Stature in nineteenth-century Rio de Janeiro: preliminary evidence from prison records

Abstract

. The two anonymous readers for RHE-JILAEH also provided excellent criticism and advice. Sidney Chalhoub read multiple drafts and provided input regarding the argument of the paper. Professor Chalhoub and the Cecult team at UNICAMP, Brazil, generously provided the raw data for this study as part of an ongoing international collaborative endeavor, «Terrain of History», based at UNICAMP, Stanford, and Brown University. Michael Dinerstein provided research assistance at Stanford. Any remaining errors or infelicities are mine alone. RESUMOEsta análise sobre condições de vida no Rio de Janeiro, no século XIX, baseia-se em dados antropométricos e descritivos obtidos na documentação da Casa de Detenção. A pesquisa mostra que houve mudanças significativas nas alturas de presos ao longo do tempo e em função de sua cor e nacionalidade. Principalmente, houve um declínio na estatura de escravos, a partir dos nascidos nos anos 1830 e continuando ate os anos 1860, onde se interrompe o presente estudo. As diferenças entre escravos e homens livres por um lado, e entre brasileiros nativos no Rio de Janeiro e brasileiros nascidos fora da capital por outro lado, mostram que, além do declínio percebido na estatura dos escravos, houve também uma «penalidade urbana» na estatura, indicada pelo fato de serem os presos nascidos no Rio de Janeiro menos altos do que os outros presos ZEPHYR FRANK 466 brasileiros. Falta de alimentação, aumento no custo de vida em geral, transferência de escravos para fora da cidade depois de 1850, e epidemias urbanas eram fatores que influíam nas alturas dos presos.Palavras chave: antropometria, condições de vida, alturas presos, Brasil século XIX ABSTRACTBased on anthropometric data and descriptive information contained in the records of the Rio de Janeiro city jail (Casa de Detenção), this paper explores patterns of change in living conditions during the nineteenth century. The research shows that there were significant changes in the heights of prisoners over time and according to race and nationality. Most importantly, heights of Brazilian-born slaves declined for the cohorts born in the 1830s through the beginning of the 1860s. In addition, differences in heights for natives of the city of Rio de Janeiro and for other Brazilian prisoners provide evidence of an «urban penalty» in stature during this period. Poor nutrition, the high cost of food and shelter, the movement of some slaves out of the city and into plantation work after 1850, and urban epidemics are assessed as the factors influencing trends in prisoner heights. Throughout the analysis, height trends discovered in Rio de Janeiro are placed in international comparative perspective.

Anthropometric History of Brazil, 1850–1950: Insights From Military and Passport Records

“…The means of soldiers are somewhat greater than the average from the military sample. If the regressions performed here had used prison data similar to those found in Frank (2006) and Baten et al (2009), the region dummy coefficients would yield a less accurate vision of regional health inequalities. The authors using prison records to study Brazil's historical height trends reveal a regional pattern by which heights from the North and Northeast Brazilian provinces advanced at a quicker rate and reached a higher average height by 1880.…”

Portuguese living standards, 1720–1980, in European comparison: heights, income, and human capital1

“…88 88 Andalusia, for example, used a French measure during the early nineteenth century; Hueso, ‘Fuentes’. In Brazilian prisons, Frank found a yardstick that yielded 2.73 cm instead of the official 2.75 cm; Frank, ‘Stature’. In Argentina, different ‘varas’ (an Argentinian measure) were used even within in the same district; Silva, ‘Dimensiones’. …”

Height and Inequality in Post-1950 Mexico: A History of Stunted Growth

“…In the past 15 years there have been studies published on the anthropometric history of Mexico that examine the second half of the 18 th century and the early part of the 19 th century (Challú 2009(Challú , 2010Dobado-1 For individual country studies, for Mexico see López-Alonso and Porras Condey (2003); for Colombia, Meisel et al (2007); Vega 2007a, 2007b;Acosta and Meisel 2013;Baten and Baltzer, 2008;Salvatore et al 2010;for Guatemala Rios 2009;for Brazil, Monasterio et al (2010); Frank and Shelhoub (2006); Franken (this issue); for Chile, Núñez and Pérez (2015); Llorca-Jaña et al (2018); for comparative studies see Baten et al (2009); Baten and Carson (2010); Baltzer and Baten (2008); Challú and Silva-Castañeda, (2016).…”