journal article
LitStream Collection
Home
doi: 10.1002/ajpa.1330390205pmid: 4750667
To introduce a set of genetic studies among Solomon Islanders, four tribal groups on Bougainville and Malaita Islands are described. They were observed in 1966 and 1968 by social anthropologists and biomedical scientists from Harvard University. The groups varied in habitat and way of life from fishermen living on artificial islets in a saltwater lagoon (the Lau, on Malaita) to shifting agriculturists (the Nasioi, on Bougainville, and the Kwaio and Baegu, on Malaita). The Nasioi were darker than the Malaitans and spoke a non‐Austronesian rather than a Melanesian language; they were also more Westernized. Coverage of residents in designated hamlets ranged from 78% to over 95%. In all, 1,626 persons were studied: 256 Nasioi, 443 Kwaio, 442 Lau, and 485 Baegu. Genetic differences have been found between the Nasioi and the Malaitans, and between the Lau and the other Malaitans.
Rhoads, John G.; Damon, Albert
doi: 10.1002/ajpa.1330390206pmid: 4750668
Among 1,438 persons in four Solomon Island populations, handclasp showed no age, sex, or tribal differences. The percentage of R‐claspers (right thumb on top), 66.4, exceeded those previously reported for Caucasian and Mongoloid peoples and resembled those for Oceanic and African samples. Handclasp was associated with handedness but not with armfold; it showed no assortative mating and no simple form of inheritance. Armfold showed an age association (more R‐folders among the youngest children), but none with sex or tribe, no assortative mating, and no pattern of inheritance. Its frequency, 41.4%, resembled those of populations around the world. Left handedness, 2.8% over all four tribes, paralleled contact with Western culture.
Papadopoulos, Cathleen C.; Damon, Albert
doi: 10.1002/ajpa.1330390207pmid: 4750669
Among 1,605 Solomon Islanders from four tribes, there was no sex difference in relative length of the first and second toes. In three of the tribes, longer first toes were slightly more frequent in persons over the age of 45. The percentages of longer first toes in the groups as a whole were 60.5% for Baegu, 66.4% for Nasioi, and 72.1% for Kwaio. These frequencies, resembling those reported for white Americans, Europeans, and single small samples of New Caledonians and Vietnamese, were much below those for Africans. The fourth tribe, the Lau, had only 37.1% with a longer first toe, the lowest percentage reproted so far around the world. No simple mode of single‐gene inheritance was apparent, and polygenic inheritance is proposed.
Hindley, Stewart W.; Damon, Albert
doi: 10.1002/ajpa.1330390208pmid: 4750670
Among 425 Lau and 467 Baegu of northern Malaita, there were no tribal differences in mid‐phalangeal hair. The trait was present more often in males than in females, and after puberty than before it. Age differences were more marked for males than for females. Among 168 men 20 years of age and older in both tribes, the frequency of mid‐phalangeal hair was 58.3%; among 189 women of similar age, 34.4%. These frequencies were at or just below those reported for Caucasian samples, just above that for Japanese, and considerably above those for Negroes and American Indians. Analysis of family data did not confirm the hypothesis that the absence of mid‐phalangeal hair is recessive to its presence.
Baldwin, John C.; Damon, Albert
doi: 10.1002/ajpa.1330390209pmid: 4750671
Married couples in four Solomon Islands tribes did not mate assortatively for body size or shape. All four groups had high correlations (0.6 to 0.9) between spouses' age and moderate correlations, 0.3 to 0.5, for age‐associated traits like nose height, ear length, and grayness of hair. Three brownskinned groups from Malaita (Kwaio, Lau, and Baegu) showed significant assortative mating for skin color whereas the very dark‐skinned Nasioi, from Bougainville, did not. The positive correlations between spouses for skin color, with r's for various bodily regions ranging from 0.2 to 0.6 in the three Malaitan tribes, persisted when age was partialled out. As expected with assortative mating, the Malaitans' skin color was highly variable.
Showing 1 to 10 of 37 Articles