Revision summary
Genes and hormones set tempo and a stature range. Nutrition and infection decide whether that range is reached. Altitude, toxins, and workload add environmental load. Secular trend and feeding bias are cultural-historical factors. Tanner charts make the factors visible as velocity.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
Growth is increase in size. Development is change in proportion, maturity, and function. Both answer to genes, hormones, nutrition, disease, and the social house.
Body
Genetic and endocrine
- Polygenic stature, sex chromosomes, and syndromes such as Turner set a range.
- GH, thyroid, and sex steroids time the infant, childhood, and adolescent spurts that Tanner charted.
Nutrition and disease
- Protein-energy lack, iodine, iron, and zinc deficits stunt. Infection and diarrhoea cut velocity.
- Catch-up growth can occur if the insult ends early.
Environment and culture
- Altitude, climate, and workload shape chest and muscle. Prenatal smoking and alcohol harm.
- Secular trend: better food and sanitation raise adult height across generations.
- Gender bias in feeding, as in some Indian households, is a cultural growth factor.
- Emotion and deprivation, as in neglected children, also flatten curves.
Method note
- Longitudinal studies separate tempo from size. One school weighing cannot.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD GD[Growth development] --> GEN[Genes hormones] GD --> NUT[Nutrition infection] GD --> SOC[Care gender class]
Conclusion
Human growth is gene and hormone range filled or emptied by food, infection, altitude, and care. Anthropology watches the household as much as the endocrine axis.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Is short stature always malnutrition?
No. It may be familial, syndromic, or endocrine. Context decides.
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Does exercise stunt growth?
Moderate sport does not. Extreme energy deficit in young athletes can delay puberty.
Same topic · past papers
UPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
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2025 · Q4(a) · Anthropology GS 1 · 20 marks
Anthropology provides a multidimensional understanding of human beings by bridging the gap between science and humanities. Elucidate -
2016 · Q8(b) · Anthropology GS 1 · 15 marks
Discuss the genetic and non-genetic factors in the bio-cultural adaptations of human beings to different environments.
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