Bobble Whites

Gettin' the big head:

White Americans’ heads are getting bigger. That’s according to research by forensic anthropologists at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

The researchers found that the average height from the base to the top of the skull in men has increased by eight millimeters (0.3 inches). The skull size has grown by 200 cubic centimeters, a space equivalent to a tennis ball. In women, the corresponding increases are seven millimeters and 180 cubic centimeters.

Skull height has increased 6.8 percent since the late 1800s, while body height has increased 5.6 percent and femur length has only increased about 2 percent. Also, skull height has continued to change whereas the overall heightening has recently slowed or stopped.

“The varieties of changes that have swept American life make determining an exact cause an endlessly complicated proposition,” said Lee Jantz. “It likely results from modified growth patterns because of better nutrition, lower infant and maternal mortality, less physical work, and a breakdown of former ethnic barriers to marriage. Which of these is paramount we do not know.”

Notice how carefully they danced around the obvious conclusion. Probably for the best, as I don't want to hear the whining. In any case, I suspect that further research will find the trend holds steady across racial lines, but is confined to societies which were central to Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. Call it evolution by culture.