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Subscribe to RSSIf someone complains that a person has a big head, it’s normally considered a dig at the enormity of that person's ego. But when it comes to white Americans, being labeled as big-headed shouldn’t be considered a criticism as much as an apt description: Over the past 150 years, the size of white Americans’ craniums have actually increased in size.
Researchers at the University of Tennessee’s Forensic Anthropology Center (what Mary Roach calls "the body farm" in her book “Stiff”) routinely examine skulls to try to determine sex and race of the craniums so if police officers discover just a skull, there are guidelines for gleaning info about it. The database of skulls and bodies has steadily increased to include people who were born and died in the 20th century, whereas prior the skulls were from people born in the 19th century.
As researchers Lee Jantz, coordinator of Forensic Anthropology Center, Richard Jantz, professor emeritus, and Joanne Devlin, adjunct assistant professor, catalogued 1,500 noggins they observed that white people who were born in the 20th century had bigger heads.
They looked at white skulls because they wanted to have a large sample and they don’t have as many black and Hispanic skulls. When people decide to donate their bodies to science, some of those bodies end up at the Forensic Anthropology Center. Historically, more white people have donated their bodies to science than black or Hispanic people, but Jantz suspects that as the makeup of America changes, the center will receive more donations from black and Hispanic people.
The height of white male skulls has increased by eight millimeters and the overall skull has grown by 200 cubic centimeters. For women, cranium height increased by seven millimeters and overall by 180 cubic centimeters.
“The basic thing that we observed over the course of looking at crania that belong to people born from 1820s to 1980s, is that the cranium has gotten higher and narrower,” says Richard Jantz, who is married to Lee.
“If you just look at a side view of the skull, what you would see is the distance from top to bottom increased, and if you look at a front view of the skull, you would see the distance from side to side decreased.”
Bigger heads typically mean bigger brains, and while Richard Jantz and his colleagues did not look at brain size, he suspects brain size also increased. There are several theories why brains might be brawnier.
Over the past 100 years, life in America changed dramatically. People no longer toil in the fields, and they don’t struggle to consume enough calories. We have too much food and not enough physical activity. This means our bodies don’t have to divide fewer calories between the body and the brain, so enough energy can go to the brain, allowing it to balloon. Improved medicine also contributes to larger heads-- in the past babies with bulbous heads could not escape the birth canal and many died. With the increase of C-sections, more and more of these big-headed babes make it into the world.
“As we continue to have excess calories then I am guessing that the brain can continue to increase in size. There obviously has to be some upper limit,” says Richard Jantz.
He suspects that most black Americans would have larger craniums as well, but believes that Hispanic skulls might be smaller. A greater number of the country's Hispanic people are not born in the United States, potentially limiting their access to excess calories and the additional energy needed to grower larger skulls (and bodies). As the generations pass, Hispanic people will probably grow larger as well.
Jantz also notes that Americans mature faster now than they did in earlier centuries. In the 19th century, on average, girls reached menarche at 16 or 17, whereas modern girls reach it by 12 or 13, indicating that humans are growing more rapidly.
To a certain extent, the researchers weren't surprised to learn that noggins increased in size. Jantz says it is obvious that modern Americans look different than their ancestors. He notes there aren't a lot of pictures of obese people from the 19th century. Having access to excess calories leads to taller, fatter, bigger Americans. And while Jantz notes that bigger heads means bigger brains, he hesitates to speculate that bigger brains equal smarter people.
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So I guess my husbands on to something when he says my family has big nuggets.
The average white human is taller and bigger by far over the last 150 years...... so why would the head being bigger surprise anyone?????
"Cabbage. n. A leafy green vegetable about as large and as wise as a man's head." ---Ambrose Bierce
And to think we are now consuming Human Growth Hormones in most common everyday foods we eat.
Maybe America in our search for more has also grown STUPID! And I say this for most intelligent Foreign Countries have banned GMO's. Geneticalky Modified Organisms/TEchnically Engineered foods in favor of real foods even if they are of normal size or if the cows produce 1 cup less milk!
