Toward an Anthropometric History of Chosŏn Dynasty Korea, Sixteenth to Eighteenth Century

The biological standard of living in pre-modern Korea: Determinants of height of militia recruits during the Chosŏn dynasty

“…As seen in the Appendix (Figures 1 to 3), there is height heaping around 8.0 ch'ŏk. The reason for this may be that, since 8.0 was the standard, expected height of pre-modern Korean men (Lewis et al, 2013), conscripts appearing to have such a standard height were probably not measured and estimated.…”

“…Although lengths of measuring sticks were regulated by the king by sending 'master' measuring sticks to every frontier pass, county office, garrison, and post station, local people continued to use their own 'modified' measuring sticks as these sticks were used for trade (i.e., to commit commercial fraud). Lewis et al (2013) conducted a meta analysis of extant 'master' measuring sticks to proxy the conversion rate of pre-modern Korean ch'ŏk into modern centimeters, but they assume that the surveyors either used an official one (usually made out of metal) or an unofficial one (usually made out of wood) that was a good copy of the 'master'. It cannot be ruled out that some surveyors might have applied a local measuring stick instead of a 'standard' one.…”

“…The rosters are discussed in Lewis et al (2013) About 48% of the conscripts were unfree; roughly the same ratio of unfree to free persons (commoners) made up the non-aristocratic population of the Chosŏn Dynasty as a whole. Along with the conscripts' social status, distinguishing facial features were recorded in the rosters.…”

“…While this research provides an estimate of the biological standard of living in pre-modern Korea, our data are based on measurements of male military conscripts. As discussed in Lewis et al (2013), Korean academia has discussed these data for many years, but could not convert premodern height measurement units to modern centimeters. Whereas our previous research based on these data discussed methodological issues and descriptive analysis (Lewis et al, 2013), here our approach is primarily one of multivariate analysis.…”

“…As discussed in Lewis et al (2013), Korean academia has discussed these data for many years, but could not convert premodern height measurement units to modern centimeters. Whereas our previous research based on these data discussed methodological issues and descriptive analysis (Lewis et al, 2013), here our approach is primarily one of multivariate analysis. Along with the height measurements, we control for confounding socio-economic variables contained in the rosters (social status, province, birth period, and disease environment).…”