Height and reproductive success: how a Gambian population compares to the West

Sear, R.

doi:10.1007/s12110-006-1003-1

Height and reproductive success: how a Gambian population compares to the West

Sear, R.

Authors

R. Sear

Abstract

In Western societies, height is positively correlated with reproductive success (RS) for men but negatively correlated with RS for women. These relationships have been attributed to sexual selection: women prefer tall men, and men prefer short women. It is this success in the marriage market which leads to higher RS for tall men and short women. We have already shown that the relationship between height and RS for women is quite different in a non-Western context. In a subsistence farming community in rural Gambia, height is positively correlated with reproductive success for women, largely owing to the higher survival of the children of tall women. Here, the relationship between height and reproductive success is analyzed for men in the same community. For these Gambian men, there is no significant relationship between height and the number of children they produce, although tall men do contract more marriages than shorter men. We conclude that environmental context needs to be taken into account when analyzing human reproductive behavior.

Citation

Sear, R. (2006). Height and reproductive success: how a Gambian population compares to the West. Human Nature, 17(4), 405-418. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-006-1003-1

Journal Article Type	Article
Publication Date	Sep 1, 2006
Deposit Date	Oct 19, 2010
Publicly Available Date	Mar 3, 2011
Journal	Human Nature
Print ISSN	1045-6767
Electronic ISSN	1936-4776
Publisher	Springer
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	17
Issue	4
Pages	405-418
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-006-1003-1
Keywords	Height, Reproductive success, The Gambia.
Public URL	https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1538181