PMID: 6399446Jan 1, 1984Paper

Peopling of northern North America: clues from genetic studies

Acta Anthropogenetica
E J Szathmary

Abstract

The paper reviews the archaeological evidence for the length of human occupation in N. America and raises the question whether single or multiple movements of people out of Asia into America occurred, pointing out that considerable genetic variation can occur in small isolated populations in relatively short periods of time. The entire subarctic culture area is populated by speakers of either Athapascan or Algonkian language families. The archaeologic record for tracing the origin of these linguistic groups depends on items of material culture and these have been used to trace the origin of the modern peoples back for a few thousand years. Comparison between groups based on genetic data suffers from unevenness of the data for various Athapascan-and Algonkian-speaking groups. The problem is made more difficult by the smallness of populations and inadequate sample size. The gene diversity measure H of Nei has been used on data for the Athapaskan Dogrib. It suggests that there was probably significant gene diversity present in sub-arctic groups in pre-contact times. Probably this is true also for the Algonkians as typified by the Ojibwa. Examination of the apportioned gene diversity shows that the bulk of the diversity exists with...Continue Reading

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