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The article cites the drivers behind this height increase as better health and nutrition, but I would bet it's not that simple, and that genetic selection is involved.
My bet is that better health and nutrition have allowed taller men with their higher caloric requirements to remain alive and healthy, and that women being women have selectively bred with these taller men over their shorter counterparts. If this trend continues the average height 100 years from now will probably be over 6 feet for men. This selection for larger males and it's observale impact on speices size is one of the most observable examples of evolution.
"that women being women have selectively bred with these taller men over their shorter counterparts."
That's science-tacular reasoning, right thar.
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Every study ever done on human female mating selection has always shown that women prefer taller men. And I think most people would agree that this is their experience in life as well.
I hardly think this is a stretch of a statement.
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Wow, way to find one random article somewhere on the internet about some hunter gatherer tribe in Tasmania, and then extrapolate it all over the industrialized 20th century.
Let's not even go to far from home to prove your wrong about
http://jezebel.com/5979641/why-ar…
Or we can get real Scientific:
" In the personal ads sample, thisnorm was more strongly enforced by women than by men: 23% of men compared to only 4% of women would accept a dating relationship where the woman was taller. "
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Side effect of the American Century.
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I'm European and 6'3", so I declare this study to be 100% accurate.
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The piece does not mention the starting and ending average heights. In a piece about an increase in the average height.
The piece does, however, carefully specify the numbers on infant mortality, detailed in #s/thousand/year over multiple specific year ranges. In a piece about an increase in the average height.
Science writers are so bad at it.
