Change in tibia length and height between two Mayan populations of the Yucatan peninsula

Abstract

We compare lengths of tibias and stature of a pre-Columbian and an ipsi-local contemporary population from Yucatan, Mexico, to evaluate the possibility and degree of secular shifts according to time, social, and cultural conditions. We measured tibial lengths and calculated maximum statures from 55 individuals (24 females) from the Classic-period archaeological population from Xcamb., Yucatan, using standard regression formulas, including that of Genov.s (1967), modified by del Ángel and Cisneros (2004), and Men.ndez Garmendia et al. (2018). The second cohort consists of percutaneous tibial measurements and life statures of 100 individuals (63 women) from the nearby Maya community of Dzemul, Yucatan. We compared the tibial measurements and the real and estimated statures between the two series. Our results do not demonstrate significant differences between males. Modern females possessed significantly (p: <0.01) longer tibial segments than their pre-Columbian counterparts on average. We did not find significant differences in height neither between males nor females. We conclude that, at least with the present results, we cannot ascertain any reduction in stature in the area in the last millennium.