CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 11Pacific and Southeast Asian StudiesForensic and Genetic ResearchGenetic diversity and population structure

Inbreeding and surnames: A projection into Easter Island's past

González‐Martín, Antonio, García‐Moro, Clara, Hernández, Miguel, Moral, Pedro·2006·American Journal of Physical Anthropology
DOI 10.1002/ajpa.20285
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

The population of Easter Island is one of the most interesting extant human communities due to its unique demographic history, its geographic isolation, and the development of an incomparable culture characterized by the towering “Moais” and its enigmatic writing. Following the colonization of its population by Polynesians from the Mangarevan Islands in the 5th century AD, the island remained isolated up until the middle of the 20th century. Under these conditions, with endogamy levels fluctuating between 61.04–96.54% and given such a small population, a high rate of inbreeding, and consequently, an elevated level of genetic relationships would be expected. Using data from church and civil records, we calculated the consanguinity of the population of Rapa Nui. The results of this analysis do not support the hypothesis of a high level of consanguinity (α = 0.00028 and F t = 0.0007, with F r = 0.00586 and F n = −0.00519), suggesting instead the existence of a strategy used to avoid marriage between close relatives. To explain these observations, the structure and exchange dynamics of the population were studied in the tribes, known locally as “Mata.” The results of this analysis suggest a tendency toward the avoidance of inbreeding within tribes, in order to decrease the rate of endogamy in each group. This is consistent with ethnographic observations from the beginning of the 20th century that support the existence of strict regulations to prevent inbreeding between closely related individuals. Furthermore, we confirm that this situation dates back to a period before the “refounding” of Easter Island. Our results demonstrate that conditions of geographical isolation are not in themselves sufficient to produce an elevated inbreeding coefficient, revealing Easter Island as an interesting example of how cultural rules can shape the genetic structure of a population. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2006. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1002/ajpa.20285

Cites

100 of 100 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Unions between kin were seemingly infrequent pre-Peruvian slave raids and could have become more frequent in recent times.

    “Yet unions between kins were seemingly infrequent pre-Peruvian slave raids and could have become more frequent in recent times50.”

    From Ancient Rapanui genomes reveal resilience and pre-European contact with the Americas (2024) · cites this paper as [50]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
González‐Martín, A., García‐Moro, C., Hernández, M., & Moral, P.
Affiliations
  • Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo (MX)
  • Universitat de Barcelona (ES)
Corresponding author
González‐Martín, Antonio
ORCID
Venue
American Journal of Physical Anthropology
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2005-12
Volume
129
Issue
3
Pages
435-445
ISSN
  • 0002-9483 (ISSN-L)
  • 1096-8644
DOI
10.1002/ajpa.20285
OpenAlex
W2040438438
Cited by
11
References
100
Citations by year
2024: 1 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 1
FWCI
7.22
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor)
Locations
  • American Journal of Physical Anthropology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Geography, Planning and Development › Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Forensic and Genetic Research
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic diversity and population structure
Keywords
inbreeding, consanguinity, Easter Island, endogamy, surnames, marriage avoidance, tribal structure, population structure, Polynesian colonization, geographic isolation
MeSH terms
Consanguinity, Ethnicity, Genetics, Population, Humans, Names, Polynesia, Social Control, Informal, Cluster Analysis

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review