[quote]MikeTheBear wrote:
I have another theory. In the Northern Countries like Finland and Poland, the tall guys with the long legs could run faster through deep snow. Hence, they were able to chase down the girls and have sex with them, thus passing on their genes.[/quote]
I think it has less to do with speed, and more to do with keeping one’s equipment warm and in working order.
[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
Ha. I’m just trying to figure out how come the damn Irish and Italian came out the most, leading to my 5’6 height.[/quote]
I’m 100% irish and i’m just shy of 6’, I have a ton of Uncles that are well over 6’ … I think it’s all the Italian that came out in you. =D
"Aren?t some populations just taller than other populations?
No, not necessarily. We don?t really know how height genes vary from population to population, but anthropometric studies suggest that there?s nothing about an American that makes him intrinsically taller than a Mexican, or a Swede taller than a Central American.
If you look at populations of well-fed kids around the world, they?re all within half an inch of one another. And, if you look at third- or fourth-generation Mexican-Americans in this country, they?re almost as tall as whites."
http://www.newyorker.com/online/content/articles/040405on_onlineonly01
Can you believe the height of these ladies?
I’m 1/4 Polish, 1/4 Italian, 10%ish English, Irish, German, French, and Native American (Mohawk).
I’m 5’5" and ‘stocky’ (my mother loved that word in place of ‘fat’ when I was younger).
My mother is 50% Italian and Polish and she’s 4’10" and about 170lbs.
My father is all the others and is 6’ 175-180lbs.
My sister and brother are 5’ and 5’7" respectivley. My sister is fat, borderline obese. My brother goes from skinny to skinny/fat depending on the year.
And since my wife has 2 other nationalities that I don’t, my daughter now has 9.
Here’s a hypothesis.
Milder climates closer to the equator make possible a wide variety of fruit and vegetable foods that become staple crops for agrarian civilizations. Colder, harsher climates farther from the equator (i.e. Northern Eurasia) preclude much in the way of agriculture, favoring instead hunting, fishing and animal husbandry.
A higher percentage of animal protein and milk in the diet over generations (and the associated higher testosterone production) would then account for the greater size and height. Thus the disparity between the 5-foot-something Romans, who subsisted on wheat and Barley, and the 6-foot-something Goths and Gaels (that’s you, Irish!), who ate more wild game and beef.
The tremendous height of memebers of the Masai tribe, who at times subsist almost exclusively on milk, meat and blood, would seem to support this hypothesis (yes, yes, I know they might also be a genetic anomaly), even though they live closer to the equator.
This phenomenon happened in Japan over the last sixty years: The Japanese, by and large, used to be skinny little runts until after the second world war, when milk and meat (and more food in general) became readily available. These days 6-foot tall, relatively muscular Japanese men and well-proportioned Japanese girls (i.e. really nice tits and ass) are not at all uncommon.
Moral of the story? Eat more meat.
[quote]MikeTheBear wrote:
Professor X wrote:
kieran dolan wrote:
Where the Irish and Italians lack in height they make up in other departments.
Hair gel?
Alcohol tolerance and the ability to wear heavy gold chains, respectively.[/quote]
Hairy arms? and adidas jump suits?
I all seriousness,
I remember a few years ago when my teacher in biology class apprently wasn’t prepared for the day so he showed us this video on genetics.
It showed how the evolution of man lead to different races. It was mainly due to adaptation to certain environments. It explained that black people tended to have longer limbs and darker skin due to their environment. The dark skin produced more vitamin d and acted as a natural sunscreen. Conversly, people that migrated up north tended to have paler skin due to the less exposure to sunlight and shorter limbs because it was easier for the body to keep warm with shorter limbs.
This probably doesn’t ahve much to do with the somatypes though.
Funny link:
http://asg.marl.de/comenius/discussion/stereotypes/stereotypes4.php
More serious link:
http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2005/bigenough/special_heightgap.html
I’m 5’7"… well I’m Chinese so that’s pretty much the average height.
my ma is like 5’ and my pa is 5’3…
All kidding aside I believe it is nothing more than nutrition over a period of generations.
My belief is based on what I see happening at my stables. I breed warmblood sport horses and have noticed that size including height depends on nutrition.
Especially in the first formative 6 months.
Two horses bred from the same mare and stallion but one being fed well and the other (having been raised at a different stables where they had problem with feed)
not getting proper nutrition will not be the same height.
I have seen this happen over and over.
