Autores UNAM:
ANDRES DEL ANGEL ESCALONA;

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Autores externos:

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Idioma:
Inglés

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Año de publicación:
2006

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Resumen:

Physical anthropologists have long been interested in the study of height and its variation among populations because of its potential to further understanding of some evolutionary changes and their causes. The influence of the environment and cultural habits, especially the positive or negative effects of the nutritional and sanitary conditions under which a given population lives, on body size is generally acknowledged. Adverse circumstances induce, after a period of time, a differential selection that favors the survival of small-bodied individuals, whose development requires a smaller quantity of nutrients than is required by large-bodied individuals. On the other hand, optimal living conditions are associated with increase in stature, as observed in the so-called secular trend found in industrialized countries (Tanner 1973). Various researchers have accumulated evidence of a secular trend of stature reduction among populations of Mesoamerica, in particular among Prehispanic Maya and inhabitants of the Basin of Mexico. Some explanatory hypotheses have been offered for this tendency. Now, some 45 years after Stewart (1949, 19.53) first explored the topic, we believe it necessary to reevaluate the evidence from the perspective of advances in the field during the intervening years. In the first place, we must evaluate the widely held conception that the height of both sexes was greater in more ancient skeletal series than it was in more recent ones. In his report on osseous material examined by him at sites in the Guatemalan highlands (San Augustín Acasaguasthán, Kaminaljuyú, Zaculeu, and Huehuetenango), Stewart (1953) compared the estimated heights of a sample of Prehispanic Maya with those of the modern Kaqchikel Maya population of the same region. He found a difference of 5 cm for each sex, the taller being the more ancient populations. The author provided two possible explanations, the first being that the former population of Guatenlala was replaced by a more recent, shorter one, and the second being that the size of people in the area somehow diminished through time. He defended the idea that the present-day inhabitants of the Guatemalan highlands are, in fact, the descendants of the Prehispanic Maya and rejected the notion of hot weather having an influence on the height of the population, since, by definition, the highlands have a cold climate. The author argued that nutrition was a major factor in the observed height difference, although he acknowledged that the actual causes were unknown. Longyear (1952), faced with the same question at Copan, Honduras, suggested that a small-sized Maya group invaded the surrounding regions at some point, later interbreeding with the original, taller population. On the other hand, after analyzing the skeleton morphology of a skeletal sample from Barton Ramie, Belize, Willey (1965) pointed out that stature decreased through an unbroken string of related archaeological periods. Haviland (1967) reported a diachronic tendency at Tikal, Guatemala, in which a marked decrease in stature occurred toward the Late Classic period in association with general environmental deterioration, which he directly translated into nutritional terms. This tendency appeared only among the male population; apparently women kept the same stature through time at Tikal. However, stature of women elsewhere diminished. The author believed he had found an important difference based on social class structure: the taller individuals were buried in more ostentatious surroundings than were shorter individuals. However, as we will learn, it has not been possible to corroborate this hypothesis. Saul (1972a) presented a very complete report on the population biology of the ancient inhabitants of Altar de Sacrificios, Guatemala. One of his main objectives was to reconstruct the physical characteristics of Prehispanic Maya of the region, particularly their height. He also intended to provide an explanation for stature diminution toward the Late Classic period. Like his predecessors, he encountered a clear tendency for decreasing stature only among the male population. The picture for females was unclear. Unfortunately, data gathered by Saul do not indicate a particular tendency in the health status of the population, although there were several pathological conditions present. There was not, we believe, a clear association between social class and body size. Nickens (1976) compiled all available information on northern Mesoamerica, with the intention of formulating a hypothesis on secular stature variation. He found that variation lost statistical significance among samples coming from farther south. He based his perceptions of diachronic change on the studies by Haviland (1967), Saul (1972a), and Stewart (1953), the difference being that he tried to find the causes for the trend toward body-size reduction. He tried to associate this tendency with the health conditions of the population. Lacking access to data other than Saul's (1972a), Nickens relied on cases from contemporary populations from within and outside of the region to explain by analogy the Prehispanic decrease. He stated alternative explanations in explicit terms in asking "whether these secular trends in stature and body size are the result of genetic change or are they the result of human plasticity or adaptability" (Nickens 1976: 39). His main thesis, as interpreted by bioanthropologists (Cohen and Armelagos 1984), was that the transition from a nomadic hunter-gatherer to a sedentary agriculturalist way of life affected health conditions by increasing nutritional stress. The overall biological effect may have translated into a general diminishing of body size, which was an adaptive response to more difficult environmental conditions rather than a genetic change among these human groups. Marquez (1984) analyzed several Maya skeletal collections excavated some time ago, as well as some obtained from recent excavations i

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Entidades citadas de la UNAM:

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