Sharp increase in inequality in education in times of the COVID-19-pandemic.

The COVID-19-pandemic forced many countries to close schools abruptly in the spring of 2020. These school closures and the subsequent period of distance learning has led to concerns about increasing inequality in education, as children from lower-educated and poorer families have less access to (additional) resources at home. This study analyzes differences in declines in learning gains in primary education in the Netherlands for reading, spelling and math, using rich data on standardized test scores and register data on student and parental background for almost 300,000 unique students. The results show large inequalities in the learning loss based on parental education and parental income, on top of already existing inequalities. The results call for a national focus on interventions specifically targeting vulnerable students.

Quinoa, potatoes, and llamas fueled emergent social complexity in the Lake Titicaca Basin of the Andes.

The Lake Titicaca basin was one of the major centers for cultural development in the ancient world. This lacustrine environment is unique in the high, dry Andean altiplano, and its aquatic and terrestrial resources are thought to have contributed to the florescence of complex societies in this region. Nevertheless, it remains unclear to what extent local aquatic resources, particularly fish, and the introduced crop, maize, which can be grown in regions along the lakeshores, contributed to facilitating sustained food production and population growth, which underpinned increasing social political complexity starting in the Formative Period (1400 BCE to 500 CE) and culminating with the Tiwanaku state (500 to 1100 CE). Here, we present direct dietary evidence from stable isotope analysis of human skeletal remains spanning over two millennia, together with faunal and floral reference materials, to reconstruct foodways and ecological interactions in southern Lake Titicaca over time. Bulk stable isotope analysis, coupled with compound-specific amino acid stable isotope analysis, allows better discrimination between resources consumed across aquatic and terrestrial environments. Together, this evidence demonstrates that human diets predominantly relied on C3 plants, particularly quinoa and tubers, along with terrestrial animals, notably domestic camelids. Surprisingly, fish were not a significant source of animal protein, but a slight increase in C4 plant consumption verifies the increasing importance of maize in the Middle Horizon. These results underscore the primary role of local terrestrial food resources in securing a nutritious diet that allowed for sustained population growth, even in the face of documented climate and political change across these periods.

Temporal, spatial and gender-based dietary differences in middle period San Pedro de Atacama, Chile: A model-based approach.

To explore the possible emergence and lived consequences of social inequality in the Atacama, we analyzed a large set (n = 288) of incredibly well preserved and contextualized human skeletons from the broad Middle Period (AD 500-1000) of the San Pedro de Atacama (Chile) oases. In this work, we explore model-based paleodietary reconstruction of the results of stable isotope analysis of human bone collagen and hydroxyapatite. The results of this modeling are used to explore local phenomena, the nature of the Middle Period, and the interaction between local situations and the larger world in which the oases were enmeshed by identifying the temporal, spatial, and biocultural correlates and dimensions of dietary difference. Our analyses revealed that: 1) over the 600-year period represented by our sample, there were significant changes in consumption patterns that may evince broad diachronic changes in the structure of Atacameño society, and 2) at/near 600 calAD, there was a possible episode of social discontinuity that manifested in significant changes in consumption practices. Additionally, while there were some differences in the level of internal dietary variability among the ayllus, once time was fully considered, none of the ayllus stood out for having a more (or less) clearly internally differentiated cuisine. Finally, sex does not appear to have been a particularly salient driver of observed dietary differences here. While we do not see any de facto evidence for complete dietary differentiation (as there is always overlap in consumption among individuals, ayllus, and time periods, and as isotopic analysis is not capable of pinpointing different foods items or preparations), there are broad aspects of dietary composition changing over time that are potentially linked to status, and foreignness. Ultimately, these stand as the clearest example of what has been termed "gastro-politics," potentially tied to the emergence of social inequality in the San Pedro oases.

Ecological variation and institutionalized inequality in hunter-gatherer societies.