I hope the skulls becoming more narrow doesn't mean Americans are becoming more narrowminded. Many of our comments on newsvine would tend to indicate that this might be the case.
If the hight increased and the width decrease no real change in capacity right. Very racist.
Not only their heads try their Ego that is why We are in this mess We are in, too damn busy pounding their chest instead of taking care of business and now America is going to start to decline, and looks like We will need to learn to speak Chinese ..... This just make me LMAO ...
things to do today...got to up grade to a...ten gallon hat...and learn chinese...and get more Cheetos....
If our heads have gotten bigger then why haven't we gotten any SMARTER?
I don't know, it's probably fat build-up.
Great, even our brains are obese.
Sadly it's still just as empty.
Just because your brain is bigger doesn't make it better, like my sister (a small short person) said, "size isn't everything"
on another note did you know the average American height has actually shrunk to about 5' 10", we are shorter on average then our ancestors, kinda amusing how our stature has shrunk while our heads (not talking just physical size here either) have expanded
@denver bill 2
"For my part whosoever plants cabbages is now, by
my decree, proclaimed most
happy"
-Francois Rabelais
Completely inaccurate. Feel free to try again.
When I graduated from college, I wore the largest cap of any female in my graduating class. I just blamed it on all my big Texas hair, but I really knew it was because my cerebrum is so big.
I wonder how many folks are wondering what a cerebrum is?
Telencephalon anyone?
So, what. The Neanderthals had bigger craniums and brains, but they got outsmarted by the smaller-cranium Cro Magnon.
This sound like an ode to mental defects doesn't it.
Anyhoo, makes one wonder if the brain gets bigger or just gets fattier to correspond to the fatter body...hmmm
With all that genetically engineered foods stuffs out there...... who knows... 'somethings gotta give', like the song goes....
On the other hand with all the calls being made about -to take the country back- seems like these big headed folks also want their smaller heads back too huh... LOL
All that air up in there.......
blowing out the scalp hair somewhere,
go bald or buy spare hair....?
Scary...... LOL
On the other hand these scientists need to measure the heads of living people and see over time if bigger = better or if they are just getting bigger and dumber. Cause it seems folks attention span is getting shorter, and understanding is getting limited ..... Fauxification syndrome not withstanding.....LOL
Peace...... C-section please...... LOL
people are ignorant. @ sonny, you clearly havent seen any old tyme photos or read any kind of studies on this. People have gotten much, much SMALLER in the last 200 years. On top of that it does catch me by surprise that heads are getting bigger, for the obviuos reason that people are A LOT smaller than they used to be and for two the FACT that the average american teen thru college age are SOOOOO @!$%#ing stupid they can BARELY manage to do basic math let alone have any kind of intelligence. And as living proof to what william says, I am bordering on genius and my head is smaller than anyone else I know. WHY? because I believe I am a step up in evolution from average, I need less brain to do a billion times what an average idiot can do. And also physically, I am about 5'8" and 140lbs yet I produce the kind of power that a 6' 250lbs guy makes. I can put almost double my weight over my head and without being big and bulky, I have a nice looking tone and build, but not huge and bulging. Most of the big guys I know lift regularly and look strong as an ox, but are lucky if they can even do their weight.
I am short, so I sit lower in a movie theatre chair. I always get behind the person with the hugest head. Now I know why.
@BZe1
I'm afraid I don't understand your logic.
Firstly, people have been "genetically engineering" foodstuffs since they discovered you could pass on desirable genetic traits to future generations via sex with a suitable mate. Plants and animals have both been altered in this fashion, long before the discovery of genetics as we know them today. The word seems to invoke visions of people growing onion-carrots in a petri dish, but this couldn't be further from the truth.
Secondly, the ordering of your comments behind your arguments are at a best disorderly thus limiting any real discourse,
and at worst totally incoherent.
