About

The page does not contain a detailed professional biography of Professor Claudia Valeggia. It primarily lists her as part of a group of researchers, postdoctoral associates, and graduate students, with no specific information provided about her research focus, background, or key contributions.

Research topics

• Biology
• Computer Science
• Ecology
• Sociology
• Mathematics
• Genetics
• Endocrinology
• Demography
• Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Biochemistry
• Telecommunications
• Engineering
• Geography

Selected publications

• Navigating Change: Biocultural Dimensions of Feeding in a Pilagá Community Undergoing Lifestyle and Economic Transition in Argentina

  American Journal of Human Biology · 2026-02-01

  article

  OBJECTIVE: This research analyzed the interplay between diet and sociocultural influences in the food consumption patterns of the Pilagá people in Formosa, Argentina. METHODS: This cross-sectional mixed-methods study, conducted in 2023, included all 59 family clusters in a Pilagá community. Food intake was assessed using three 24-h dietary recalls per household, while qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews, free-listing exercises, and participant observation. RESULTS: Dietary habits in the Pilagá community were notably limited in variety and nutritional content, with 71% of participants reporting they ate just two meals a day. Purchased white bread, water, and infusions were consumed daily. Despite the high proportion of processed foods, the diet shows some foraged wild food. Food holds multifaceted roles beyond its biological function, with traditional foods valued not only for nourishment but also for their perceived health benefits and cultural significance. CONCLUSION: This Pilagá community is experiencing a dietary transition toward westernized foods, driven by biosociocultural factors that mirror broader shifts in local food systems and consumption patterns.

  PublisherDOI

• “I Never Don’t Have Water Because I Collect Rainwater”: Domains of Water Insecurity and Their Sociocultural Correlates in an Indigenous Community of Northern Argentina

  Current Developments in Nutrition · 2025-08-05 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  The lifestyles and worldviews of indigenous communities have long been deeply intertwined with natural resources, particularly water. These vital resources are now severely threatened by systemic social marginalization and the enduring impacts of colonization, further violating the human right to water access. Our primary objective was to assess the domains and correlates of water insecurity in a Pilagá community in Formosa, Argentina. This sequential exploratory mixed-methods cross-sectional study, conducted in 2023, involved data collection from Pilagá households representing 59 family clusters, covering all family units in the community. We used a prevalidated Household Water Insecurity Experience survey. Qualitative data were gathered through semistructured interviews and participant observation. The average age of participants was 36.8 ± 12.7 y, with most being women, who primarily handled the task of fetching water. Water insecurity was prevalent, affecting 62% of households, most of which depended on well pumps. The most serious concern associated with water was the lack of long-term stability. Through an ecologic model, we identified multiple interrelated contextual variables, revealing that shifts in one area (geographic, capitalistic market, water policies, and infrastructure policies) had ripple effects across others. Key correlates included water sources, cultural perceptions of water, resource distribution, and social dynamics around water. The Pilagá community confronts pervasive water insecurity within a challenging and evolving socioecologic landscape.

  PublisherDOI

• Trayectorias hormonales asociadas con la edad a la menarca y el aumento de peso en niñas originarias Qom/Toba

  Revista Argentina de Antropología Biológica · 2025-07-18

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  In this exploratory study, we analyzed the hormonal and growth trajectories of 61 Qom/Toba girls aged 8 to 14 years from a peri-urban community in Formosa, Argentina. Monthly measurements of weight and height were taken, and eight urine samples were collected every three months until the menarche was reported or until the end of the study. The urine samples were analyzed using enzyme immunoassay to determine testosterone and C-peptide levels. Bayesian Gompertz models were used to generate predicted hormonal and anthropometric growth parameters for statistical analysis. The model results suggest that early menarche and a higher overall body mass index (BMI) velocity during puberty were associated with rapid increases in C-peptide levels in the early stages of puberty but not with higher initial levels of these variables. It was predicted that most girls would maintain their initial BMI status throughout puberty while 10% would transition from overweight to a healthy weight, and 15% from healthy weight to overweight or obesity. Neither predicted adult height nor growth velocity showed a statistically significant association with BMI velocity, although growth velocity was positively correlated with C-peptide and testosterone levels up to age 11. These f indings underscore the importance of longitudinal data in understanding the heterogeneous patterns of pubertal growth and obesity risks within and across populations.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Positive Cortisol–Testosterone Hormonal Coupling Among Adolescents in Argentina and Jordan

  American Journal of Biological Anthropology · 2025-10-01

  articleOpen access

  OBJECTIVES: Puberty is regulated by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) and gonadal (HPG) axes. It has been proposed that if HPA and HPG coactivate during pubertal development, the hormones cortisol and testosterone would be positively coupled during puberty and decoupled postpuberty. Our objective was to test for hormonal coupling in less-studied, non-Western populations. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed longitudinal and cross-sectional data from marginalized populations: Indigenous Qom/Toba females in Argentina (n = 46, 777 urine samples) and Syrian/Jordanian youth (n = 768, dried blood spots). We used Bayesian hierarchical models to assess the hypothesis that cortisol and testosterone are positively coupled during puberty but decouple at later stages. RESULTS: We found positive, age-specific cortisol-testosterone coupling among adolescents in both populations, with patterns varying by age and sex. Coupling increased across pubertal ages but did not decline at older ages, contradicting the expectation that there is hormonal de-coupling. DISCUSSION: This is the first study to demonstrate positive cortisol-testosterone coupling across adolescence in two socio-ecologically distinct, non-Western populations. While hormonal decoupling was not observed, coupling patterns suggest population-level differences in pubertal timing. These findings challenge assumptions derived from Western-based research and underscore the need for global, context-sensitive models of adolescent development.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Associations among Maternal Nutrient Intake and Infant Fecal and Human Milk Microbiomes in Exclusively Breastfeeding Samoan Mother–Infant Dyads

