Anthropometrics

Richard H. Steckel ()
Additional contact information
Richard H. Steckel: Ohio State University

A chapter in Handbook of Cliometrics, 2024, pp 1787-1805 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This chapter describes the rise, evolution, and durability of the new anthropometric history, an interdisciplinary approach to assessing biological aspects of the standard of living in the past using measurements such as height and weight, which are abundant from numerous historical sources such as military muster rolls, identification systems, slave manifests, and prison records. By comparing anthropometric data with traditional sources used by economists, such as wages, income, and occupation, scholars have found intriguing similarities and differences in these approaches to assessing the standard of living or human welfare broadly defined. The chapter provides a brief history of anthropometric measures as used by anthropologists and human biologists, and gives an overview of the methodology that is useful for interpreting anthropometric data used by social scientists. Much of the discussion considers applications of anthropometric evidence to topics such as slavery, inequality, industrialization, mortality, colonization, and economic development. It concludes with notes on possible pitfalls of using anthropometric data that are important to practitioners in the area and with identification of research frontiers.

Keywords: Health; Height; Weight; Living standards (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-031-35583-7_61

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783031355837

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-35583-7_61

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().