Anthropologists show how migrant communities physically grow taller when they leave hardship behind

[Judi Lynn]

Date:
March 8, 2018
Source:
Loughborough University
Summary:
A new study has shown that migrant populations moving to more affluent countries grow physically taller over relatively short periods of time.

. . .

Professor of Biological Anthropology at Loughborough University Barry Bogin found that the children of a Maya community, from Guatemala, who were known for their short stature, grew an average of 11cm in one generation after migrating to Florida and California in the 1990s.

The Maya's relatives back home, who did not migrate, showed no signs of the same rapid growth which suggested the physical development was influenced by the change of environment.

Prof Bogin said the phenomenon, known as strategic height adjustment, is found among groups of people who escape poor living conditions, oppression or conflict, and settle in more prosperous environments.

His research, published in Anthropologischer Anzeiger: Journal of Biological and Clinical Anthropology, considered numerous other examples of migration and height change over the past 140 years, including rural Bangladeshis who came to London in the 1970s.

More:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180308160710.htm

[wishstar]

1. As grandchild of immigrants and observing immigrant communities, I noticed the phenomenon

However another part of article is interesting too:

"Professor Bogin's study, carried out in collaboration with Dr Christiane Scheffler, at the University of Potsdam, and Professor Michael Hermanussen, from the University of Kiel, also explored a second phenomenon called competitive growth -- where the ruling social classes adjust their height to exceed the subordinate population.

Prof Bogin said: "This is when the mean height of colonial or military migrants, who become the socially dominant group in the conquered country, surpasses the average height of the both the conquered people and the origin population."

In one example, the researchers found that the height of Dutch colonial masters in Indonesia in the 19th and early 20th centuries was greater than the Indonesians they ruled, and also greater than social upper classes back in the Netherlands.

"This was also the case for English colonial masters in North America," said Prof Bogin."

I had not heard before about social dominance and not just better living conditions leading to increased stature.