Nonleptokurtic Marriage Distances on Colonsay and Jura

Marriage distance (the most likely ground transportation distance between spouse birth places) indicates the pattern of human gene flow over space, & hence the magnitude of the gene pool; it remains one of the prime determinants of genetic structure in human populations. Marriage distances are u...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current anthropology 1982-02, Vol.23 (1), p.105-106
Main Author: Sheets, John W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biology
Demography
Evolutionary genetics
Human biology
Human genetics
Human populations
Marriage
Marriage/Marriages/Marital
Physical anthropology
Research Conclusions
Scotland/Scottish
Spouses
Transportation
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Summary:Marriage distance (the most likely ground transportation distance between spouse birth places) indicates the pattern of human gene flow over space, & hence the magnitude of the gene pool; it remains one of the prime determinants of genetic structure in human populations. Marriage distances are usually leptokurtic distributions in tribal, provincial, historical, ethnic, & Ur populations. Marriage distances derived from a demographic, genealogical, & medical survey of the 1977 populations on the islands of Colonsay (127 persons) & Jura (211 persons), the Scottish Inner Hebrides, show nonleptokurtic patterns. Distributions of marriage distances for insular populations are often isotropic because spouses come from all adjacent islands; Colonsay & Jura, however, show orientation in marriage distance from the mainland. The secondary mode of each distribution represents exogamous spouses from the Glasgow region of western Scotland; the transportation & communication networks to Colonsay & Jura originate in Glasgow. Both 1977 insular marriage distances reflect "economic opportunity afforded by available technology & transportation routes" over the highly discontinuous topography of western Scotland. 2 Figures, 19 References. AA.
ISSN:0011-3204
1537-5382
DOI:10.1086/202783