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Model-bound and model-free approach in study of population structure: Example from the Peninsula of Pelješac, Croatia

Within the framework of holistic anthropological investigations of the rural populations of eastern Adriatic, Croatia, various measures of biological (polygenic system) distances (anthropometrical, physiological, metacarpal bone and dermatoglyphic traits), genetic (monogenic system of erythrocyte antigens), socio-cultural (linguistic) and bio-cultural distances (kinship coefficient estimated from migrational data) between inhabitants of six populations (villages) of Pelješac peninsula were calculated. In the analysis of the population structure, the model-bound (Malecot"s isolation by distance) and model-free approach (analysis of the structure of rank-correlation matrices among different distance and similarity measures) were applied. The results revealed greater similarity in socio-cultural, bio-cultural and monogenic system distances than in polygenic system biological traits. The former group of distances revealed better "fit" to the isolation by distance model, the effect of which exists among neighboring villages of Pelješac Peninsula, but disappears very quickly (after about 10 km) at the borders of historically restricted parishes ("contrade"). The authors discuss the application of model-bound and model-free approach in the study of population structure, stressing the dependence of the rate of (micro)evolutionary processes upon the historical processes that favored or restricted the gene flow. Results of different processes of homogenization and/or selective inertia were discussed, on strictly biological, bio-cultural and socio-cultural traits in the formation of population structure.

population structure; biological distances; migrational kinship; peninsula of Pelješac; population genetics; anthropology

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