engleski

Biocultural peculiarities of the population cohorts and their longevity

The population structure of the inhabitants of nine villages from Hvar Island, Croatia, has been studied through the analysis of 15 gene loci which encode the synthesis of erythrocyte antigens and isoenzymes. The total number of examines amounted to 946. The changes in population structure were examined separately, according to gravitation to western or eastern part of the island, by three generations (Generation I-examines born before 1920 ; Generation II-examines born between 1920-1940 ; Generation I I I-examines born after 1940). The correlation : between genetic structure of investigated populations according to generations and geographic position and the type and intensity of migrations was examined, using log-linear analysis. The investigation revealed that, during 20th century, socio-cultural and economic factors (continuing depopulation and marked migration processes) influenced the population structure of island inhabitants. Therefore, the a patterns that are apparent today reflect not only the peculiarities of ethnohistory of examined population (i.e. the differentiation on eastern and western populations subgroups due to "founder effect"-two different ancestral populations), but also more recent migrational processes, mainly oriented from eastern to western part of the island. Furthermore, it is very interesting to analyze the influence of sociocultur, a economical, demographic and ethnohistorical data on the patterns of longevity demonstrated by some specific island: subpopulations as well as its cohorts.

biocultural peculiarities; population cohorts; anthropology; population genetics

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