An important characteristic feature of the appearance of various peoples is height or body length, as anthropologists say. Traditionally, it is believed that the Chinese are of short stature, and the representatives of the Scandinavian peoples, on the contrary, are much taller. Of course, there are exceptions, but the average distribution on the growth scale, taking into account the indicators of the average height of various nationalities, will not surprise anyone. Last year, a general ranking of indicators of average height of people in different countries appeared. As it turned out, in this list, men were in 42nd place, and women - in 23rd.
Relatively recently, information appeared that Chinese archaeologists discovered burials during excavations in the vicinity of the city of Jinan.
When compared with the modern inhabitants of China, their ancestors seem to be real giants. Judging by the discovered skeletons, during their lifetime the growth of these people reached more than 180 centimeters. Moreover, one skeleton during his lifetime belonged to a man whose height exceeded 190 centimeters.
All these people lived in the modern territory of Shandong province about five thousand years ago. According to archaeologists, the ancestors of the modern Chinese had no advantages in the availability of food, but at the same time, they lived in relatively comfortable conditions - they had separate kitchens and bedrooms. In addition, along with the skeletons, the researchers discovered multi-colored ceramics and jade products.
Thus, the scientists suggested that during the growth period, there was a period of prolonged deceleration (this is a process opposite to acceleration), which provoked a decrease in growth rates in modern Chinese residents.
According to Maria Dobrovolskaya, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Leading Researcher of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who defended her doctoral dissertation on the topic "The Phenomenon of Nutrition in Human Evolution and History," the problem of the origin of waves of acceleration and deceleration remains open among anthropologists. It is quite obvious that social processes have a certain influence, but at the same time, it is just as obvious that this cannot be explained only by dietary habits. There are, however, quite understandable phenomena, in particular, the fact that one malnourished military generation leads to a decrease in the growth of the entire nation. The small growth of modern Chinese can be explained by the fact that they had access exclusively to plant foods for a long period of time. However, there are exampleswhen the growth of the people decreases for some other reason. So, in particular, at present, the growth of children in Russia, in comparison with the generation of the 80-90s, does not exceed the body length of their parents.
Indeed, if we analyze the indicators of the growth curves for various countries, the growth of Russian citizens increased until the 2000s, but now these curves are headed down. For the past century and a half, the inhabitants of Russia have grown up along with Asia, Europe and North America. The increase in height is most noticeable in men from Iran and women from South Korea: their body length increased on average by 16 and 20 centimeters, respectively. However, Dutch men are currently the absolute record holders in height - their average height is 182.5 centimeters. Simply put, over the past 150 years, their body length has increased by 20 centimeters, and they have become the tallest people on the planet.
This record is very doubtful, if you look at things more broadly and analyze not the last century and a half, but millennia.
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According to the anthropologist, doctor of historical sciences, leading researcher at the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences Maria Mednikova, if we consider the Altai Afanasyevites (they belong to the South Siberian archaeological culture of the Bronze Age), their average height reached 189 centimeters. They were the tallest among their contemporaries. In the event that we assume that some of the Afanasievites moved to the east, then it becomes clear why the skeletons of tall Chinese are being sought there.
If you look even deeper, and travel back 25-30 thousand years ago, you can see tall Cro-Magnons in the vastness of modern Europe. But in the Middle Ages, the knights were rather short, so a modern man would not be able to try on their armor. Thus, waves of growth change have existed at all times. The reasons for the increase and decrease in growth, according to scientists, can be explained by 50 percent of genetic factors, and another 50 percent - by social reasons. It is for this reason that among auxologists (scientists studying human growth and development), body length is usually called a mirror of the processes that occur in society.