A dermatoglyphic survey of Kenyan schoolchildren

The article reports on progress in the analysis of data from a dermatoglyphic survey of 6235 Kenyan schoolchildren, drawn from some 60 ethnic populations. The findings indicate considerable variation within Kenya for a majority of dermatoglyphic traits examined, often approaching the full sub-Saharan African range. The examination of inter-population relationships within Kenya is complex, owing to inconsistencies in population rankings both between phenetically unrelated traits and between the sexes. Moreover, no appreciable clustering of populations along linguistic or ethnic lines was detected during multivariate investigation.