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. Consist..., Study Populations
 
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.
 
Anthropometric measures
 
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 id..., , # 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

Ana...