engleski

New challenges in population structuring studies-a sceptical view

A caution is needed when generalizing and applying the information about human genetic and other population (biological, bio-cultural and sociocultural) traits throughout the globe. Recently, we are faced with an abundance of elaborated data concerning different (macro)evolutionary problems, presented hypotheses and theories about the sources of current human diversity. I intend to demonstrate, through elaborating some of the data collected during the decades of field research, some possibilities of their interpretation in a holistic manner and to provoke discussion about the implications of the emerging conclusions. I will present how anthropologists and human population genetists have become confronted with immense new possibilities and methods of research applied. The movement from the analyses of metric quantitative traits to physiological, biochemical and molecular genetic research, has been very rapid. The study on the formation of the population structure of a particular population requires the analyses of multiple sets of biological phenotypes, as well as of a number of sociocultural features. To determine mechanisms by which (micro)evolutionary forces act in each particular population, anthropologists adopt the holistic analytic approach. It is, in fact, a starting point in the understanding and possible interpretation of interrelations and interactions between biological, cultural and social factors under selective pressures forming every human group, trough the analyses such a "natural experiment". The results of decades of our analyses in Croatian island isolates showed that, although the wide spectrum of traits was examined, not all traits react to the (micro)evolutionary changes including their different intensity, providing an opportunity to analyse the problems through an approach not always applied in human genetic analyses - a holistic analytic approach. It indicates that even today many problems in population structure investigations will remain unanswered.

population structure; holistic analytic approach

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