  Journal of Nutrition · 2025-11-24

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Reproductive inequality in humans and other mammals

  London School of Economics and Political Science Research Online (London School of Economics and Political Science) · 2025-03-19

  articleOpen access

  To address claims of human exceptionalism, we determine where humans fit within the greater mammalian distribution of reproductive inequality. We show that humans exhibit lower reproductive skew (i.e., inequality in the number of surviving offspring) among males and smaller sex differences in reproductive skew than most other mammals, while nevertheless falling within the mammalian range. Additionally, female reproductive skew is higher in polygynous human populations than in polygynous nonhumans mammals on average. This patterning of skew can be attributed in part to the prevalence of monogamy in humans compared to the predominance of polygyny in nonhuman mammals, to the limited degree of polygyny in the human societies that practice it, and to the importance of unequally held rival resources to women's fitness. The muted reproductive inequality observed in humans appears to be linked to several unusual characteristics of our species-including high levels of cooperation among males, high dependence on unequally held rival resources, complementarities between maternal and paternal investment, as well as social and legal institutions that enforce monogamous norms.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The postmenopausal brain: no silver bullet, but silver linings

  The Lancet Neurology · 2024-02-14 · 3 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Environmental exposures in human milk and infant physiology in Namqom, Formosa, Argentina and New Haven, Connecticut, USA

  ISEE Conference Abstracts · 2024-07-31

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Infrastructural violence and resistance in Namqom: Navigating environmental injustice in Formosa, Argentina

  Geoforum · 2024-10-25 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Infrastructure connects – and disconnects – people and communities. In this paper, we analyze how the Qom (an Indigenous population in the Gran Chaco region of Argentina) navigate marginalization enacted through infrastructure in Formosa, Argentina. Drawing upon two seasons of fieldwork that involved surveys, semi-structured interviews, and participant observation, we focus on experiences of Qom people in the peri-urban village of Namqom. We extend the literature on infrastructural violence and environmental injustice by considering how this form of violence is unique for Indigenous Peoples who experience both historical and present forms of dispossession, including through the destruction of natural resources important for Indigenous health, well-being, and culture. The Qom in Namqom experience multifaceted colonial infrastructural violence through water, policing, labor, and politics that intertwines with their history of dispossession. However, the Qom use local rationalities to guide their engagement in dialectics of disruption; within this context, the community uses various forms of resistance to creatively generate cultural continuity, including their land use, housing, water, repurposing items, laboring in the landfill, and their political action. This analysis shows how environmental injustice can be enacted through colonial infrastructural violence to constrain Indigenous Peoples like the Qom. Yet, using local rationalities, the Qom engage in everyday acts of opposition, leveraging their agency to exert sovereignty with this capitalist system through dialectics of disruption.

  PublisherDOI

• Contaminant Exposure Profiles Demonstrate Similar Physiological Effects Across Environments Despite Unique Profile Composition in Formosa, Argentina, and Connecticut, <scp>USA</scp>

  American Journal of Human Biology · 2024-10-28 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  OBJECTIVE: Exposure to environmental contaminants is globally universal. However, communities vary in the specific combination of contaminants to which they are exposed, potentially contributing to variation in human health and creating "locally situated biologies." We investigated how environmental exposures differ across environments by comparing exposure profiles between two contexts that differ markedly across political, economic, and sociocultural factors-Namqom, Formosa, Argentina, and New Haven, Connecticut, United States. METHODS: We collected infant urine, maternal urine, and human milk samples from mother-infant dyads in Formosa (n = 13) and New Haven (n = 21). We used untargeted liquid chromatography with high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) to annotate environmental contaminants and endogenous metabolites in these samples, and we analyzed the data using exposome-wide association studies (EWAS) followed by pathway enrichment. RESULTS: We found statistically significant differences between the chemical exposure profiles of the Argentinian and US mothers, mostly involving pesticides; however, we observed similarities in the infant urine and human milk environmental contaminant profiles, suggesting that the maternal body may buffer infant exposure through human milk. We also found that infants and mothers were exposed to contaminants that were associated with alterations in amino acid and carbohydrate metabolism. Infants additionally showed alterations in vitamin metabolism, including vitamins B1, B3, and B6. CONCLUSIONS: Differences in chemical exposure profiles may be related to structural factors. Despite variation in the composition of exposure profiles between the two study sites, environmental contaminant exposure was associated with similar patterns in human physiology when we considered contaminants comprehensively rather than individually, with implications for metabolic and cardiovascular disease risk as well as infant cognitive development.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Doctoral Dissertation Research: Endocrine disruptors and developmental programming in humans

  NSF · $25k · 2021–2023

• CAREER: Life history transitions among the Toba in northern Argentina

  NSF · $516k · 2010–2015

• CAREER: Life history transitions among the Toba in northern Argentina

  NSF · $136k · 2014–2016

Frequent coauthors

• Peter T. Ellison

  Case Western Reserve University

  28 shared

• Eduardo Fernández‐Duque

  Yale University

  25 shared

• Norberto Lanza

  Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas

  21 shared

• Pablo Núñez Demarco

  12 shared

• Carlye Chaney

  Washington University in St. Louis

  11 shared

• Mélanie Martin

  University of Washington

  11 shared

• Trudy R. Turner

  John Wiley & Sons (United States)

  10 shared

• Daniel J. Wescott

  Texas State University

  10 shared

Labs

• Claudia Valeggia LabPI

Education

• PhD, Animal Behavior Graduate Group

  University of California, Davis

  1996