Social inequality and body mass differences in two post-Medieval Dutch populations

Abstract

Adult body mass is largely related to nutrition levels, which can be affected by external stressors, such as diet, environment, and disease. High-status and low-status groups likely had very different nutrition and stress experiences, which might result in differences in population's body mass. Since inequality between social statuses prevailed in Europe in the post-Medieval period, did these differences result in body mass variations between high-status and low-status populations in the Netherlands? In order to answer this question, this research compared body size of two post-Medieval urban skeletal collections with different social statuses from the Eusebius cemetery of two cemeteries of the 17th–19th centuries: the Arnhem and the Broerenkerk church of Zwolle, the Netherlands. Social statuses of the two collections are estimated based on the burial locations, grave goods, and historical records. Body mass was estimated using both femoral head diameter method and stature/bi-iliac breadth method. Results have shown no statistically significant differences in body mass between the two samples. Therefore, this research suggests that inequality in post-Medieval Dutch society did not result in observable population body mass differences in the skeletal collections of different social status groups. It cannot, however, prove that social inequality in populations did not impact body size or health more broadly.