Hunter-gatherer child and adolescent height and tricep skinfold measures

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.