The science which studies all the aspects of human physical growth is known as auxology. This science has become very important in recent times, as it is being used to classify nutritional level in many countries. Similarly, the science of anthropometric studies, in particular, the physical measurements of humans. Currently, organisms such as the UN use human height to compare and contrast health levels around the world thanks to studies such as those of Robert Fogel, Nobel Prize for Economics in 1993. These studies pinpointed the relation between socioeconomic and anthropometric variables.
A study conducted in the Department of Contemporaneous History at the University of Granada (UGR) confirmed this relation showing that the maximum height achieved by adult people depends on the environmental conditions they had when they were young. This study, carried out by Dr. Antonio David Cámara Hueso, determined that the response to disease and eating and exercise habits are the factors which most influence human growth in a phase ending at around 18 or 21 years old depending on the individual.
Modern auxology considers that eating habits are a universal, decisive factor in determining human height. Thus, if the population of every country in the world had the same eating habits, they would have a similar stature, at least in theory. The study conducted at UGR analysed the anthropometric evolution of the human male population in Montefrío and Santa Fe (Granada, Spain), as they have a significant amount of socio-economic and demographic records from the 18th century up to the present day.
Health and eating habits
The aim of this study was to observe the long term trends in two basic components for the health of the population both in past and present times. Researcher Cámara Hueso applied the theories of auxology and anthropometrics to determine that there were important deterioration cycles of eating habits in the population, in phases of consolidation and expansion of agricultural capitalism in Andalusia. Based on the records of young people who were recruited since the last third of the 18th century, Cámara Hueso managed to reconstruct the evolution of mean age up to the mid 20th century.
Cámara Hueso states that, although it is true that the potential height that humans can achieve relates to genetic inheritance, “the degree in which this maximum biological potential is reached depends on the equilibrium of the eating habits that someone has had during the growth process.” The situation undergone during the mid-19th century was particularly serious after the public property and certain mechanisms of community intervention were suppressed by the liberal policies of the day. In this sense, this study shows that the higher costs of the agricultural growth in Andalusia were supported by the labour class and the small peasantry.
Economic growth
Researcher Cámara Hueso highlights that this is “historical evidence that shows that economic growth does not automatically lead to better health of the entire population, or that it is an essential requisite to achieve it.”
Both the sources and the experimental methodology followed in this study open new doors to the study of a little-known period of the Spanish Anthropometric History (1750-1850). The information about human height in this study is pioneer in Spain, and it is the first study in Europe which spans such a wide period of time (1750-1950).
The results of this study have significant importance for a better accurate review and interpretation of the consequences that the transition towards modern society had on the Spanish rural population. Thanks to this study, this interpretation, stemming from disciplines such as Economic and Agrarian History and Historical Demography, finds “new and valuable complementary information for the Anthropometric history.”
Part of the results of this study were published in the renowned journal “Historia Agraria”.
Reference: Dr. Antonio David Cámara Hueso. Department of Contemporaneous History of the University of Granada. Centre for Demographic Studies of the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Telephone: +34 935 813 060 / +34 958 246 369. E-mail: adcamara@ced.uab.es