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Biology, Complexion, and Socioeconomic Status: Accounting for Nineteenth Century Body Mass Index by Race
Author(s) -
Carson Scott Alan
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
australian economic history review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.493
H-Index - 16
eISSN - 1467-8446
pISSN - 0004-8992
DOI - 10.1111/aehr.12075
Subject(s) - socioeconomic status , race (biology) , body mass index , demography , social class , index (typography) , geography , biology , sociology , gender studies , political science , endocrinology , population , world wide web , computer science , law
Nineteenth‐century US whites were taller than their mulatto and darker complexioned A frican‐ A merican counterparts, a pattern known as the ‘ M ulatto A dvantage’. If this pattern was due to social preferences, fairer complexioned whites would have had greater body mass index ( BMIs ) values. This study shows that late nineteenth‐ and early twentieth‐century US BMIs differed by race, and darker complexions were associated with greater BMI values. Mulattos had greater BMI returns associated with socioeconomic characteristics, indicating that while blacks had greater BMIs than fairer complexioned whites and mulattos, part of the difference was offset by socioeconomic characteristics that favoured fairer complexions.