Bertillon Files: An Untapped Source of Nineteenth-Century Human Height Data

2005 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glenice J. Guthrie ◽  
Sharon Jenkins
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Human Height ◽  
Height Data

Tall Requirements and “Small” Reality

Slavic Review ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris N. Mironov
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Basic Data ◽  
Physiological Status ◽  
Rigorous Analysis ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Human Height ◽  
Height Data

In my view, the skeptical comments of Steven L. Hoch, whether intentionally or not, undeservedly discredit human height data as an indicator of the physiological status and well-being of populations, and possibly represent the historiographical appearance of a postmodern intellectual ideology, whose representatives look with distrust on historical sources. Hoch repeats some traditional objections connected with data on height: 1) terminal height—that is, the height a person attains by the age of 20 to 25–is not a true indicator of the physiological status and well-being of a population; 2) the precision of height data falls below the standard scientific requirements for reliable indicators; 3) periodization of the dynamics of physiological status of the population and of basic data on height is impossible in principle; 4) the reasons for changes in physiological status cannot be subjected to rigorous analysis.

The Effect of Geography and Vitamin D on African American Stature in the Nineteenth Century: Evidence from Prison Records

2008 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 812-831 ◽  
Author(s):  
SCOTT ALAN CARSON
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Vitamin D ◽  
African American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Established Method ◽  
Black Farmers ◽  
Antebellum Period ◽  
Blacks And Whites ◽  
Height Data

The use of height data to measure living standards is now a well-established method in economic literature. Although blacks and whites today reach similar terminal statures in the United States, nineteenth-century African American statures were consistently shorter than those of whites. Greater insolation (vitamin D production) is documented here to be associated with taller black statures. Black farmers were taller than workers in other occupations, and, ironically, black youth statures increased during the antebellum period and decreased with slavery's elimination.

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