The Burg Wartenstein Symposia have become rightly celebrated for achieving their original purpose: to be of service and interest to the anthropological profes- sion as a whole and to contribute to related sciences. We are specially grateful to the Board of Directors of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research for the award of a symposium on Physical Anthropology and Nutritional Status. We had considered that such a subject was timely and that an inter-disciplinary approach would contribute useful knowledge in a most important area--particularly in the field of child health....