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The genetic structure of a tribal population, the Yanomama Indians
Author(s) -
NEEL JAMES V.
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
annals of human genetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.537
H-Index - 77
eISSN - 1469-1809
pISSN - 0003-4800
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-1809.1957.tb01399.x
Subject(s) - annals , population , citation , library science , classics , sociology , demography , history , computer science
To the extent that a key issue can ever be identified in biology, understanding the significance of the large amount of genetic variation encountered in all properly studied outbreeding plant and animal species is the key issue in population genetics today. A meaningful discussion of this issue is seriously hampered by lack of data on the breeding structure of natural populations. Human populations offer unusual advantages for the study of population structure. Ancestry and recent patterns of migration of individuals and groups can be determined with a precision not possible for other 'wild' populations, as can individual reproductive performances. History and archaeology supply additional data on population movements in the past also usually not available for other types of organisms. While data on all types of human populations are greatly to be desired, data on the surviving relatively unacculturated, tribal-type populations are especially critical. The parameters of these populations come closest to reflecting the circumstances under which human evolution occurred and under which the vast amount of variability now known to be present in human populations arose. Such populations will not long be available for study. Guided by these and other considerations, in 1961 we initiated a major programme directed