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.

本研究探讨了人类福祉的人体测量学（anthropometric）指标与经济指标之间的错配问题——这一现象此前在国际人体测量学史研究中从未被关注：截至1914年，尽管爱沙尼亚经济欠发达，其男性国民已跻身全球身高最高人群之列。本研究结合波罗的海行省土地改革的特殊特质，以爱沙尼亚较早开启第一次人口转变为分析视角，解释了该国在人体测量学维度的优异表现：爱沙尼亚男孩的身高确实高于立陶宛、芬兰乃至经济更为发达的西方国家的同龄群体，其原因在于他们的家庭规模更小。