Introduction to an anthropometric history of Latin America

This book deals with several dimensions of the biological welfare 1 of selected Latin American countries. Biological welfare is usually synthesised by a key indicator: adult height of the population. 2 It is now firmly rooted in the literature that adult stature is mainly a direct result of both nutrition and health during infancy and adolescence (as well as to the extent and intensity of child labour), and that unequal access to nutrients and health services is detrimental to the biological standard of living of any nation. In turn, health and nutrition are more often than not impacted by economic and epidemiological cycles, thus affecting our biological welfare, while institutional settings also shape the equal (unequal) distribution of income (therefore of food and health services) across and within societies. 3 That is, there are close bonds between economic growth, quality of institutions, physical environment and human stature. Likewise, height is positively and strongly correlated with other key welfare variables such as life expectancy and personal income. Finally, nowadays there is strong awareness of the fact that well-being is a multidimensional concept: monetary income captures only part of our welfare. Many other dimensions must be considered, including non-monetary variables such as mortality, life expectancy and height. 4 Linked to this, when assessing living standards’ inequality, it is not enough to scrutinise the GINI of disposable income: inequality is a multidimensional concept too. We must pay attention to biological welfare inequality, as well as to the inequality of many other dimensions. No wonder anthropometric studies have gained so much popularity within the last few decades: there is even growing awareness among policymakers, authorities and academics on the need to have sound anthropometric data at hand.