Health and genetics
Table of Contents
1. AASI height
Gangetic Plains Mesolithic Hunter Gatherers of India were the tallest on Earth, much taller than their European counterparts.
Damdama HG had a mean height of (179.1 cm /5′10.5″) for males & (173.0 cm / 5’8") for females.
Mahadaha males had a mean height of (181.1 cm / 5’11.3")
Gangetic Plain Mesolithic females (5’7“-5’8”) were taller in mean stature than Western-European males of the time.
Not only were they very tall, but also quite muscular and likely involved in a lot of strenuous physical activity, indicated by hypertrophy in the forearms and legs. Specifically of the anconeus & supinator muscles (although no evidence of physical trauma)
Furthermore, the Indus Valley Rakhigarhi reconstructed individuals from Lee, Shinde et al 2020 were in the same ballpark too. The 17-18 yr old boy had a height of 177 cm (5 ft 10 inches) while the adult female was 5 ft 6 inches tall.
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Polygenic scores for height among modern populations, from Davide Piffer’s substack.
In sub-Sahara and in the subcontinent especially, phenotypic height lags far behind genotypic height. From these scores, you should expect Tamils to be taller than Chinese and (South) Italians.
Also from Piffer’s substack: Sardinians have the lowest polygenic scores for height among all included populations (though we haven’t got scores for Mbuti or Twa)
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6931495/
Yeah this is what you see with Singaporean Tamils; their average male height is 5’8", which is higher than e.g. Middle-Eastern and Southern European populations.
There’s a lot of stunting and undernutrition in India.
Singaporean Tamil example is most notable because that migration was largely not selective (went there as indentured labourers).
2. fat/muscle gain among Indians
Indians gain both fat & muscle at slightly higher rates than Whites.
But you will find such random genetic differences in every population, only Indians/subcontinentals treat them as immutable and construct Grand Wordcel Theories of Everything based on them.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-06446-7/figures/1
3. agriculture-induced genetic changes
New paper from David Reich lab:
West Eurasian / European populations have had strong recent genetic selection for a number of traits.
Among these, positive selection for intelligence and education. Negative selection for body fat percentage, darker skin color, and schizophrenia
4. white rice intolerance
East Asians quite literally have evolutionary adaptations to eat white rice.
The rest of the world, should regard ourselves as White-Rice-intolerant.
Landini et al (2020), Genomic adaptations to cereal‐based diets contribute to mitigate metabolic risk in some human populations of East Asian ancestry