Thirdly, the brains development of grey matter in no means dictates intelligence. It has been shown the efficiency of the neuron networks, their fire times, and one's own pursuit and comprehension of knowledge greatly impact intelligence. Thus more active neuron networks seems to equal more intelligence. Also the structure and prolific amounts of certain cells within the brain play a role but are no means a limiting factor or great boon.
The only thing that's going to make people more intelligent is by using their brains.
I would also surmise that people whom want to "take this country back" wish to liberate it from the corporate system that's currently in place. I'm not one of them, nor do I care enough to involve myself in such matters.
Whoa
Show me one study that indicates people have gotten smaller?
Hint: There aren't any.
Edit: If you meant brain, then I can possibly agree. Although it isn't confirmative by any means.
If the hight increased and the width decrease no real change in capacity right. Very racist.
i guess you cant read , they noted that cranial volume increased as well by 200 cubic centimeters
jesus jumped up christ on a cracker will you people let up with the everything is raciss crap, people are different- omg what a shock. so noticing women have boobs is sexist and black people have dark skin and asians have almond eyes is racist. my god call the thought police for not towing the we are all exactly identical mantra
@Aggrevated
I'm not even sure who you are talking to. In fact race hasn't even entered this thread. If you wish to repost something coherent I would be more than happy to have a rational discourse with you.
William Bently ... @ #1.21..... HUH?
LOL.......
Right back at you.
Hi William,
This is the post that aggrevatedofficeworker was responding to. I know he wasn't directlng his post to you, only jake thesnake for being such a petty, jerk troll. :)
While I find this article informative I am more interested in how big the government grant to fund this research was.
$$ Cha-Ching! $$
Personally, I find the term "White American" offensive. I would like the government to spend billions of dollars changing all the government forms and local school books to read "Euro-Scanda-Rus-Looking American"
Seriously, though. Can't anyone see that it is the growth hormones in the beef.
Look at your average Japanese citizen in Japan, they are about 5 feet tall...then look at Japanese-Americans. They are about 6 feet tall when they grow up here.
Something ain't right folks - there is a reason why most of the world doesn't buy red meat from us!
I really don't think hormones have been in use long enough to account for the increase.
Sorry Rob but they have been in our food for a while to date---especially in corn products and soy products. It has been in the past few years that the news of such has reached the public!
Scary what our gov't is doing to our bodies isn't it!
Steve,
The article didn't concern me except for the last paragraph.
I don't think beef additives increase brain volume, but I do believe the extra hormones added to the beef does change the physical maturity rate on people. Girls and boys both are hitting puberty earlier than ever and that is probably due to added growth hormone to feeder cattle, pigs, chickens, etc.
This entire article should be collapsed because the headline is not politically correct.
AT 10..00 + A POUND FOR A T - BONE I CAN SEE WHY
sillyshrinks, and the studies were oriented towards the last 150 years.
trying to figure this out yall. is this just city folks who buy stuff they dont grow or is this just totally across the board? i am just asking cause i am simple country and honestly i dont trust a damn thing this website publishes and for certain i woulld never invite any of yall who post for supper. but thats just a simple country girls opinion
As a "Euro-Scanda-Rus-Looking American", I actually find myself more offended by the suggestion that "white skulls" are unique to Euro-Scanda-Rus-Looking Americans. Last time I checked, we all have white skulls. Please, MSN, try to be a little more sensitive next time.
you people do know that everyone uses growth hormones on their live stock anymore except for the ones that sell un-altered meat, (and that is expensive stuff). heck they have been genetically engineering super crops for at least a decade now to protect them from pests and diseases, oh not to forget the thousands of tons of insecticide they use to kill bugs. this has been going on for years. There have been no officially observed side-affects from the use of these things.
besides if they stopped doing any of this to the live stock and crops we would lose tons to diseases, bugs, and other pests. and then we would probably have a famine on our hands. not to mention the companies would lose tons in profits and they don't want that.
you guys are bit paranoid here, its been going on for years and the FDA does its best to makes sure nothing gets through that could be potentially harmful to people. although i have to admit eating apples soaked in pesticides is not that appealing.
