DOI: 10.5061/dryad.f7m0cfz53
title: Hunter-gatherer child and adolescent height and tricep skinfold measures

description: Despite agreement that humans have evolved to be unusually fat primates,
 adipose patterning among hunter-gatherers has received little empirical
 consideration. Here we consider the development of adiposity among four
 contemporary groups of hunter-gatherers, the Aka, Savanna Pumé, Ju’/Hoansi
 and Agta using multi-level generalized additive mixed modeling (GAMM) to
 characterize growth of tricep skinfolds from early childhood through
 adolescence. In contrast to references, hunter-gatherers show several
 consistent patterns: 1) children are lean with little fat accumulation; 2)
 no adiposity rebound at 5 years is evident; 3) girls on average build 90%
 of their body size, and reach menarche when adiposity is at its maximum
 velocity; 4) a metabolic tradeoff is evident in young, but not older
 children, such that both boys and girls prioritize skeletal growth during
 middle childhood, a tradeoff that diminishes during adolescence when
 height velocity increases in pace with fat accumulation. Consistent
 results across hunter-gatherers living in diverse environments suggests
 that these patterns reflect a general forager pattern of development. The
 findings provide a valuable baseline for adipose development not apparent
 from reference populations. We emphasize both generalized trends among
 hunter-gatherers, and that inter-populational differences point to the
 plasticity with which humans organize growth and development.
description: <strong>Study Populations</strong>
   The data include tricep skinfolds and
 height from four foraging populations: the Savanna Pumé (Venezuela), the
 Ju/’Hoansi (Nambia), Agta (Philippines), and the Aka (Congo).  These data
 were collected by independent research teams as part of broad, long-term
 anthropological research programs. The data collection for these projects
 were all subject to institutional review boards at the PI’s respective
 institutions.  The Ju/’Hoansi data come from a publicly available
 repository at the university of Toronto.
   <strong>Anthropometric
 measures</strong>  
 Skinfolds and height were obtained using conventional
 anthropometric techniques. Tricep skinfolds are a noninvasive measure, and
 a reliable indicator of children’s nutritional status and overall fat
 reserves [1,2]. Skinfolds are widely reported in the cross-cultural
 literature, and the standard for measuring adiposity in remote areas
 without electricity or medical facilities.  Given Dryad policy of
 publishing no more than three indirect identifiers, all quantitative
 variables have been binned into appropriate ranges.
  
 <strong>References</strong>
   1. Sen J, Mondal N, Dey S. 2011
 Assessment of the nutritional status of children aged 5–12 years using
 upper arm composition. Ann Hum Biol 38, 752–759.
 (doi:10.3109/03014460.2011.610358)  
 2. Chowdhury SD, Ghosh T. 2009 The upper arm muscle and fat
 area of Santal children: An evaluation of nutritional status. Acta
 Paediatrica, International Journal of Paediatrics 98, 103–106.
 (doi:10.1111/J.1651-2227.2008.01072.X)
description: # Hunter Gatherer Children and Adolescent Height and Tricep Measures
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.f7m0cfz53](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.f7m0cfz53) ## Description of the data and file structure We have submitted the data containing Sex, Age, Triceps skinfold measurements and Height (**HG anthropometric data binned.csv**). **HG anthropometric data binned .csv** * *ID*: Randomly assigned unique identifier * *Sex*: Male or Female * *Age*: Age in fraction of years grouped into a 3 year binned variable * *Tri*: Triceps skinfold of the individual (mm) grouped into a 3 mm binned variable * *Height*: Height of the individual (cm) grouped into a 10cm binned variable * *Population*: Name of the population ## Sharing/Access information The data for the !Kung is publicly available and was accessed through the Tspace Repository at the University of Toronto * [https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/handle/1807/10395](https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/handle/1807/10395) ## Code/Software Analyses script is in R v4.3.  The code fits the GAMM model to the tricep data and Loess curve to the height data.  The code uses ggplot2 package to produce all figures for the main manuscript.