Research examining institutionalized hierarchy tends to focus on chiefdoms and states, while its emergence among small-scale societies remains poorly understood. Here, we test multiple hypotheses for institutionalized hierarchy, using environmental and social data on 89 hunter-gatherer societies along the Pacific coast of North America. We utilize statistical models capable of identifying the main correlates of sustained political and economic inequality, while controlling for historical and spatial dependence. Our results indicate that the most important predictors relate to spatiotemporal distribution of resources. Specifically, higher reliance on and ownership of clumped aquatic (primarily salmon) versus wild plant resources is associated with greater political-economic inequality, measuring the latter as a composite of internal social ranking, unequal access to food resources, and presence of slavery. Variables indexing population pressure, scalar stress, and intergroup conflict exhibit little or no correlation with variation in inequality. These results are consistent with models positing that hierarchy will emerge when individuals or coalitions (e.g., kin groups) control access to economically defensible, highly clumped resource patches, and use this control to extract benefits from subordinates, such as productive labor and political allegiance in a patron-client system. This evolutionary ecological explanation might illuminate how and why institutionalized hierarchy emerges among many small-scale societies.

Impacts and Echoes: The Lasting Influence of the White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, and Health.

The 1969 White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, and Health had a significant influence on the direction of food and nutrition policy in the United States. The conference produced recommendations leading to federal legislation and programs to alleviate hunger and malnutrition, improve consumers' nutrition knowledge through education and labeling, and monitor the nutritional status of the population. Fifty years later, its legacy was revisited at a conference convened by Harvard University and Tufts University. This article reviews the literature contributing to the first author's keynote speech at the conference, its influencers, and its influences. We focus on the highlights of five domains that set the stage for the conference: the social environment, the food environment, nutrition science, public health data, and policy events. We briefly describe the conference, its proposed directions, and its lasting legacy in these five domains.

[From "culprits" to "victims:" the expansion and professionalization of the healthcare system in the province of Mendoza in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century]. / De "culpables" a "víctimas": expansión y profesionalización del sistema de salud en la provincia Mendoza a fines del siglo XIX y principios del XX.

From the late 19th century to the beginning of the 20th, the province of Mendoza presented problematic sanitary conditions due to rapid demographic and urban growth, the scarcity of public services, and the poor state of the old colonial city (destroyed by the 1861 earthquake), which facilitated the spread of various infectious diseases. The objective of this article is to inquire into the ways in which the healthcare system in the province of Mendoza both expanded and became increasingly professionalized from the late 19th to early 20th century. We explore how these factors, along with the predominant social representations of disease that permeated the discourses of governing elites, influenced public policy aimed at combating the diseases of the time. To that end, we consulted a wide range of written documents and photographic material that allowed us to analyze changes in discourse as well as public policy.

Entre fines del siglo XIX y comienzos del XX, la provincia de Mendoza presentaba un estado sanitario marcado por el crecimiento demográfico y urbanístico, la escasez de los servicios públicos y la destrucción de la antigua ciudad colonial como consecuencia del terremoto de 1861, lo que propiciaba un ambiente favorable para el desarrollo de diversas enfermedades infectocontagiosas. El objetivo de este artículo es indagar cómo se fue profesionalizando y expandiendo el sistema de salud en la provincia de Mendoza a fines del siglo XIX e inicios del XX, y cómo esos factores, junto con las representaciones sobre la enfermedad que predominaban en el discurso de la elite gobernante, incidieron en las políticas públicas para combatir las dolencias de la época. Para ello se consultaron diversos documentos escritos y fotográficos que permitieron analizar las modificaciones del discurso y las políticas públicas implementadas.

"Understanding growth convergence in India (1981-2010): Looking beyond the usual suspects".

The literature on growth convergence has focused to a great extent on the role of initial incomes as a primary determinant of long-term growth outcomes. Expanded versions of growth models have used other explanators to unpack the growth process. In this paper we add to the literature in two significant ways: (a) we use socioeconomic variables that are sometimes overlooked in explaining growth (such as, political stability and political alliance, social heterogeneity, and demographic distribution), and (b) we demonstrate that earlier analyses may be overlooking the problem of normality and endogeneity in regression models (and we provide alternate methods like instrumental variable and distribution dynamics to control for these). In this paper we analyze the per capita income growth at the subnational level in India for the period 1981-82 to 2010-11 using an expanded growth framework. We find that initial incomes, the ratio of working age group to total population, political stability and alliance, and the extent of development expenditure play a positive and significant role in predicting growth. We also find that, contrary to popular belief, the presence of marginalized groups-namely Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes-have not been a hindrance to growth of per capita incomes in states. Our findings on the influence of social institutions may have significant implications for a public policy of affirmative action in India. The results on the impact of development expenditure on growth is also important for states seeking to increase their growth rates through policy intervention.