And you annoyed person. You know if there werent 6 billion TOO MANY dumb@!$%#s on this planet then there would never be an issue with famine, or water shortage, or polution, or even economic crashes. There would be no need to pump animals with growth hormones to make them produce more, and it would be much easier to teach people and then everyone could be as smart as Edison, or da vinci. And no its NOT being paranoid to question the crap they are putting in your food and its effects. Truely people need to wake up and smell the horrible truth, THEY ARE POISONING YOU and pushing you to embrace stupidity. For the average american being cool is all that matters and being smart is not cool.Because stupid people who are sickly from eating @!$%# instead of food are easy to control and willingly sign away their freedom and when they decide the line is crossed they cant do anything about it because they are weak and fat and too stupid to do anything about it. Good work america.
, I actually find myself more offended by the suggestion that "white skulls" are unique
really, are you retarded or were you just dropped on your head as a baby? races have ceratin characteristics in their bone structure just as they do with their skin or hair or eyes. yes white skulls tend to look a certain way, if they didnt the face wouldnt look different unless your one of those folks who think albino africans look just like swedes. black skulls look a certain way too that is why africans look african otherwise they would look white but with a tan. to say either of those is ignorant - we are each separate and distinct as god made us to be. it is no more or less offensive than a different culture or language- it just simply who and what they are, if you cant be comfortable in your own skin thats your issue not anyone elses
@Brandon,
Actually your post is incorrect. Famines, water shortages, pollution and economic crashes occurred far before even modern society as we know it. Also I would have to guess that education would be far more lacking since most of the populous in your utopia would be dedicated to mere survival and passing on techniques that benefited such.
There would be little time for people to become as smart as Edison, although that wouldn't be that difficult.
the fda does not do crap to protect us from harmful things anymore- they are bought and paid for by monsanto and big pharma. could it be safe, yeah thats possible, could it be dangerous, also possible we dont know because they required no testing of gmo crops using a nifty trick- see to get a patent they had to claim their bt corn was new and novel and wholly invented by them but when it came to the fda they changed their tune and it was not substantially different from existing crops thus negating any real testing because it was marked as not different from foods already "generally recognized as safe" why - because the fda is run by monsanto so long as that is true they will never do anything or make any ruling that might endanger monsantos profits. thats why i dont trust gmos
You're right, Rob. GH hasn't been in use long enough to have that effect on human beings. Yet.
However, the rBGH (Bovine Growth Hormone) given to dairy cows to increase their milk production is having an effect on some girls and causing them to reach menarche at age 7. The negative outcome of this is that they would be spending more years menstruating and have more exposure to cancer-causing higher levels of estrogen. That increases their chances of breast and ovarian cancer.
It gets worse, unfortunately. It appears that rBGH contributes to increased breast cancer diagnoses in women. Here's the link for the edification of anyone wishing to learn more.
http://blogs.prevention.com/inspired-bites/2012/03/21/dirty-dairy-the-unlabeled-artificial-growth-hormone-hiding-in-our-fridges/
I've given up milk completely. Considering all its bad side effcts and now the rGBH, I'm afraid to drink it. Life is toshort and I've already survived 3 different cancer diagnoses. Your choice is up to you, however.
Chill Mr. Aggravated. A skull is white, because bone is white. All races have white bones. My post was a joke highlighting the absurdity of political correctness.
I'm 5'll (female) come from long line of tall people... Europeans are generally much larger than the rest of the world.. and even here Steve, Japanese, chinese, and south American people are way smaller than white people or black people. Jeremy lin is an exception
The hormones are more responsible for cancers and genetic mutations rather than attribute to head size
izz so cuz we be like smahrtur er sumthin
Well, all of the research into dinosaurs and other more modern critters equated relative cranial size to intelligence. Are these studies correct of wrong? Is all of the old consensus science wrong and cranial capacity has nothing to do with intelligence? Could dinosaurs have been most intelligent? Or is consensus science correct and cranial capacity is directly proportional to intelligence? I don't think any news outlet would touch this obvious question. Either consensus science is WRONG or there is some racial characteristic that improves intelligence. Fortunately, most journalist have small heads.
