Relaxed Observance of Traditional Marriage Rules Allows Social Connectivity without Loss of Genetic Diversity.

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_96BEB87573D0
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Title
Relaxed Observance of Traditional Marriage Rules Allows Social Connectivity without Loss of Genetic Diversity.
Journal
Molecular Biology and Evolution
Author(s)
Guillot E.G., Hazelton M.L., Karafet T.M., Lansing J.S., Sudoyo H., Cox M.P.
ISSN
1537-1719 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
0737-4038
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2015
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
32
Number
9
Pages
2254-2262
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Publication Status: ppublish
Abstract
Marriage rules, the community prescriptions that dictate who an individual can or cannot marry, are extremely diverse and universally present in traditional societies. A major focus of research in the early decades of modern anthropology, marriage rules impose social and economic forces that help structure societies and forge connections between them. However, in those early anthropological studies, the biological benefits or disadvantages of marriage rules could not be determined. We revisit this question by applying a novel simulation framework and genome-wide data to explore the effects of Asymmetric Prescriptive Alliance, an elaborate set of marriage rules that has been a focus of research for many anthropologists. Simulations show that strict adherence to these marriage rules reduces genetic diversity on the autosomes, X chromosome and mitochondrial DNA, but relaxed compliance produces genetic diversity similar to random mating. Genome-wide data from the Indonesian community of Rindi, one of the early study populations for Asymmetric Prescriptive Alliance, are more consistent with relaxed compliance than strict adherence. We therefore suggest that, in practice, marriage rules are treated with sufficient flexibility to allow social connectivity without significant degradation of biological diversity.
Keywords
Culture, Female, Genetic Variation, Humans, Male, Marriage, Models, Genetic
Pubmed
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Create date
07/07/2015 13:54
Last modification date
20/08/2019 14:58
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