The biological standard of living in Taiwan under Japanese occupation

This paper presents evidence on the biological standard of living in Taiwan from 1842 to 1931 using Taiwanese height and weight data collected by the Japanese authorities from 1921 to 1931. This study shows that in the late Ch'ing adult heights were not increasing over time, while the adult heights of those born after the Japanese takeover did begin to increase rapidly. Evidence from children's heights confirms that this growth in height continued through the 1920s. The body mass index of Taiwanese, however, did not increase in the 1920s. By most measures, the biological standard of living was better in the north of the island. Comparison with modern data shows that heights have continued to increase.     

The BMI values of the lower classes likely declined during the Great Depression

The BMI values of inmates in the McNeil Island Penitentiary in Washington State declined between the 1860s and the 1910s birth cohorts by 1.44. Furthermore, those who were imprisoned in the 1930s had significantly lower BMI values (by between 0.72 and 1.01) than those who were incarcerated at the end of the 19th century. This corresponds to a decrease in weight of some 2.25 kg (4.95 lbs) for a man of average height of 173.86 cm (68.5 inches). The diminution in nutritional status among this lower-class sample is hardly surprising, given the high level of unemployment at the time but has not been verified until now. In marked contrast, the BMI values of Citadel cadets increased by 1.5 units in the 1930s. This divergence in BMI values is most likely due to the different social status, to the different regional origins of the two samples or to both.     

The heights of French-Canadian convicts, 1780s–1820s

This paper uses a novel dataset of heights collected from the records of the Quebec City prison between 1813 and 1847 to survey the French-Canadian population of Quebec—which was then known either as Lower Canada or Canada East. Using a birth-cohort approach with 10 year birth cohorts from the 1780s to the 1820s, we find that French-Canadian prisoners grew shorter over the period. Through the whole sample period, they were short compared to Americans. However, French-Canadians were taller either than their cousins in France or the inhabitants of Latin America (except Argentinians). In addition to extending anthropometric data in Canada to the 1780s, we are able to extend comparisons between the Old and New Worlds as well as comparisons between North America and Latin America. We highlight the key structural economic changes and shocks and discuss their possible impact on the anthropometric data.     

The making of giants in a welfare state: the Norwegian experience in the 20th century

The population of Norway has become one of the tallest in the world even overtaking Americans during the course of the second half of the 20th century-not in terms of income, but in terms of physical stature and other indicators of biological welfare, such as longevity. This is also the case in several other west-European welfare states. Both income and physical stature have converged across Norwegian counties since the 1930s. We formulate the hypothesis that the west-European and Scandinavian welfare states perform well in mitigating spatial inequality in well being, in the sense that they translate income quite effectively into the biological well being of the population as a whole.     

从头骨形态学和古DNA探究公元3～4世纪西藏阿里地区人群的来源

中国社会科学院考古研究所和西藏自治区文物保护研究所于2012年至2014年间在西藏阿里地区噶尔县发现了一个古代墓群,称为故如甲木墓地。其中8座墓葬的时代约为公元3-4世纪,相当于中原的汉晋时期。共发现32例个体,对其中保存较好的16例个体(7例男性,9例女性)的头骨进行了形态观察和测量分析。聚类分析结果显示故如甲木古代居民与四川卡莎湖古代居民最接近,相比与陕西、山西、河南等地区古代居民的关系,故如甲木居民与新疆多岗和察吾乎四号墓地的古代居民更为接近。与近现代人群比较,故如甲木与广西壮族和藏族A型的现代居民接近。线粒体DNA的分析结果表明,故如甲木居民的母系来源多元化,大多数为欧亚东部类群,也有少量是欧亚西部类群,他们对中国现代藏族人群以及西藏的其他一些民族具有母系遗传的贡献。     

From the tallest to (one of) the fattest: the enigmatic fate of the American population in the 20th century

Within the course of the 20th century the American population went through a virtual metamorphosis from being the tallest in the world, to being among the most overweight. The American height advantage over Western and Northern Europeans was between 3 and 9 cm in mid-19th century, and Americans tended to be underweight. However, today, the exact opposite is the case as the Dutch, Swedes, and Norwegians are the tallest, and the Danes, British and Germans--even the East-Germans--are also taller, towering over the Americans by as much as 3-7 cm. Americans also have shorter lives. The hypothesis is worth considering that this adverse development is related to the greater social inequality, an inferior health care system, and fewer social safety nets in the United States than in Western and Northern Europe, in spite of higher per capita income. The Western and Northern European welfare states, with cradle to grave health and unemployment insurance currently seems to provide a more propitious environment for the biological standard of living than its US counterpart.     