Male fertility between biology and the socioeconomic context news from the past (Alghero, 1866-1935).

In the process of fertility decline, the role and participation of men have hardly been considered in the demographic literature. It has grown only as fertility was dropping dramatically in most Western countries, but very little has been done to analyze such an issue in historical populations. Based on individual-level data, the present paper aims at investigating, by means of hazard models, the role of males in the reproductive pattern of the pre-transitional population of Alghero, Sardinia (1866-1935). The results show a slower decrease of male fertility (-23% at 40-49 years; around -50% at 50+) compared to female fertility (about -40% already at 35-49 years), with significant differentials by socioeconomic status (SES). Wealthier men present, in fact, lower fertility than poorest ones, with a gap that, however, reduces with age and even reverses at 50+ years. The reason for such a change is likely to be partly associated with the better health conditions of the wealthy group, developed especially in adulthood, given the absence of a significant relationship between height and fertility SES differentials.

New anthropometric evidence on living standards in nineteenth-century Chile.

A sample of over 44 thousand Chilean marines was used to estimate the trend of mean heights from the 1820s to the 1890s. We confirm that there was height stagnation in the last decades of the nineteenth-century Chile despite sizeable per capita GDP growth; there were hidden nutritional costs to this economic growth. This situation resembles a similar puzzle in antebellum USA or early industrial Britain, but in the case of Chile GDP growth is not explained by industrialization but by export-led-growth. Still, the results are similar: height stagnation. Regarding the determinants of adult male height, our data also convincingly showed that there was a significant correlation between height and literacy. There was a positive correlation between height and white ethnicity, and, linked to this, a strong negative correlation between stature and eyes reported as "black". Finally, living in urban environments (or environments with higher population density) also negatively affected height.

Height inequality and socioeconomic implications in Korea: analysis of individuals born between 1890 and 1919.

This study examined height inequality as an indicator of income inequality during the colonial period (1910-1945) in Korea. Data were taken from a sample of 1796 male prisoners from a wide range of geographical locations and with varied socioeconomic backgrounds. Height inequality was measured using the coefficient of variation of height (CV) for each birth decade. The results indicated that height inequality, as measured by the CV, increased slightly from 3.32 to 3.35 for the birth decades 1890-99 and 1900-09, then jumped to 3.50 for the birth decade 1910-19. Considering the Kuznets curve, the presented results have socioeconomic implications for Japan's impact in Korea, at least during the early colonial period.

Socioeconomic differences in diet: An isotopic examination of post-Medieval Chichester, West Sussex.

OBJECTIVES: Historical evidence suggests that social hierarchy pervaded all aspects of society in post-Medieval England. This study uses stable isotope analysis to explore the extent to which socioeconomic status and sex affected the dietary habits of the inhabitants of post-Medieval Chichester. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios were measured on 40 human burials from the post-Medieval site of St. Michael's Litten (Chichester, West Sussex, England). Samples were selected from three burial types that denoted differing socioeconomic status with roughly equal numbers of males and females: tomb burials (n = 13) for high-status; single coffin burials (n = 14) for middle-status; and shroud burials (n = 13) for low-status individuals. RESULTS: The data showed a largely terrestrial diet with the possibility of some inclusion of marine resources. The isotope results indicate significant variation in the consumption of terrestrial meat (and marine protein) between high-status tomb burials and coffin and shroud burials, showing that socioeconomic status likely played a role in daily dietary patterns. However, the isotope data suggest sex did not influence an individual's diet. DISCUSSION: These results mirror trends established in status-based studies from elsewhere in post-Medieval England. However, notably absent from the data is evidence for significant marine resource consumption, which is a well-established dietary trend of the late Medieval and early post-Medieval periods. These results indicate post-Medieval Chichester was a socially stratified society with clear implications that the diet of higher status individuals differed significantly from lower status.

