Short men in poor lands: The agrarian workers from southwestern Spain in anthropometric perspective.

With a sample of heights of almost 60,000 men, born between 1855 and 1979 and recruited between 1876 and 2000, our work analyzes the nutritional gap between the agrarian and non-agrarian population in Extremadura, a Spanish region located among the poorest ones in Europe. The analysis reveals that this difference is not only statistically significant, but also tends to increase as the average stature of the active population grows. Among the causes of the agrarian height penalty, our article focuses mainly on the economic differences. However, the research also insists on the roots of these differences, especially those linked to the adverse physical conditions of the territory, the dynamics of the Christian conquest in the Middle Ages and the strong and persistent concentration of land ownership in the region. In short, this paper concludes that the anthropometric gap between agrarian and non-agrarian workers is due not only to economic causes, but also to geographical, historical and institutional reasons.

Rural Height Penalty or Socioeconomic Penalization? The Nutritional Inequality in Backward Spain.

This article studies the evolution of nutritional inequality, measured through the male adult height, in one of the poorest regions of Spain, in southwestern Europe: Extremadura. With a wide sample of statures of recruits born between 1855 and 1979, conscripted between 1876 and 2000, the research delves into the urban-rural height gap using coefficients of variation, tests of equality of means and proxy variables of a socioeconomic nature. The results of the analysis reveal that the strong anthropometric growth that Extremadura experienced since the last decades of the 19th century was accompanied by a less internal inequality. The lower heterogeneity did not eliminate, however, the urban-rural height gap during the period under study. In this sense, despite the absence of environmental differences between urban and rural areas in Extremadura, there was a clear rural height penalty in the region from the mid-19th century to the late 20th century. Rural punishment was fundamentally related to the greater presence of agrarian workers and the lower presence of wealthy families in villages and small towns. On the contrary, educational differences or differences in terms of nutritional health were not as decisive in the rural height penalization, at least when such differences are measured with the sources of military recruitment.

Talla, educación y desigualdad nutricional en Extremadura desde mediados del siglo XIX / Height, education and nutritional inequality in Extremadura since the mid-nineteenth century

Objetivo: se pretende conocer la evolución histórica de la estatura en Extremadura y, a partir de ella, profundizar en la huella de la desigualdad nutricional, especialmente la vinculada a la educación. Métodos: con la documentación militar conservada en 32 municipios extremeños para la población masculina nacida entre 1857 y 1957 (reclutada entre 1878 y 1978), se elabora una serie anual de estaturas que, además de estandarizarse y desagregarse según el nivel de alfabetización, se somete a dos pruebas de dispersión: coeficiente de variación y coeficiente de Gini. Resultados: se observa un crecimiento sostenido del estado nutricional neto, solo interrumpido por las crisis agrarias de las últimas décadas del siglo xix y por la inflación desatada a raíz de la I Guerra Mundial. Se advierte de la dificultad para comprobar la incidencia de la Guerra Civil y de la posguerra sin tener en cuenta las ganancias de nutrición logradas con posterioridad: se señala la incapacidad de la dispersión estadística para captar la verdadera cara de la desigualdad nutricional, constatada, sin embargo, a través de la brecha antropométrica que se detecta entre la población alfabetizada y la no alfabetizada. Conclusión: se interpreta la expansión de la talla adulta en Extremadura como una prueba de la modernización económica y social de la región, especialmente de la transición nutricional, al tiempo que se destaca la idoneidad de la alfabetización para conocer no solo la dinámica de la desigualdad educativa, sino también la evolución y el grado de intensificación de la desigualdad nutricional

Objective: it is intended to know the historical evolution of adult height in Extremadura and deepen, from it, in the footprint of nutritional inequality, especially that linked to education. Methods: the military documentation conserved in 32 municipalities of Extremadura for the population born between 1857 and 1957 (recruited between 1878 and 1978) is used and, with it, an annual series of statures is elaborated that, besides being standardized and disaggregated according to the level of literacy, is subjected to two dispersion tests: coefficient of variation and Gini coefficient. Results: a sustained growth of the net nutritional state, interrupted only by the agrarian crises of the last decades of the XIX century and by the inflation unleashed as a result of the First World War, is observed; the difficulty of perceiving the incidence of the Civil War and the post-war period without taking into account the gains in nutrition achieved subsequently is noted; it is also noted the inability of statistical dispersion to capture the true face of nutritional inequality, which is, however, remarked through the gap that is detected between the literate and non-literate population. Conclusion: the expansion of adult height in Extremadura is interpreted as a test of the economic and social modernization of the region, especially of the culmination of the nutritional transition, at the same time as the suitability of literacy is verified to know not only the dynamics of educational inequality, but also the evolution and the degree of intensification of nutritional inequality

[Height, education and nutritional inequality in Extremadura since the mid-nineteenth century]. / Talla, educación y desigualdad nutricional en Extremadura desde mediados del siglo XIX.

OBJECTIVE: it is intended to know the historical evolution of adult height in Extremadura and deepen, from it, in the footprint of nutritional inequality, especially that linked to education. METHODS: the military documentation conserved in 32 municipalities of Extremadura for the population born between 1857 and 1957 (recruited between 1878 and 1978) is used and, with it, an annual series of statures is elaborated that, besides being standardized and disaggregated according to the level of literacy, is subjected to two dispersion tests: coefficient of variation and Gini coefficient. RESULTS: a sustained growth of the net nutritional state, interrupted only by the agrarian crises of the last decades of the XIX century and by the inflation unleashed as a result of the First World War, is observed; the difficulty of perceiving the incidence of the Civil War and the post-war period without taking into account the gains in nutrition achieved subsequently is noted; it is also noted the inability of statistical dispersion to capture the true face of nutritional inequality, which is, however, remarked through the gap that is detected between the literate and non-literate population. CONCLUSION: the expansion of adult height in Extremadura is interpreted as a test of the economic and social modernization of the region, especially of the culmination of the nutritional transition, at the same time as the suitability of literacy is verified to know not only the dynamics of educational inequality, but also the evolution and the degree of intensification of nutritional inequality.

Objetivo: se pretende conocer la evolución histórica de la estatura en Extremadura y, a partir de ella, profundizar en la huella de la desigualdad nutricional, especialmente la vinculada a la educación.Métodos: con la documentación militar conservada en 32 municipios extremeños para la población masculina nacida entre 1857 y 1957 (reclutada entre 1878 y 1978), se elabora una serie anual de estaturas que, además de estandarizarse y desagregarse según el nivel de alfabetización, se somete a dos pruebas de dispersión: coeficiente de variación y coeficiente de Gini.Resultados: se observa un crecimiento sostenido del estado nutricional neto, solo interrumpido por las crisis agrarias de las últimas décadas del siglo XIX y por la inflación desatada a raíz de la I Guerra Mundial. Se advierte de la dificultad para comprobar la incidencia de la Guerra Civil y de la posguerra sin tener en cuenta las ganancias de nutrición logradas con posterioridad: se señala la incapacidad de la dispersión estadística para captar la verdadera cara de la desigualdad nutricional, constatada, sin embargo, a través de la brecha antropométrica que se detecta entre la población alfabetizada y la no alfabetizada.Conclusión: se interpreta la expansión de la talla adulta en Extremadura como una prueba de la modernización económica y social de la región, especialmente de la transición nutricional, al tiempo que se destaca la idoneidad de la alfabetización para conocer no solo la dinámica de la desigualdad educativa, sino también la evolución y el grado de intensificación de la desigualdad nutricional.