Height, Marriage and Reproductive Success in Gambian Women

Abstract

We examine the relationship between height and reproductive success (RS) in women from a natural fertility population in the Gambia. We observe the predicted trade-off between adult height and age at first birth: women who are tall in adulthood have later first births than short women do. However, tall women have reproductive advantages during the rest of their reproductive careers, primarily in the lower mortality rates of their children. This ultimately leads to higher fitness for taller women, despite their delayed start to reproduction. The higher RS of tall women appears to be entirely due to the physiological benefits of being tall. There is no evidence that female height is related to patterns of marriage or divorce in this population.

Frequency-dependent female genital cutting behaviour confers evolutionary fitness benefits

“…excluding women with extreme FGC types which may be driving the fitness differences among high FGC ethnicities does not change the results (Supplementary Information Table 3) and c) women with FGC are not taller (a proxy for well-being and associated with fertility 45,46 ), and therefore does not account for the fitness differences seen here (Supplementary Information Table 4). Further, there is enough variability in sex differences in infant and child mortality to demonstrate that there is no clear mortality bias for girls that could be associated with the FGC procedure (Supplementary Information Table 4).…”

Size‐dependent reproductive success in Gambian men: Does height or weight matter more?

“…Taller men may be wealthier in this population, and thus able to afford more wives. Regardless of the mechanism for this relationship, it is rather puzzling that the positive relationship between number of marriages and height does not translate into higher reproductive Costa 1993;Kemkes-Grottenthaler 2005), some show no relationship (Hosegood and Campbell 2003;Murray 1997), or a U-shaped relationship (for women in this Gambian population: Sear et al, 2004). More information on the height-mortality relationship is needed across a range of populations so that a systematic analysis of the causes of this variation can be conducted.…”

Domestication Alone Does Not Lead to Inequality

“…Better Tsimane and Piro hunters show greater fertility and RS (Gurven and von Rueden 2006). Healthier and taller adults also show higher fitness among rural Kavango in Namibia (Kirchengast andWinkler 1995, 1996) and rural Gambians (Sear 2006;Sear, Allal, and Mace 2004). Polygyny is fairly common among horticulturalist societies, where men compete to obtain multiple wives.…”