Eurasian Journal of Anthropology

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how economic, social, and cultural factors affect the
growth process in an economically developing country, Turkey. Growth studies carried out in
Turkey indicate that living in urban or rural areas affect children’s physical growth rate.
Furthermore, social and economic milieu influence children’s physical growth. As a reflection
of this fact, a positive secular trend can be observed in growth patterns accelerating after
World War 2, the period when substantive attempts to integrate into the world trade system
occurred. Children of families from upper socioeconomic classes grow at a faster rate than those
from both low and middle socioeconomic classes and those living in rural regions. Additionally, when the physical growth rates of children from rural regions and those from shanty
slums are compared, the growth rate in shanty slums proves greater. Yet, the opposite is true
of villages that receive advanced health care services and have a developed economy. These
studies also indicate that while growth rates of upper class Turkish children approach the
norms of Europe and the USA, those of children from middle and lower classes fall well below
them.