Cerdanya: mountain valley, genetic highway

Abstract

In this paper the records of 7844 marriages in the parishes of French and Spanish sectors of the Cerdanya Valley have been analysed. The Cerdanya is an eastern Pyrenean valley, today divided by the Franco-Spanish border, but once united within Catalonia. The results have been reported on the one hand on a small scale using local place names, and on the other hand on a wider scale across France and Spain, because interest lies both in the geographic range from which some marital partners have come and in the relative proportions of brides and grooms from the French and Spanish parts of Cerdanya and from adjacent districts. Both mountains and the Franco-Spanish border are shown to have reduced the likelihood of marriage. Inaccessible mountain barriers appear to have been a greater obstacle to marital movement than the border. Adjacent districts and local provinces have provided a greater proportion of brides and grooms than more distant ones, but thereafter frequencies from the further regions do not decrease with greater distance. More marital partners have moved from Spain to France than vice-versa, and mobility of grooms exceeded mobility of brides. Results are relevant to genetics and the current European interest in nationality and ethnicity.

Genetics of Population Exchange Along the Historical Portuguese–spanish Border

“…Less attention has been given to political barriers such as national borders. Using molecular markers, genetic differences in Europe have been related to nationality (Novembre et al, 2008), thus confirming what had been previously observed at the regional level (Bolsen & Lasker, 1996;Scapoli et al, 2007) and at the level of the Iberian Peninsula (Pallarés, 1990;Abade, 1992;Eizaguirre, 1994;Macbeth et al, 1996;González-Martín & Toja, 2002). Whatever the other environmental variables, studying the degree to which the political barriers limit the movement of individuals and of genes may contribute to explaining the genetic differentiation observed among geographically close populations.…”

Mate Choice in Olivenza: Influence of Border Change on Spanish–portuguese Lineages

“…Several studies considering nationality have been based on surnames, such as those of Bolsen & Lasker (1996), Riegler et al (2007) and Scapoli et al (2007). Concerning previous studies on mating patterns in Spain and Portugal, Pallarés (1990), Abade (1992), Macbeth et al (1996) and González-Martìn & Toja (2002) considered communities close to the Spanish border, but only the study of Eizaguirre (1994) on some trans-frontier parishes at the northern Spanish-Portuguese border and based on surnames and places of birth and residence, is relevant to the present research.…”

Influence of Changes in Political Barriers and of Geographic Distance on Kinship Inferred from Surnames and Migration Data in Olivenza, Spain, and Surrounding Portuguese Areas

“…France and Spain made it difficult to differentiate between the influence of the two (Macbeth et al 1996). In northern Portugal, Abade (1992) and Eizaguirre (1994) gave more importance to geography and to the rivers that acted as borders than to the political boundaries.…”

“…The importance of political borders as factors limiting the gene flow has been previously indicated by Boldsen and Lasker (1996) with regard to the Danish-German border; by Macbeth et al, (1996) in the Cerdanya valley between France and Spain and by Abade (1992) and Eizaguirre (1994) in the north-western Spanish-Portuguese border.…”