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Current Data On the Origin and Diversity of Peoples: The Contribution of Genetics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

André Langaney
André Langaney*
Affiliation:
Université de Genève

Extract

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It is not easy to understand the history and origin of the different peoples of today's world inasmuch as scientific data are partial and seemingly contradictory. These roughly fall into three categories:

  1. - prehistoric data are remains of cultures and human skeletons. They allow us to affirm that such and such a region was inhabited in such and such an epoch. Their absence, however, means nothing, and they hardly permit the attribution of a biological origin to the peoples of the past because of the rapid evolution of the forms and dimensions of the skeletons during the course of time;

  2. - present genetic data give an interesting picture of the biological relationship of peoples and of the way they diverged throughout history. Their interpretation is delicate, however, especially when it concerns small populations;

  3. - “biometric” data involve the measurement of pigmentation, dimensions and proportions of the body and organs. They are susceptible to very rapid variations during the course of history and mainly give an indication of the adaptation of the people to a certain kind of environment: tropical, temperate, cold or arctic, plain or altitude, forest, savannah, prairie, steppe or desert.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 33 , Issue 131 , May 1985 , pp. 74 - 84
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

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