Diachronic effects of bio-cultural factors on stature and body proportions in British archaeological populations. The impact of living conditions, socio-economic, nutritional and health status on growth, development, maximum attained stature and physical shape in archaeological skeletal population samples.

Abstract

Humans, like all animal species, are subject to Bergmann's (1847) and
 Allen's (1877) environmental rules which summarize physical adaptations to the
 natural environment. However, humans are in addition cultural animals and other
 bio-cultural factors such as social, economic and political status, general health,
 and nutrition, have a noticeable influence on stature and body proportions.
 Importantly, socio-economic status has a powerful influence on stature, which has
 been used to elucidate status differences in past societies (Bogin and Loucky,
 1997; Floud et al., 1990; Schutkowski, 2000a). Furthermore, bio-cultural factors
 influence all dimensions of the human body, including weight, relative limb
 length, and relative length of the different limb segments. Given minimal
 migration and shared natural environments, all populations in this study, coming
 as they do from the last 2000 years of English history, should demonstrate similar
 morphology (c. f Ruff, 1994) if climatic variables were the only influence on
 stature and body proportions.
 In order to assess such bio-cultural factors in individuals from
 archaeological populations, skeletal populations from sites such as known
 leprosaria and medieval hospitals, rural and urban parish cemeteries, victims from
 the battle of Towton in A. D. 1461, and individuals from monastic cemeteries were
 analysed. The osteometric data from these populations were assessedfo r within
 and between population variability and indicate effects of bio-cultural factors on
 attained body proportions and stature. The results indicate a strong relationship
 between bio-cultural factors and body proportions, body mass index, prevalence
 of pathologies, sexual dimorphism, secular trend, and general stature from Roman
 times to the post-medieval period. The usefulness of stature, weight, and physical
 indices as markers of the bio-cultural environment is demonstrated. The main
 findings include: a greater sensitivity to external stressors in the males rather than
 the females of the analysed populations, rendering male statures more susceptible
 to varying bio-cultural conditions; a potential for very tall stature has existed in the analysed populations but was only realised. in very high status individuals in
 medieval times, and from the beginning 20'h century with better socio-economic
 conditions for the population at large; a less stratified socio-political environment,
 as in the late Anglo-Saxon period resulted in taller average male statures that a
 more stratified one, such as the medieval Nation-States; and medieval monastic
 institutions could have high status, e.g., the Gilbertines, or lower status, such as
 the mendicant orders, while leprosaria had the lowest status of all.

Ministere de la Culture, de l'Enseignement Superieur et de la Recherche, Luxembourg; Department of Archaeological Sciences, University of Bradford; Andy Jagger Fund; Francis Raymond Hudson Memorial Fund