The Estonian antebellum paradox: a venture into the comparative anthropometric history of the Baltic countries in the early twentieth century

In this study, we examine the mismatch between the anthropometric and the economic measures of human wellbeing, a fact that has gone unnoticed in the international research on anthropometric history: by 1914, Estonian males were among the tallest in the world despite the country’s economic underdevelopment. We explain the anthropometric overperformance of Estonia considering the early start of the first demographic transition in relation to the special features of the agrarian reforms in the Baltic provinces. Estonian boys did grow taller than their peers in Lithuania, Finland, and even in the much richer Western countries, because their parents had smaller families.

本研究考察了人类福祉的人体测量学（anthropometric）衡量指标与经济衡量指标之间的失衡问题——这一事实在此前的国际人体测量学史研究中始终未被注意到：至1914年，尽管爱沙尼亚经济尚处欠发达状态，但其男性国民已是全球身高最高的群体之一。本研究结合波罗的海行省土地改革（agrarian reforms）的独特特征，以爱沙尼亚较早启动第一次人口转变（first demographic transition）为切入点，对该国在人体测量学指标上的优异表现作出解释。爱沙尼亚男童的身高高于立陶宛、芬兰乃至经济更为发达的西方国家的同龄儿童，这是因为其父母的家庭规模更小。