De "culpables" a "víctimas": expansión y profesionalización del sistema de salud en la provincia Mendoza a fines del siglo XIX y principios del XX / From "culprits" to "victims": the expansion and professionalization of the healthcare system in the province of Mendoza in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century

RESUMEN Entre fines del siglo XIX y comienzos del XX, la provincia de Mendoza presentaba un estado sanitario marcado por el crecimiento demográfico y urbanístico, la escasez de los servicios públicos y la destrucción de la antigua ciudad colonial como consecuencia del terremoto de 1861, lo que propiciaba un ambiente favorable para el desarrollo de diversas enfermedades infectocontagiosas. El objetivo de este artículo es indagar cómo se fue profesionalizando y expandiendo el sistema de salud en la provincia de Mendoza a fines del siglo XIX e inicios del XX, y cómo esos factores, junto con las representaciones sobre la enfermedad que predominaban en el discurso de la elite gobernante, incidieron en las políticas públicas para combatir las dolencias de la época. Para ello se consultaron diversos documentos escritos y fotográficos que permitieron analizar las modificaciones del discurso y las políticas públicas implementadas.

ABSTRACT From the late 19th century to the beginning of the 20th, the province of Mendoza presented problematic sanitary conditions due to rapid demographic and urban growth, the scarcity of public services, and the poor state of the old colonial city (destroyed by the 1861 earthquake), which facilitated the spread of various infectious diseases. The objective of this article is to inquire into the ways in which the healthcare system in the province of Mendoza both expanded and became increasingly professionalized from the late 19th to early 20th century. We explore how these factors, along with the predominant social representations of disease that permeated the discourses of governing elites, influenced public policy aimed at combating the diseases of the time. To that end, we consulted a wide range of written documents and photographic material that allowed us to analyze changes in discourse as well as public policy.

América Latina: una historia de violencia heredada. Revisión bibliográfica / Latin America: history of inherited violence.Reviewpaper

Introducción:América Latina a cinco décadas de seguir las políticas económicas y fiscales del Fondo Monetario Internacional y del Banco Mundial, que la llevarían al crecimiento y desarrollo y en lasque los Estados-gobiernos se centraron paraconstruir la democracia,sin tener el efecto deseado, al contrario,la región está viviendo en la violencia más profunda y creciente, sumado al reto delaCOVID-19. Objetivo:Conocer las causas que originaron esta situación, que afecta a la población vulnerable, que sufre la violencia en varios entornos y con efectos diversos. Metodología:Cualitativa (1970-2020); en lo histórico, económico, social, de desarrollo, de crecimiento y bienestar en la región, siguiendo los postulados de Amartya Sen del año 2000 con relación al ejerciciode las libertades de la población y su bienestar. Se prefirieron las revisiones, estados del arte, estudios y análisis. Resultados:Se encontró que el modelo económico colapsó desde 1980 pues fundamentó su base económica solo en los recursos naturales. Continuó la dependencia externa. Las políticas económicas, fiscales y asistenciales tampoco fueron efectivas. La población se quedó sin educación y empleo, generando migración creciente, pobreza extrema y vulnerabilidad. Centroamérica esla zona más golpeadaya que sus habitantes son mayoritariamente rurales e indígenas. Actualmente se sigue el mismo modelo. Regresó la violencia de las fuerzas policiales y esta se detonó también en la población como mecanismo de defensa y sobrevivencia. Conclusiones:Los hallazgos demuestran el fracaso del modelo;las políticas nunca consideraron la capacidad contributiva real, ni las demandas de educación, empleo, seguridad y bienestar. Finalmente, los efectos de la pandemia en la región, corroboran lo endeble del sistema de salud, la fragilidad de las economías y a nivel social, el inminente incremento de población vulnerablecon futuro incierto...(AU)

The historical roots and seminal research on health equity: a referenced publication year spectroscopy (RPYS) analysis.

