Demography in biological anthropology: Human population structure and evolution

The fact of human evolution is evident in the biological variation caused by the pattern of lines of descent. Theories of human evolution are the explanations of the fertility and mortality differentials that determine patterns of variation at the subspecific level. Migrations also influence the patterns. Because human beings plan migrations and marriages, theories relying solely on selective advantage and gene diffusion do not fully account for the observed patterns. These patterns can be interpreted through time and space as dense thickets of descent lines, often clustered into local fascicles held together by inbreeding. The patterns of descent lines are thus punctuated by births, sometimes ended by extinction of lines, but marked also by rich interconnections of the fascicles by filaments that represent marital migration. The patterns are neither solely of racial isolates nor of simple diffusion, but are the result of the complex sociocultural events that influence genetic demography, a field of study that some of Ed Hunt's work foreshadowed. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.