Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
9549061 | Economics & Human Biology | 2005 | 15 Pages |
Abstract
During the mid-19th century, the United States acquired Texas and large parts of Mexican territory with the vast Mexican-born population. This paper considers the biological standard of living of the part of this population that was incarcerated in American prisons. We use their physical stature as a proxy for their biological welfare. These data confirm earlier results which showed that adult heights tended to stagnate in Mexico during the late-19th century despite considerable social and political turmoil. While there is some evidence of a decline in height among youth, the decline is slight (<1Â cm). As in other 19th century samples, farmers were the tallest. Americans were taller than Mexican prisoners by about 2Â cm.
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Agricultural and Biological Sciences (General)
Authors
Scott Alan Carson,