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Social class, admixture, and skin color variation in Mexican‐Americans and Anglo‐Americans living in San Antonio, Texas
Author(s) -
Relethford John H.,
Stern Michael P.,
Gaskill Sharon P.,
Hazuda Helen P.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
american journal of physical anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1096-8644
pISSN - 0002-9483
DOI - 10.1002/ajpa.1330610110
Subject(s) - social class , ethnic group , socioeconomic status , demography , skin color , population , mexican americans , geography , variation (astronomy) , gerontology , sociology , medicine , political science , anthropology , physics , artificial intelligence , astrophysics , computer science , law
Social class may act in different ways as a barrier to gene flow in urban populations, depending on ethnicity. We test the hypothesis that biological variation is affected by social class subdivision using skin reflectance data collected for 393 Anglo‐American and 930 Mexican‐American adults in the major urban population of San Antonio, Texas. Two socioeconomic groups were sampled for the Anglo‐American population: a middle‐income transitional group and a high‐income suburban group. In addition, we sampled a third socioeconomic group for Mexican‐Americans: a low income barrio . Sex and age effects on skin color are minimal. Social class has no effect on skin color variation for Anglo‐Americans, whereas there is a highly significant effect on social class subdivision for Mexican‐Americans. Admixture estimates were derived from skin reflectance data and show that the proportion of native American ancestry decreases as social class increases.