Welfare Trends among the Yoruba in the Early Nineteenth Century: The Anthropometric Evidence

David Eltis

The Journal of Economic History, 1990, vol. 50, issue 3, 521-540

Abstract: Analysis indicates that the Yoruba were taller than other West African peoples in the early nineteenth century. Disease, workloads, and environmental or genetic factors explain little of this differential. Rather, it appears due to a superior nutritional status made possible by Yoruba social structures, in particular, Yoruba towns. Yoruba stature declined both absolutely and relatively over the forty years corresponding to the collapse of the Oyo Empire. Regression analysis suggests a systematic relationship between these two events.

Date: 1990
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