BACKGROUND: Health equity is a multidimensional concept that has been internationally considered as an essential element for health system development. However, our understanding about the root causes of health equity is limited. In this study, we investigated the historical roots and seminal works of research on health equity. METHODS: Health equity-related publications were identified and downloaded from the Web of Science database (n = 67,739, up to 31 October 2018). Their cited references (n = 2,521,782) were analyzed through Reference Publication Year Spectroscopy (RPYS), which detected the historical roots and important works on health equity and quantified their impact in terms of referencing frequency. RESULTS: A total of 17 pronounced peaks and 31 seminal works were identified. The first publication on health equity appeared in 1966. But the first cited reference can be traced back to 1801. Most seminal works were conducted by researchers from the US (19, 61.3%), the UK (7, 22.6%) and the Netherlands (3, 9.7%). Research on health equity experienced three important historical stages: origins (1800-1965), formative (1966-1991) and development and expansion (1991-2018). The ideology of health equity was endorsed by the international society through the World Health Organization (1946) declaration based on the foundational works of Chadwick (1842), Engels (1945), Durkheim (1897) and Du Bois (1899). The concept of health equity originated from the disciplines of public health, sociology and political economics and has been a major research area of social epidemiology since the early nineteenth century. Studies on health equity evolved from evidence gathering to the identification of cost-effective policies and governmental interventions. CONCLUSION: The development of research on health equity is shaped by multiple disciplines, which has contributed to the emergence of a new stream of social epidemiology and political epidemiology. Past studies must be interpreted in light of their historical contexts. Further studies are needed to explore the causal pathways between the social determinants of health and health inequalities.

"The dead shall be raised": Multidisciplinary analysis of human skeletons reveals complexity in 19th century immigrant socioeconomic history and identity in New Haven, Connecticut.

In July 2011, renovations to Yale-New Haven Hospital inadvertently exposed the cemetery of Christ Church, New Haven, Connecticut's first Catholic cemetery. While this cemetery was active between 1833 and 1851, both the church and its cemetery disappeared from public records, making the discovery serendipitous. Four relatively well-preserved adult skeletons were recovered with few artifacts. All four individuals show indicators of manual labor, health and disease stressors, and dental health issues. Two show indicators of trauma, with the possibility of judicial hanging in one individual. Musculoskeletal markings are consistent with physical stress, and two individuals have arthritic indicators of repetitive movement/specialized activities. Radiographic analyses show osteopenia, healed trauma, and other pathologies in several individuals. Dental calculus analysis did not identify any tuberculosis indicators, despite osteological markers. Isotopic analyses of teeth indicate that all four were likely recent immigrants to the Northeastern United States. Nuclear and mitochondrial DNA were recovered from three individuals, and these analyses identified ancestry, hair/eye color, and relatedness. Genetic and isotopic results upended our initial ancestry assessment based on burial context alone. These individuals provide biocultural evidence of New Haven's Industrial Revolution and the plasticity of ethnic and religious identity in the immigrant experience. Their recovery and the multifaceted analyses described here illuminate a previously undescribed part of the city's rich history. The collective expertise of biological, geochemical, archaeological, and historical researchers interprets socioeconomic and cultural identity better than any one could alone. Our combined efforts changed our initial assumptions of a poor urban Catholic cemetery's membership, and provide a template for future discoveries and analyses.

The association between network centrality and standard of living in a historical agrarian population.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between network centrality and living standards as measured by fertility and mortality responses to short-term economic stress. METHODS: Cox proportional hazard models estimate the effects of staple grain price variation and eigenvector and beta centrality within marriage and labor networks on the timing of births and child mortality (1-14 years) in a historical demographic data set from North Orkney, Scotland, 1851-1911. RESULTS: Households that are peripheral to the marriage and labor network experience lower chances of a birth when food prices are high. The fertility of more central households is less sensitive to price changes. A similar, but weaker, pattern holds for child mortality, which is also sensitive to price fluctuations, although the social gradient is not as clear. CONCLUSIONS: Marriage and labor network centrality is an indicator of standard of living in this remote, agricultural population. Households that are firmly embedded in the network are able to overcome and adjust to short-term economic stress without demographic consequences, while those at the edges of the community experience delayed reproduction in poor years consistent with unplanned responses to stress.

"A Normal Amount of Masculine Hardness": Representations of Male Nurses in 1960s West Germany.

The nursing studies narrative of the role of masculinity can be summarized as follows: hegemonic masculinity prevents men from doing care work. An analysis of public relations efforts to recruit male nurses in West Germany during the 1960s does not provide evidence for such a link. Representing nursing as compatible with hegemonic masculinity was also able to legitimize the existence of male nurses, while the idea of promoting gender equality in nursing was advocated by exactly those institutions that enabled the eventual gender inequality within the profession. Finally, the thesis of hegemonic masculinity as some kind of anti-caregiving agent comes into question because of the success of the civilian service in West Germany, despite the gender shaming used to deter men from enlisting in it.