| Biohistorical approaches to "race" in the United States: Biological distances among African Americans, European Americans, and their ancestors. | |
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MedLine Citation:
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PMID: 19226643 Owner: NLM Status: MEDLINE |
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
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Folk taxonomies of race are the categorizations used by people in their everyday judgments concerning the persons around them. As cultural traditions, folk taxonomies may shape gene flow so that it is unequal among groups sharing geography. The history of the United States is one of disparate people being brought together from around the globe, and provides a natural experiment for exploring the relationship between culture and gene flow. The biohistories of African Americans and European Americans were compared to examine whether population histories are shaped by culture when geography and language are shared. Dental morphological data were used to indicate phenotypic similarity, allowing diachronic change through United States history to be considered. Samples represented contemporary and historic African Americans and European Americans and their West African and European ancestral populations (N = 1445). Modified Mahalanobis' D(2) and Mean Measure of Divergence statistics examined how biological distances change through time among the samples. Results suggest the social acceptance for mating between descendents of Western Europeans and Eastern and Southern European migrants to the United States produced relatively rapid gene flow between the groups. Although African Americans have been in the United States much longer than most Eastern and Southern Europeans, social barriers have been historically stronger between them and European Americans. These results indicate that gene flow is in part shaped by cultural factors such as folk taxonomies of race, and have implications for understanding contemporary human variation, relationships among prehistoric populations, and forensic anthropology. |
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Authors:
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Heather J H Edgar |
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Publication Detail:
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Type: Historical Article; Journal Article |
Journal Detail:
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Title: American journal of physical anthropology Volume: 139 ISSN: 1096-8644 ISO Abbreviation: Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. Publication Date: 2009 May |
Date Detail:
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Created Date: 2009-04-20 Completed Date: 2009-07-16 Revised Date: - |
Medline Journal Info:
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Nlm Unique ID: 0400654 Medline TA: Am J Phys Anthropol Country: United States |
Other Details:
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Languages: eng Pagination: 58-67 Citation Subset: IM |
Copyright Information:
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2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. |
Affiliation:
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Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 87131, USA. hjhedgar@unm.edu |
Export Citation:
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APA/MLA Format Download EndNote Download BibTex |
| MeSH Terms | |
Descriptor/Qualifier:
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African Americans
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classification,
genetics* Anthropology, Physical / history, methods* Continental Population Groups / classification*, history* Culture* European Continental Ancestry Group / classification, genetics* History, 17th Century History, 18th Century History, 19th Century History, 20th Century Humans Models, Theoretical* Odontometry Principal Component Analysis United States |
| Comments/Corrections | |
Comment In:
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Am J Phys Anthropol. 2009 May;139(1):1-4
[PMID:
19226646
]
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From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
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