engleski

Reality and perception in holistic analytical approach to (Micro-)evolution studies of current populations

There are many doubts and dilemmas related to the question of whether to accept the results of micro(evolution) studies for the purpose of general understanding of human biological diversity.In our efforts to assess the present structure of some populations of interest, it is essential to find parameters that can provide satisfactory insight into a degree of populational (micro)differentiation. Therefore, in order to obtain the best possible insight into determinants and characteristics of micro(evolution) of populations, a holistic analytical approach is inevitable in the study of current population structure. The experience which we gained through a number of earlier studies made us aware of major differences between results of the assessments of population structure when using different types of traits. In these studies, various measures of genetic distances (estimated separately from nine STR loci, five HLA Class ll. polymorphism� s, ten erythrocyte antigens, isonymy and mtDNA haplogroups), biological distances (anthropometric, body and head, physiological, dermatogliphics and radiometric bone distances), biocultural kinship (migrartional kinship estimated for four periods in the last six generations and kinship estimated from isonymy) and sociocultural distances (linguistic, basic and cultural vocabulary) were calculated for the inhabitants of the settlements of the Eastern Adriatic island (Croatia) to obtain an insight into (micro-)evolution patterns of the island populations. Since previously obtained results showed that those traits do not react to the (micro-)evolutionary impact in the same manner, the main goals in this study are to search for certain repeating patterns i.e. sets of complementary relationships across different studied populations which may represent the traces of phenotypical expression of different genes or gene complexes, and to investigate the main determinants of interpopulational variation. Various possibilities of analyses and interpretation of the results obtained through � model-free� and model-bound� approaches will be presented to elucidate the problem of (micro-)evolution studies and possible generalization of their results since there was a significant discrepancy between variables and analytic methods. The discussion is aimed at identifying major sources of population variability that seemed to be partly variable-specific, but with significant contribution of non-random sociocultural and ethnohistorical effects and their interaction with population intrinsic homogenisational and variational peculiarities. Special attention is paid to the consideration of the sample and data problems for the cases when specific results should be considered on a larger population scale.

holistical anthropological aproach; (micro)evolution; population genetics; anthropology

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