Anthropometric data and population history

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511542534.004

3 - Anthropometric data and population history

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 August 2009

John H. Relethford

Edited by

D. Ann Herring and

Alan C. Swedlund

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John H. Relethford: Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, State University of New York College at Oneonta, Oneonta, NY 13820, USA
D. Ann Herring: Affiliation:
McMaster University, Ontario
Alan C. Swedlund: Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts, Amherst

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Summary

Introduction

This paper deals with the use of anthropometric data in reconstructing the history of human populations. Anthropometric measures of the body and head have been collected on many populations over the past few centuries. Although data collection and analysis were frequently done within the outdated context of racial classification, new models and methods allow us to revisit anthropometric variation from the perspective of current evolutionary theory. In these days of rapidly developing means of directly assessing DNA variation, anthropometric data are often likely to be seen as old-fashioned. However, despite their antiquity, anthropometric data still have a lot to offer us in terms of insight into population structure and history. The purpose of this paper is two-fold: (1) to describe in general terms the use of anthropometric data in the study of population history, and (2) to present summaries of two case studies using anthropometric data from Ireland. In both cases, the results show the clear influence of historical events relating to differential immigration on the pattern of biological variation within Ireland.

What do anthropometric data have to do with the focus of this volume – archival data? Many anthropometric data are historical, in the sense of having been recorded at an earlier time. Some measurements, notably height and weight, were routinely recorded in the past, particularly in military records. More comprehensive anthropometric data collections, including other measures of the body and head, stem from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and sometimes earlier.

Type: Chapter
Information: Human Biologists in the Archives
Demography, Health, Nutrition and Genetics in Historical Populations
, pp. 32 - 52

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511542534.004 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2002

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