Anthropometric measurements and Darwinian fitness

J Biosoc Sci. 1981 Jul;13(3):309-16. doi: 10.1017/s0021932000013511.

Abstract

PIP: The relationship between anthropometrics and 3 measures of Darwinian fitness--number of surviving children, number of living siblings, and marital status--was sought in a population practicing no contraception. The pattern suggestive of stabilizing selection was evident for 1 dimension, destabilizing selection for another dimension, and directional selection for yet another. The dimensions studied were those least intercorrelated one with another. Stabilizing selection for human physical characteristics may not be a universal phenomenon.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Age Factors
  • Anthropometry*
  • Emigration and Immigration*
  • Female
  • Fertility
  • Humans
  • Infant Mortality
  • Male
  • Mexico / ethnology
  • Middle Aged
  • Selection, Genetic*
  • Sex Factors
  • United States