I think your very confused. By your reasoning, whales and elephants rule this world and we are their pets. :P
Brain size does NOT factor into intelligence, Birds, like the African Grey are as smart as a 2 year old human child yet their brain is slightly larger than an acorn. There was once a line of thinking that equated size to intelligence, that was quickly squashed with some basic research.
As far as appearence, our enviroment plays a major part in how our features evolve, and by enviroment I'm not talking about polution or global warming, I'm talking about basic regional weather/temps. It affects all mammals, African Elephants have massive ears for blood cooling while Asian elephants have no need for such cooling thus have smaller ears. Height, Skin color, eye shape, nasal cavity shape all relate to the enviroment the life form as grown and reproduced in. Food and water supply also play into this evolution of proper tools to cope and survive.
Excess caloric intake seems to be a logical assumption as to the cause of this increase in cranium size and likely increase in brain size. On a side note, Neanderthals had larger brains than modern humans, so I wonder if they had the excess American diet how big their cranium would become. Put one of them on an American style diet and maybe you get the aliens from Mars Attacks. Mak mak MAK MAK MAK! (We come in peace!)
lol!
Intelligence is not totally related to brain size, it is however directly related to how many folds your brain has. Having a larger brain might allow for more memory storage, as well as the special areas of the brain to process inputs. The vision center, language and so on.
The other factor as mentioned by a poster, with a larger body, your head is going to increase in size to maintain the same proportion. What is kind of cool is how the shape of the head itself is changing. I wonder if that has to do with all the helmets we ware.
Proof of human evolution in terms of evolving more intelligence perhaps? You cant argue whether or not brain size influences intelligence level because intelligence cant actually be defined nor can it be measured.
Sure it can be measured. IQ! Not that IQ is necessarily accurate... but a measurement is a measurement.
Oh great...what are we going to do with the extra room?...rent it out?...This is no sign of intelligence...it's all about the EGO.
Your brain is a body part that can grow and increase in ability, same as any other body part. As people become more "intellectual" and educated, and use their brains more then their bodies to earn their living, their bodies will decrease in size and ability, and their heads will increase in size. Over generations of course.
Im not surprised at all to hear our heads are getting bigger, and its coinciding exactly with the industrial revolution and the increase in public education..
I hate to break it to you, but what you're suggesting was most recently published in 1809 and was soundly debunked.
You've honestly never heard of Lamarck?
True. Lamark's theory was disproven over 100 years ago.
For evolution to happen, you need an enviromental influence to apply pressure to who survives and who does not. In our current western world, almost everyone can reproduce and almost all of those offspring go on to reproduce. We have successfully used technology to deal with the influences that would have caused evolution in the past. I doubt we shall grow much larger brains, proportionally, because we shall just build better and larger computers and technology to deal with any difficulties.
The larger size seen in all areas in the last 100 years is probably not evolution but the result of prime nutrition, calorie intake, medical advances and sanitation allowing expression of the upper limits of the genetic potential
Yeah if anything it would seem that those who are better educated reproduce at a lower rate than those who are less educated as college and post graduate students often postpone having families until after they have graduated and extablished careers. The typical graduate of higher education isn't starting a family until their late 20s early 30s now... where as those who do not go on for additional schooling after highschool or high school drop outs tend to start their careers and get married at younger ages and often begin to have children in their late teens early 20s leading to larger families. This would lead one to believ ethat we would be evolving to a society that favors a less educated population
Hypothesis*
More food = better growth = bigger people. Bigger people have bigger heads. This isn't rocket science. Height has increased over this time period as well. Probably have not gotten smarter as a result.
Anyone concluding that there is a direct relationship between brain size and intelligence in humans only demonstrates their profound lack of knowledge on this topic. Better do some homework. Again, bigger people have bigger heads and people have gotten bigger. Plain and simple, it's because of better nutrition. If cranium size grew, but body size stayed contstant, then one might be able to argue that some factor other than just general growth was at work.
