QUOTE(preahvihear @ Aug 20 2008, 07:27 PM) [snapback]3883384[/snapback]
Just want to point out what the French wrote about the looks of the Vietnamese and the Cambodians during the 1800s.
The Cambodians or Khmers, although their type is in general greatly modified by intermarriage with other races, still preserve the Aryan characteristics. Taller than the Annamite or Thai, their eyes are rarely oblique, their nose is straight and, though their complexion is now yellow, they preserve their agglutinative or polysyllabic language intact in the midst of races speaking isolating or monosyllabic tongues.
For some reason only the Khmer people believe that they are taller then their neigbours. This is not the first time I've seen this topic from the Khmer section. I'm not saying that Vietnamese are tall people but for Khmer to claim that they are taller....
Country Average Male Height Population
Netherlands 182.5 cm 16,318,199
Denmark 181.5 cm 5,413,392
Switzerland 180.5 cm 7,450,867
Germany 180.2 cm 82,424,609
Croatia 180.0 cm 4,496,869
Norway 180.0 cm 137,253,133
Sweden 179.6 cm 8,986,400
Iran 178.7 cm 67,503,205
Austria 178.2 cm 8,174,762
Finland 178.2 cm 5,214,512
Czech Republic 178.0 cm 10,246,178
Romania 178.0 cm 22,355,551
South Africa 177.4 cm 42,718,530
Zimbabwe 177.2 cm 12,671,860
Australia 177.0 cm 19,913,144
Canada 177.0 cm 32,507,874
United Kingdom 177.0 cm 60,270,708
Greece 176.8 cm 10,647,529
France 176.6 cm 60,424,213
Ukraine 176.5 cm 47,732,079
Iraq 176.3 cm 25,374,691
Lebanon 176.2 cm 3,777,218
Ireland 176.1 cm 3,969,558
Zambia 176.0 cm 10,462,436
Russia 175.9 cm 143,782,338
Belgium 175.6 cm 10,348,276
United States 175.5 cm 293,027,571
Uzbekistan 175.4 cm 26,410,416
Poland 175.3 cm 38,626,349
Egypt 175.0 cm 76,117,421
New Zealand 175.0 cm 3,993,817
Senegal 175.0 cm 10,852,147
Portugal 174.6 cm 10,524,145
Saudi Arabia 174.6 cm 25,795,938
Argentina 174.4 cm 39,144,753
Uruguay 174.3 cm 3,399,237
Brazil 174.0 cm 184,101,109
Cuba 174.0 cm 11,308,764
Peru 173.8 cm 27,544,305
Thailand 173.6 cm 64,865,523
Spain 173.4 cm 40,280,780
Korea, South 173.3 cm 48,598,175
Paraguay 173.1 cm 6,191,368
Syria 173.0 cm 18,016,874
Chile 173.0 cm 15,823,957
Morocco 173.0 cm 32,209,101
Turkey 172.5 cm 68,893,918
Tunisia 172.3 cm 9,974,722
Colombia 172.3 cm 42,310,775
Algeria 172.2 cm 32,129,324
Mexico 171.8 cm 104,959,594
Cameroon 171.0 cm 16,063,678
Indonesia 170.0 cm 238,452,952
China 169.7 cm 1,298,847,624
Pakistan 169.3 cm 159,196,336
Japan 168.3 cm 127,333,002
Mongolia 168.0 cm 2,751,314
India 167.6 cm 1,065,070,607
Italy 165.6 cm 58,057,477
Philippines 165.0 cm 86,241,697
Korea, North 164.9 cm 22,697,553
Malaysia 163.5 cm 23,522,482
Vietnam 162.5 cm 82,689,518 Singapore 162.2 cm 4,353,893
Cambodia 160.0 cm 13,363,421 If you look at the American-born Vietnamese, you'll notice that they tend to be taller than their parents and their counterparts in Vietnam due to the diet and advance healthcare. Why is it so hard for some of you Khmer to understand that? The average height of American-born Vietnamese are 5'7 - 5'10, many are over 6 ft (I'm related to one) but they are still an exception.
http://www.time.com/time/health/arti...820836,00.htmlSkeletons and written records show that human beings today are inches taller than humans just a century or two ago. And yet even today average heights vary among different nationalities, even among genetically homogenous populations, like the South Koreans and North Koreans. (South Koreans are taller.) John Komlos, professor of economics at the University of Munich and a pioneer in studying human well-being through history, explains what governs human height, and why some populations are taller than others.
Q: Why are people taller today than yesterday?
A: There are two main reasons. One is that the diet has improved considerably. In spite of some very negative aspects of the diet of industrialized populations, we have much better vitamin, mineral and protein intake than 100 or 200 years ago. As a consequence the body can grow much better.
In addition, our health has improved considerably along with medical technology. We have fewer endemic diseases, and fewer epidemic diseases. That is important because an incidence of disease usually means that the nutrients we do consume are not absorbed by the body sufficiently. Diseases lay a claim on our energy intake, so that there is not enough left over for the body to grow. These two factors play a considerable role.
We have been increasing in height for about 140 years. Prior to that, there were cycles in height, depending on economic circumstances and agricultural productivity and so forth. We were relatively tall in the Middle Ages, when population densities were relatively low and food supplies were still fairly adequate. The low point was in the 17th century. Frenchmen, for example, were about 162 cm on average [not quite 5 ft. 4 in.], which is extremely small. Only since about the middle of the 19th century has there been a general trend upwards.
The American population was the tallest in the world from about the American Revolution to World War II — that's a long time. (There is a genetic component to [population] height, but there is very little genetic difference between European populations or their overseas offshoots.) America had a very resource-rich environment, with game, fish and wildlife. In fact we have data on disadvantaged people in America, such as slaves. They were obviously among the most mistreated populations in the world, but given the resource abundance — and given the fact that the slave owners needed their work — they had to be fed relatively decently. So slaves were taller than European peasants. It's no wonder that Europeans were just flooding to America.
[Americans today are no longer the tallest people in the world.] After the Second World War, many Western and Northern European countries began to adopt certain favorable social policies. There is universal health insurance in most of these societies — that, of course, makes a difference in health care. You can also consider income inequality in America, since people who are at the low end of the totem pole have considerable adversity making ends meet. I suspect the difference [in height between Americans and Europeans] is due to both diet and health care.
Americans today suffer from an additional problem: obesity. If children are too well nourished, then they're not able to grow optimally. There are certain hormones that control the onset of the adolescent growth spurt and the onset of adolescence. Nutrition is one of the factors, along with genetic and hormonal ones, that are associated with the onset of puberty. Overnutrition prior to adolescence may affect the hormonal system and may produce too much growth hormone prior to puberty, so that sex steroids are produced earlier. And if that comes too early, then the youth will peak out sooner, and will not become as tall in adulthood as someone who had better nutrition. Also, the overload of carbohydrates and fats in a fast-food diet may hinder the consumption of micronutrients essential to growth.