Adult body size, including body mass and stature, is usually influenced by genetic factors and nutrient levels during an individual’s life, while the nutrient level of an individual can largely be...Show moreAdult body size, including body mass and stature, is usually influenced by genetic factors and nutrient levels during an individual’s life, while the nutrient level of an individual can largely be affected by external stresses, such as diet, environment, and disease. In societies with social status inequality, the stresses faced by high-status and low-status groups are usually different, which might result in intrapopulation differences in body size. Inequality between social statuses prevailed in Europe in the post-Medieval period. So, did social inequality result in body size variations between the high-status and low-status populations in the post-Medieval Netherlands? The main purpose of this research is to answer this question, through intrapopulation and inter-sexual comparison of body size of two post-Medieval urban skeletal collections with different social statuses from Arnhem and Zwolle, the Netherlands. The stature of samples has been estimated based on the Trotter (1970) equations of maximum femur length, and the body mass of samples has been estimated based on the Ruff et al. (2012) equations of femoral head diameter and the Ruff et al. (1991) equations of stature/bi-iliac breadth separately. Estimated data have been statistically analyzed. Results have shown no statistically significant differences in body size between the two samples, although slight differences can be observed through descriptive statistics and visualizations. For the inter-sexual comparison, significant sexual dimorphism in body size is presented. Therefore, this research suggests that the inequality in post-Medieval Dutch society did not result in observable population body size differences in the skeletal collections of different social status groups. It cannot, however, prove that social inequality in populations did not impact body size differences. Further and improved research is needed to solve the questions.Show less
