title: The use of biocultural data in interpreting sex differences in body proportions among rural Amazonians.
abstract: Variation in height and body proportions is relatively well-understood at the inter-population level, but less is known about intra-population variation. This study explores intra-population variation in body proportions among 172 (88 female; 84 male) adult rural Amazonians. We test the hypotheses that: (1) stunting is associated with changes in proportions and fatness; (2) the sexes express different proportions in response to similar environmental stress; and (3) female growth is negatively affected by the costs of reproduction. We examined height, sitting height, and total leg length in subsamples based on sex and nutritional status (stunted/nonstunted) in relation to biocultural factors including access to food and healthcare and female reproductive history parameters. Differences in proportions were examined using the Quick-Test (Tsutakawa and Hewett: Biometrics 33 (1977) 215-219); correlation analyses were used to detect associations between anthropometric data and body fatness, and female reproductive history parameters. We found significantly higher rates of stunting among females (X(2) = 5.31; P = 0.02; RR = 1.4). Stunted individuals exhibited relatively shorter legs than nonstunted individuals (P = 0.02), although this was not found in within-sex analyses. A significant negative correlation was found between leg length index and fatness (P < 0.01). Lastly, females exhibited relatively shorter legs than males (P = 0.0003) and, among females, height and leg length were significantly positively correlated with age-at-first-birth (P < 0.02) suggesting that adolescent pregnancy may negatively affect growth in this population. Our findings provide insights for the study of intra-population variation in body proportions and highlight the importance of biocultural data in interpreting the pattern of variation observed in living and past populations.
authors: Department of Anthropology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA. vercellotti.2@osu.edu
authors: Giuseppe
authors: G
authors: Vercellotti
authors: Barbara A
authors: BA
authors: Piperata
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000886:Anthropometry / Q000379:methods*; D001823:Body Composition; D001827:Body Height; D001938:Brazil; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006130:Growth Disorders; D006801:Humans; D007866:Leg; D008297:Male; D008572:Menarche; D008875:Middle Aged; D009752:Nutritional Status; D011247:Pregnancy; D011253:Pregnancy in Adolescence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric