becomes the primary means of accessing food, reducing reliance on social capital and food‑sharing networks. Others find that migrants develop new affinity‑based support networks, often with individuals of similar regional or cultural backgrounds, which continue to play an important role in securing food in urban contexts. To better understand peri-urban food sharing, we examine the properties of the food-sharing networks of 106 households in Parque das Tribos, a primarily Indigenous, multiethnic community located in Manaus, Brazil. We utilize regressions to test the predictive relationship between residents’ perceptions of household food security using a locally adapted version of the Brazilian Food Insecurity Survey (EBIA) instrument and social network properties, as well as the role of household socioeconomic factors in predicting their levels of engagement in food-sharing relationships. We find a positive relationship between perception of household food security and participation in larger, higher quality, relatively dense networks based on reciprocal relationships, even after accounting for economic factors such as income and conditional cash transfer programs. Overall, the results indicate that social capital is more strongly associated with household food security than economic capital.