Population relationships among historical and modern indigenous Siberians based on anthropometric characters

A comparison of anthropometric data recently collected from a modern population of Evenki and data collected from a group of Evenki at the turn of the century by the Jesup expedition (Boas 1903) reveals a pattern of significant changes over this time period. The modern Evenki exhibit larger sitting height and biacromial breadth but smaller bizygomatic and nasal breadth and a shorter face. Although the differences in the postcranial characters might be attributable to improvements in health and nutrition over time, those of the head and face might also indicate increased gene flow, perhaps from European populations. The comparative analysis of the anthropometric data was expanded to a multivariate approach by use of canonical variate analysis. This analysis was performed using data from the 10 populations sampled during the Jesup expedition along with the data from a sample of modern Evenki. In general, a pattern of relationships emerged, reflecting known population interactions and linguistic affiliations to a certain extent. However, the sample of modern Evenki differed substantially from all the other samples in the analysis. Although such a separation of the modern Evenki from this set of historical Siberian populations may be the result of a secular trend; it is also highly probable that it reflects new patterns of gene flow resulting from interactions and events associated with Russian colonial expansion and in this century the establishment of the Soviet state.