The Impact of Schooling on Hadza Adult Height: A Quantitative Study

This report presents a quantitative study investigating the relationship between schooling and adult height among the Hadza, a hunter-gatherer population. The study aimed to determine if attending school as a child influences adult height, considering factors like diet and nutrition. Data was collected from 25 Hadza camps using opportunistic sampling, with data analysis involving descriptive statistics and independent sample t-tests. The results revealed a statistically significant difference in height among female adults, with those who attended school being taller. However, no significant difference was found in the height of male adults based on their schooling background. The study concludes that schooling background may have a differential impact on the height of Hadza adults based on gender, with further research recommended to explore other influencing factors.

Differences in the height of Hadza adults who attended school as a child and those
who did not
March 2018

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Overview
 Hunter-gatherer describes a society, where most or all of the foods is obtained from wild
plants or hunting wild animals.
 This study will assess whether attending school has an impact on height of adults among the
Hadza.
 There are several factors which in turn have significant impact on the height of individuals
such as diet, nutritional aspects and physical activities etc. Moreover nutritional aspects have
some influence on health and thereby affect growth of children.
Aim
The aim of this study is to analyse whether the height of adults who attended school as a child
differs from that of adults that did not attend school as a child.
Overview and aim of the study

 H0 (Null hypothesis): There will be no difference in
height between adult Hadza that attended school as
children and those that did not attend school.
 H1 (Alternative hypothesis): Adult Hadza that
attended school as children will be taller than those
that didn’t attend school.
Hypothesis

 Research type: Quantitative investigation
 Sampling and data collection: For data collection, 25 camps were visited
by the researcher. In this, opportunistic sampling technique respondents
have been selected for the presented study. Data was gathered by Dr
Colette Berbesque and other researchers over a decade.
 Data analysis: . For testing my hypothesis, descriptive statistics and
independent sample T test has been applied. Normality test helps in
assessing whether parametric test can be used for testing concerned
hypothesis or not.
 Ethical considerations: In the present study, confidentiality has been
maintained regarding the gathered data set. Data regarding the height, age,
weight, schooling years will not be disclosed to others.
Methods

 From statistical evaluation it has assessed that on an average height of Hadza
female adults, aged over 20, accounted for 150.198 cm. Further, results show that
50% of female adults, who selected as respondents, have height of 150.3 cm. Along
with this, mode presents that most of the respondents have height of 144.5 cm.
 Tabular presentation shows that in the case of female adult’s p<0.05. Referring this,
it can be entailed that alternative hypothesis proves true over null. Hence, in the
case of female adults statistical significant difference takes place in height of
female adults who went to school in against to those who did not.
Results

Descriptive statistics table show that average height of all males, aged over 20, was
161.26 cm. In addition to this, minimum and maximum height are 145.4 & 178
respectively.
Average height of non-school attending males, aged over 20, was 159.77cm. Average
height level of school goer adults were 163.27cm.
Results of independent sample t test shows that p value >0.05 which in turn presents
that null hypothesis is accepted. As per the results derived no statistical significant
difference takes place in the height of male adults who attended school as a child as
compared to those who did not.

Contd...

 The aim of present study is to assess whether schooling background impacts upon
the height of Hadza adults (both males & females) or not.
 Through statistical evaluation, it has been assessed that there is no statistically
proven difference in the height of Hadza male adults who attended school as a
child and others who did not.
 On the contrary to this, among adult females of Hazda, it has been found that
those who have attended school as a child were taller than others did not.
 By the undertaken statistical evaluation, it has been found that in comparison to
the Hazda adult males, schooling background has an impact on the height of
female adults.
Discussion

Sear, R. and Marlowe,W. F., 2009. How universal are human mate choices?
Size does not matter when Hadza foragers are choosing a mate.
Stulp, G. and Barrett, L., 2014. Evolutionary perspectives on human height
Variation. Biological reviews: Cambridge Philosophical Society. 10.
Pfeiffer, S., 2015. Conditions for Evolution of Small Adult Body Size in
Southern Africa. Chicago Journals. 53(46). pp. S383-S394.
Marlowe, F. W. and Sear, F., 2009. How universal are human mate choices?
Size does not matter when Hadza foragers are choosing a mate. The Royal
Society Publishing. 5 (5).
Marlowe, W. F. and et.al., 2014. Honey, Hadza, hunter-gatherers, and
human evolution. Journal of Human Evolution.pp.119-128.
Becker, S. A. N. and et.al., 2012. Short stature in African pygmies is not
explained by sexual selection. Evolution and Human Behavior.
Reference

Firstly, I would give thanks to God for blessing me with the motivation to complete the
project with success. Then I would like to special thanks in particular to my supervisor
and also to as well as, who provided their valuable guidance and helped me to patch
this project. Their suggestions and instructions have served as major contribution in
order to complete the project.
I am so thankful to all those people who have given me provision, guidance as well as
much needed motivation so as to complete the current research study. This includes
support from my team members, family and friends who helped me in all possible
accords. This led to successful completion of dissertation and achievement of relevant
results. With all the support given by these people who have immensely helped in
developing my understanding and knowledge of the topic selected in the dissertation.
Acknowledgements