Cmash - If you read the article it also states that the distance from side to side DECREASED! How does that play into your bigger people = bigger heads theory. Its not just simple proportional change ya know and our heads are also becoming more aerodynamic for speed, lol.
Were they talking about Obama or Romney. Or was it both. Sounds more like both of them with all the B.S. they are spewing out of their brains.
My Bad;
Obama isn't in this study.
LMAO!
Half of it is.
So does that mean the heads are bigger at birth too? If that is the case, I pity the poor women that have to squeeze these pumpkin heads out.
Hmm! I guess this doesn't apply to my family. We all have small heads. Small heads, small feet, small hands. Guess we haven't jumped on the evolution wagon, just yet. Oh well, maybe someday we will catch up with the rest of the folks in the U.S. Good thing intelligence doesn't depend on brain size or we would be screwed.
I knew Wacka Flocka Flame was white
So heads are getting taller but narrower - guess that makes us candidates for PHD's - as in "Piled Higher and Deeper". Seriously, with people getting bigger all around, heads getting taller is understandable, but narrower? Could it be the square/cube ratio and proportion situation, where you are trying to get rid of heat - tall and narrow has more surface area than a sphere?
where does uncle snoop and Kanye figure in this study
well, lets look at it this way, if the bodies were getting bigger and he head didn't - wouldn't it look rather strange?
picture it - come on.
So i suppose the head is grwoing proportionaley with the body- that's all.
Yeah and the diet thing too :)
Picturing it...
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome:
Cage fight behemoth...huge body, teeny weeny head...kinda cute though.
Bigger heads being filled with nothing as we get more stupid by the year and less educated.
Unfortunately for all too many...the pea inside is getting smaller.
I am probably one of those who has a larger than average head. (Born in 1941) Once I remember the barber kiddingly telling me when I was about eight that he should charge me an adult price. The downside of having a larger head size is finding caps that fit properly. However, the upside could be that I rarely ever get a headache. Maybe there is more room for swelling or something. They say that certain parts of the head, like the ears, get larger as we age. Perhaps the head gets larger also. (?)
Too bad most of that size increase is from saturated fats not used anywhere else in the organism.
Which has as one of its baddest results the brain turning to cheese, or senile dementia at an ever tender age...sad
The size of a ball is usually increased by pumping air into it.........its rather scary if head sizes are on the up but intelligence is at an all time low
This calorie theory is not working for me. my stomach is getting bigger than my brain. I will try to eat even more now and see if that helps. Just got McDonalds coupons in the mail. That should help with the extra calories.
BIG MAC, BIG BRAIN!
yvonne is pretty much on target.. puberty also has been coming earlier.. from boys around 12-13 to now around even 9-11 and girls from 12-14 to now even like 10.... the reason puberty has hit like 1-3 average years earlier is a sign of it. #1 reason why now we have 8-12 year olds dressing like 15-16 year olds.. with shirts already revealing breasts, short shorts, and make-up and more stuff older girls have. i wonder if it will continue for generations
this is proably a reason why people keep having sex younger and younger.. even now at 13-15..... wheres the parents? sex addiction anyone? no control? puberty and the human dna getting altered everywhere. i think early puberty is a huge part of why we have such a low intelligence rate due to too many immature people in the country. another reason why welfare, low income, and the reason most americans are still terrible at spelling and finding countries on a map. early puberty means you change your direction in life from intelligence to surivial methods back in the caveman days.. having sex around 14-18 probably isnt the best idea now a days considering you graduate at 18 and theres 15 year olds already with babies.. how there paying for it idk.. gov. welfare i guess. working at jack in the box aint gona do it .
And how much exactly was the government grant that funded this useless project? Anyone with half a brain could've told us this!
It's funny your little brain would ask this. Actually, the University of Tennessee's Department of Antropology receives its funding via grants from private and public organizations like any other university nation wide - also known as funding agencies. But why would you even care to do a little extra reading?
http://web.utk.edu/~anthrop/