engleski

Assortative mate choice in the population of Brač, Croatia

Assortative mate choice in the population of the island of Brac was investigated using the techniques of potential mate analysis. The analysis is based on the presumption that mates are chosen from a "pool" of possible choices. The delineation of factors influencing the mate choice process was performed on the basis of the Dyke strategy (1971), which presupposes successive placement of constraints on the maximal mate pool. The total sample used for the analysis is comprised of 198 females from actual mate pairs and 545 male examinees, out of which 198 represent actual mates, and 347 potential mates. In the analysis, demographic, genealogical and anthropometric data were used for all examinees. The analysis has shown that the first-degree kinship among actual pairs is higher than the one within potential pairs. Following the exclusion of the males who are either more than three years younger or more than fourteen years older, the age difference of the sample of the actual pairs is not significantly different from the one in the sample of potential mate pairs. After the exclusion of the mates who were already married at the time of potential mate's wedding the average age difference, as well as the different kinship degree between the sample of actual and potential mate pairs were significant. Average anthropometric distances within the sample of actual and potential mates are not statistically significantly different. Average village endemicity, as well as, the average geographic distances between the natal villages of mates differs significantly between the samples of actual and potential mates.

assortative mating; the population of Brač; anthropology; population genetics

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