Climate Effects and Stature since 1800

G. Galofré-Vilà; A.M. Guntupalli; B. Harris; A. Hinde

doi:10.1017/ssh.2018.27

Climate Effects and Stature since 1800

G. Galofré-Vilà, A.M. Guntupalli, B. Harris, A. Hinde

Applied Health Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

During the last 30 years, economic and social historians have collected and analyzed large amounts of anthropometric data to explore key aspects of the human past. Attention has also been devoted to the examination of factors that can exert an influence on stature. This article outlines the different ways in which climate might influence stature, either directly or indirectly. It then uses geographical information system software to explore the relationship between variations in temperature and precipitation and the average heights of men in France, India, Mexico, Spain, and the United States over the last two centuries. It is possible to observe an influence of climate on stature in some countries, especially during the nineteenth century, but the relationship weakens across time and largely disappears in recent decades. The attenuation of this relationship is attributed to a process of “technophysio evolution” as countries modernized and developed economically.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	763-794
Number of pages	32
Journal	Social Science History
Volume	42
Issue number	4
Early online date	16 Oct 2018
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1017/ssh.2018.27
Publication status	Published - 2018

Bibliographical note

Earlier versions of this article were presented at the Annual Meeting of the Social
Science History Association held in Vancouver, Canada, in November 2012; the meeting of the European Historical Economics Society held in London, United Kingdom, in September 2013; and the Economic History Society Annual Conference held in Warwick, United Kingdom, March 2014. We should like to thank participants in those meetings, Sabu Padmadas and Kris Inwood for their comments, the scholars who have shared their height data sets (see table 2), and Sok Chul Hong for his advice on methods. Gregori Galofré-Vilà’s contribution to this research was funded by the United Kingdom Economic and Social Research Council, grant number ES/J500161/1.

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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Final published version, 862 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Climate Effects and Stature since 1800",

abstract = "During the last 30 years, economic and social historians have collected and analyzed large amounts of anthropometric data to explore key aspects of the human past. Attention has also been devoted to the examination of factors that can exert an influence on stature. This article outlines the different ways in which climate might influence stature, either directly or indirectly. It then uses geographical information system software to explore the relationship between variations in temperature and precipitation and the average heights of men in France, India, Mexico, Spain, and the United States over the last two centuries. It is possible to observe an influence of climate on stature in some countries, especially during the nineteenth century, but the relationship weakens across time and largely disappears in recent decades. The attenuation of this relationship is attributed to a process of “technophysio evolution” as countries modernized and developed economically.",

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note = "Earlier versions of this article were presented at the Annual Meeting of the Social Science History Association held in Vancouver, Canada, in November 2012; the meeting of the European Historical Economics Society held in London, United Kingdom, in September 2013; and the Economic History Society Annual Conference held in Warwick, United Kingdom, March 2014. We should like to thank participants in those meetings, Sabu Padmadas and Kris Inwood for their comments, the scholars who have shared their height data sets (see table 2), and Sok Chul Hong for his advice on methods. Gregori Galofr{\'e}-Vil{\`a}{\textquoteright}s contribution to this research was funded by the United Kingdom Economic and Social Research Council, grant number ES/J500161/1.",

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AU - Harris, B.

AU - Hinde, A.

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Climate Effects and Stature since 1800

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Aravinda Guntupalli

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Climate Effects and Stature since 1800

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Aravinda Guntupalli

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