I believe that our genetic code gives us a window of growth…let’s say from 5’10 - 6’2" …what height and size we finally reach depends upon our lifestyle and nutrition, sleep and excersize in our formative years.
So Irish…if you had eaten all your porridge and slept instead of reading girlie magazines you could have been 5’7 and a half.
[quote]Varqanir wrote:
A higher percentage of animal protein and milk in the diet over generations (and the associated higher testosterone production) would then account for the greater size and height. Thus the disparity between the
Moral of the story? Eat more meat.[/quote]
Just some anectodal evidence: I’m 6’4 and my parents are 5’3 and 5’4 respectively. My grandparents also weren’t tall.
I loved milk as a kid (I still love it)and drank huge amounts of it as long as I remember. At the age of 13 it was usual for me to drink at least a gallon a day.
Oh yes, and my favourite birthday present was a T-shirt with a sign “Stop telling me I’m tall you fucking midgets” 
[quote]MikeTheBear wrote:
I have another theory. In the Northern Countries like Finland and Poland, the tall guys with the long legs could run faster through deep snow. Hence, they were able to chase down the girls and have sex with them, thus passing on their genes. But then some of the smarter, shorter guys invented snowshoes that allowed them to float over the snow and compete with the tall, albeit dumb guys, for the ladies’ affections. The short, stupid guys just died out. So, what you now see in these countries are two distinct groups: tall, stupid guys and short, smart guys.
I’m a Pole. I’m 5’8". Do the math, dummy.[/quote]
See now there’s my problem - I’m a 6’ Polish guy living in South Africa - but there no snow here…
[quote]Professor X wrote:
Hair gel?[/quote]
Hypocrite
No size depends on the prduction of the hormone progestorone or height does anyway. Not much to dod with nutrition really. I’ve seen many lanky malnourished people.
[quote]kieran dolan wrote:
FightinIrish26 wrote:
Where the Irish and Italians lack in height they make up in other departments.[/quote]
you mean alcoholism?
I’m between 6’4 and 6’5 and I’m (well my parents) are from Cuba but both were born in Spain.
My parents are from Northern Spain (Galicia, to be exact) and the people in that part of Spain didn’t really mix with the Arab Moors like the people in the south of the country - the predominant groups up there were Roman, Visigoth, other Viking, and Celtic - Galicians and Asturians share a common heritage with the “Black Irish” of southern Ireland and the Bretons of Northern France.
In fact they call the Northwestern region of Spain, “Celtic Spain” - they were these charcoal colored woolen kilts (no tartans) and play these bagpipes called “gaitas” - So maybe that’s where I get my height, but yet I have typical Spanish features like black hair and brown eyes. It’s a crazy gene pool down there in Iberia.
My dad was about 5’11 and my mom is about 5’5 but all my uncles and brothers are about 6-6’2. I’m the tallest. However, I did drink milk like it was water back when I was a kid, so maybe that had something to do with it too.
I don’t know if you can put genetic qualifiers on any particular group of people - I think in any population you’ll get a wide variety. There’s tall Irishmen and Poles just as much as there are short ones. Same as in Spain or anywhere else.
As individuals, ie you versus your neighbor, height differences are largely genetic. For populations’ average height, India versus Western Europe, it is based on the quality of the diet and healthcare.
[quote]mazilla wrote:
kieran dolan wrote:
FightinIrish26 wrote:
Where the Irish and Italians lack in height they make up in other departments.
you mean alcoholism?
[/quote]
Yea, and whats worse is Scotch/Irish. We were raised on a steady diet of beer(cause kids should only drink whiskey on holidays), cigarettes, furniture polish and haggas. Now were all short, stupid, smelly and mean. Kinda cute though, in a bulldog kind of way.
My mom’s side of the family is short and hairy…and that’s where I apparently received most of my genes. I have no idea what their true background is. According to my mom, they are Syrian, German, Irish, Cherokee and English.
My dad’s side of the family is French and Portuguese.
I’m the only short one in the entire family besides my sister and my uncles on my mom’s side.
My mom is 5’0" and my dad is 5’10". My brother is 5’9" and my cousins on my dad’s side of the family are all taller than average.
Of course, I’m the only fit/heatlhy one on both sides of the family, as most are overweight, average or underweight/skinny. So I’ve had to work hard for every little bit I have since I didn’t get jack from my parents.
I’ve also been told that I look Spanish, Italian or Jewish. The only thing I come close to is Spanish due to my Porteguese background…but it’s still not the same.
[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
but why is it generally that Italians are short, …[/quote]
We are big where it counts 