anthropometric history

{{Short description|Study of the history of human height and weight}}

{{distinguish|History of anthropometry}}

Anthropometric history is the study of the history of human height and weight.{{Cite book|title=A history of the study of human growth|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofstudyof0000tann|url-access=registration|last=Tanner|first=JM|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1981|isbn=9780521134026|oclc=755936888}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.worldeconomics.com/Journal/Papers/Measures%20of%20Progress%20and%20%20Other%20Tall%20Stories.details?ID=209|title=Measures of Progress and Other Tall Stories: From income to anthropometrics - World Economics|last=Snowdon|first=Brian|date=2005|work=World Economics|access-date=2018-10-31|issue=2|volume=6|pages=87–136|language=en|archive-date=2018-10-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181031215045/https://www.worldeconomics.com/Journal/Papers/Measures%20of%20Progress%20and%20%20Other%20Tall%20Stories.details?ID=209|url-status=dead}} The concept was formulated in 1989 although it has historical roots.{{Cite book |last=KOMLOS |first=JOHN |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7zv6wj |title=Nutrition and Economic Development in the Eighteenth-Century Habsburg Monarchy: An Anthropometric History |date=1989 |publisher=Princeton University Press|jstor=j.ctt7zv6wj }} In the 1830s, Adolphe Quetelet and Louis R. Villermé studied the physical stature of populations.{{Cite book|title=Mémoire sur la taille de l'homme en France. Annales d'Hygiène Publique et de Médicine Légale|last=Villermé|first=LR|year=1829|volume=1|pages=551–559}}{{Cite book|title=Recherches sur la loi de croissance de l'homme. Annales d'Hygiène Publique et de Médicine Légale|last=Quetelet|first=A|year=1831|volume=6|pages=89–113}} In the 1960s, French historians analyzed the relationship between socio-economic variables and human height.{{Cite journal|last1=Ladurie|first1=Emmanuel Le Roy|last2=Bernageau|first2=Nicole|last3=Pasquet|first3=Yvonne|date=1969|title=Le Conscrit et l'ordinateur: Perspectives de recherches sur les archives militaires du XIXe siècle francais.|journal=Studi Storici|volume=10|issue=2|pages=260–308|jstor=20562980}} Anthropometric history was established as field of study in the late 1970s when economic historians Robert Fogel, John Komlos,{{Cite journal |title= The Height and Weight of West Point Cadets: Dietary Change in Antebellum America|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2122037 |journal= The Journal of Economic History|jstor=2122037 |last1=Komlos |first1=John |year=1987 |volume=47 |issue=4 |pages=897–927 |doi=10.1017/S002205070004986X |s2cid=153508673 }}{{Cite journal |last=Komlos |first=John |year=1998 |title=Shrinking in a Growing Economy? The Mystery of Physical Stature during the Industrial Revolution |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-economic-history/article/abs/shrinking-in-a-growing-economy-the-mystery-of-physical-stature-during-the-industrial-revolution/40F3D0A658DFBA41CE9CBDB1D9B75FEB |journal=The Journal of Economic History |language=en |volume=58 |issue=3 |pages=779–802 |doi=10.1017/S0022050700021161 |s2cid=3557631 |issn=1471-6372}} Richard Steckel and other academics began to study the history of human physical stature and its relationship to economic development.{{Cite journal|last1=Fogel|first1=Robert W.|last2=Engerman|first2=Stanley L.|last3=Trussell|first3=James|last4=Floud|first4=Roderick|last5=Pope|first5=Clayne L.|last6=Wimmer|first6=Larry T.|date=1978|title=The Economics of Mortality in North America, 1650–1910: A Description of a Research Project|journal=Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History|language=en|volume=11|issue=2|pages=75–108|doi=10.1080/01615440.1978.9955221|pmid=11614602|s2cid=33858967 |issn=0161-5440}} A branch of cliometrics, it uses trends and cross-sectional patterns in human physical stature to understand historical processes.{{Cite news|title=Measures of Progress and Other Tall Stories: From income to anthropometrics |last=Snowdon|first=Brian|date=2005|work=World Economics|issue=2|volume=6|pages=87–136|language=en |url= https://ideas.repec.org/a/wej/wldecn/209.html}}{{Cite journal |last=Komlos |first=John |year=1987 |title=The Height and Weight of West Point Cadets: Dietary Change in Antebellum America |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-economic-history/article/abs/height-and-weight-of-west-point-cadets-dietary-change-in-antebellum-america/16FF035B96821A3848F1A13E87741F61 |journal=The Journal of Economic History |language=en |volume=47 |issue=4 |pages=897–927 |doi=10.1017/S002205070004986X |s2cid=153508673 |issn=1471-6372}}