The biological standard of living in the two Koreas

Height data of North Korean escapees are analyzed to assess changes in their biological standard of living. In contrast to the population of South Korea, as well as to that of most of the rest of the world, North Koreans did not experience an increase in physical stature during the second half of the 20th century. The divergence between the height of North- and South-Koreans began among the birth cohorts of the late 1940s and became increasingly pronounced thereafter. This is an indication of the adverse socio-economic circumstances prevailing in the northern part of the Korean peninsula.     

The biological standard of living in 19th century Mexico and in the American West

During the mid-19th century, the United States acquired Texas and large parts of Mexican territory with the vast Mexican-born population. This paper considers the biological standard of living of the part of this population that was incarcerated in American prisons. We use their physical stature as a proxy for their biological welfare. These data confirm earlier results which showed that adult heights tended to stagnate in Mexico during the late-19th century despite considerable social and political turmoil. While there is some evidence of a decline in height among youth, the decline is slight (<1 cm). As in other 19th century samples, farmers were the tallest. Americans were taller than Mexican prisoners by about 2 cm.     

Hints of economic change during the late Roman Empire period in central Italy: a study of charred plant remains from “La Fontanaccia”, near Rome

The archaeobotanical study of the charred macro-remains recovered from the burnt settlement of La Fontanaccia, Allumiere, 50 km northwest of Rome, a small hut from the time of the end of the late Roman Empire, provided results on the use of food of its inhabitants, their living conditions, and the natural environment. The fire which destroyed the small settlement was archaeologically dated to the middle of the 5th century a.d., few years before the end of the Roman Empire. This was a period in which the state structure, undermined by the barbarian invasions which provoked famine and destruction, was in deep economic and political crisis, and the population in Rome and in the countryside lived in precarious conditions. No archaeo-botanical data have been available until now for this period in the region of Rome. The presence of grass peas, acorns, two-rowed barley caryopses, and small horse bean seeds demonstrate the general state of regression in the late Roman Empire, when misery and famine were widespread. The finds of charcoal from chestnut, deciduous oak, maple and elm suggest the presence of thermophilous deciduous woods and environmental conditions similar to today’s. It deserves mention that this is the first site in which macro-remains (charcoal) of Castanea have been found in central Italy.     

Height of Northern Jordanian middle-class adults,born 1960–1990 in the response to improving socio-economic conditions

The purpose of this study is to document and explain secular trends in stature among Northern Jordanian men and women between the years of birth 1960 and 1990, as they relate to overall per capita socio-economic improvement, the stature of 360 adults from two Northern governorates, those of Jerash and Irbid, was measured. General linear model (GLM) was used to examine the effect of birth-decade, education level of subject, and their interaction on mean stature of each sex separately. GLM results revealed that women who were born during the following three decades pooled together (1951–1980) did not differ significantly in mean stature from those born during (1981–1990). Among men, stature of those born in the two pooled birth-decades together (1951–1970) did not significantly differ of those were born in the two pooled birth-decades (1971–1990).     

The great transformation: A long-run perspective on physical well-being in Canada

During the 19th century the physical stature of the Canadian-born stagnated or declined slightly in spite of a substantial increase in income. Stature varied regionally within Canada. The Quebec population was especially short; men in the Atlantic coastal region were taller than their low incomes would lead us to expect. Heights increased dramatically in the 20th Century. The pattern of long-run change is consistent with evidence of age-specific mortality and with the relationship between income and physical well-being envisaged by Preston [Preston, S., 1975. The changing relationship between mortality and the level of economic development. Popul. Stud. 29, 231-248]. The transition from stagnant or declining stature to secular increase points to a dramatic shift ca. 1900 in the evolution of the physical standard of living in Canada.     

Plant exploitation and cultural landscape related to the Medieval village of Geridu (Sardinia,Italy)

We analyzed the archaeobotanical remains from the Mediterranean Medieval village of Geridu (Sardinia-Italy) in order: (1) to formulate hypotheses concerning different uses of woody plants; (2) to reconstruct the distribution patterns of charcoals and to compare them with the results of the archeological interpretation and (3) to describe the agricultural activities and cultural landscape around the village. In total, 29 plant taxa were identified from charcoals and 14 from carpological remains. The number of charcoals and the ubiquity of plant taxa were correlated with each other (r_p = 0.735; n = 29). Only the stratigraphic units referred to as the “construction layer” in the archeological interpretation significantly differed from the other archeological contexts which were related to the life and abandonment phases of the village. Some hypotheses regarding the agricultural activities of the village were formulated on the basis of carpological remains, largely of cereals and legumes. Integration of the archeological findings with information supported by the biological archive in Geridu and with knowledge of the vegetation series allowed reconstruction of the cultural landscape, which fit with the thermo- and meso-Mediterranean climate of the area.