Physical stature of adult Tsimane’ Amerindians, Bolivian Amazon in the 20th century

Abstract

We examine the association between exposure to the market and Western society on the height of adult Tsimane’, a foraging-farming society in the Bolivian Amazon. As with other contemporary native peoples, we find little evidence of a significant secular change in height during 1920–1980. Female height bore a positive association with own schooling and fluency in spoken Spanish and with maternal modern human capital (schooling, writing ability, and fluency in spoken Spanish), but male heights bore no association with parental height or with modern human capital. The absence of a secular change likely reflects the persistence of traditional forms of social organization and production that protect health.