Nutrition and Economic Development in Post-Reconstruction South Carolina

Abstract

The determination of anthropometric historians to unearth the broad patterns of human biological well-being is now too well known to need reiteration. From Richard Steckel's exploratory essays, which could be taken as the launching manifesto of the discipline, to the most recent publications, many hundreds of thousands of records from nearly all continents of the globe have been examined (Mascie-Taylor 1991; Steckel 1979). All of this effort notwithstanding, we are still in the initial phases of this research program, with many important features of the agenda remaining unsettled (Floud, Wachter, and Gregory 1990; Fogel 1993; Komlos 1989; Mokyr and O'Grada 1988). One such question is related to the most startling discovery to date, namely, that as part of its adaptability to its socioeconomic environment, human physical stature has undergone cyclical fluctuations during the course of the last quarter of a millennium (Fogel 1986; Komlos 1987,1994a, 1994b; Nicholas and Oxley 1993).

Changing Current Net Nutrition with Weight as a Measure of Net Nutritional Change with the Transition from Bound to Free Labor: A Difference-in-Decompositions Approach

“…Given its importance relative to other physical measures, weight has received little attention in historical health studies. Komlos (1987, p. 906) and Coclanis and Komlos (1995) show that the decrease in 19 th century weight and heights was geographically widespread, and farmer's weights were greater than workers in other occupations. Student weights at The Citadel decreased between the 1880s and 1900s and the South Atlantic was among the poorest geographic regions in the 1880s and 1890s (Coclanis and Komlos, 1995, pp.…”

Body Mass, Nutrition, and Disease: Current Net Nutrition During Us Economic Development

“…The body mass index offers unique insight into net nutrition and health during economic development, and when other measures for economic welfare are scarce or unreliable, BMI is now a well-accepted measure for current net-nutrition (Fogel, 1994;Coclanis and Komlos, 1995). BMIs are also related to morbidity and mortality (Waaler, 1984;Costa, 1993;Murray, 1997).…”

Changing Institutions, Changing Net Nutrition: A Difference-in-Decompositions Approach to Understanding the U.S. Transition to Free-Labor

“…Military data represent net nutrition among higher socioeconomic groups; however, they suffer from an arbitrary minimum stature height requirement for service that was not imposed on the general population (Carson, 2009c(Carson, , 2012aEllis, 2004;Floud, Fogel, Harris, & Hong, 2011;Sokoloff & Villaflor, 1982). Military records-especially among voluntary conscripts-may also reflect selection biases over time (Coclanis & Komlos, 1995;Floud et al, 2011;Komlos, 1987). Prison records are an alternative to military records that did not face the same minimum stature requirement and may reflect greater diversity across socioeconomic status.…”