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> Average people were a foot shorter, and were probably at an IQ level around 70-75. A foot shorter, yes (we know this from all sorts of physical evidence) but
by neilk 14y ago
> Average people were a foot shorter, and were probably at an IQ level around 70-75.
A foot shorter, yes (we know this from all sorts of physical evidence) but how do we know the average IQ?
They also might have spent their mental processing power differently. Medieval people trained their memory much more - I think this also extended to the average peasant, but I can't find a reference right now.
- stcredzero 14y agoWhat I read from authors like Jared Diamond indicates to me that this is too often couched in ethnocentric terms and was heavily dependent on nutrition. In a highly extractive, oppressive state, I could believe people might be oppressed into a lower IQ. I'd also suspect that those regions would be out-competed by regions where the average people had better diets and whose intelligence is average. In the wilds of Papua New Guinea, lots of highlanders meeting us there would consider us clumsy and stupid and wonder how we run a complex civilization.