Neighbourhood knowledge and the distribution of marriage distances

Boyce, A. J.; Küchemann, C. F.; Harrison, G. A.

doi:10.1111/j.1469-1809.1967.tb00035.x

Cited by 84 publications

(19 citation statements)

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“…This finding suggests that a lack of potential mates within a community will be satisfied primarily by an increase in local migration. This makes intuitive sense, since individuals searching for a mate outside of their own community will tend to find mates within a local area, as predicted by the neighborhood knowledge model of Boyce et al (1967), among others.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Density‐dependent migration and human population structure in historical Massachusetts

Relethford

1986

American J Phys Anthropol

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Studies of population structure often focus on the effects of population size and migration rates on genetic variation. Few studies, however, have investigated the relationship between these two factors. The purpose of this paper is to determine the extent to which migration (and gene flow) is density-dependent (that is, affected by population size) for populations in historical Massachusetts. Data from 4,859 marriage records were analyzed from four populations in north-central Massachusetts during the time period 1741 to 1849. These data were placed into 29 samples defined in terms of population and time cohort. Within each cohort the overall exogamy rate was computed along with three estimates of gene flow based on marital migration: local migration (k), long-distance migration (m), and effective migration rate (me). Three samples show unusually low rates that reflect the history of settlement. Regression analyses were used with the remaining samples, and they show nonlinear density-dependent migration that is unrelated to temporal trends. Migration is highest in samples with small population sizes (less than 800) and large population sizes (greater than 1,600). Migration is lowest in medium-sized populations. Two processes are suggested to explain this curvilinear relationship of migration and population size. In small populations, the lack of suitable potential mates and/or availability of settled land leads to an increase in migration into the population. As population size increases, this migration decreases. After populations reach a certain size, migration increases again, most likely reflecting the economic pull of larger populations. These patterns could act to enhance, or counter, genetic drift, depending on the direction of density dependence.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Density‐dependent migration and human population structure in historical Massachusetts

Relethford

1986

American J Phys Anthropol

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“…To take this aspect of human behavior in account, we sorted the married couples (and therefore the children) of each generation in the order of the husband's sibship number. This kept brothers (as well as cousins) together in the same neighborhoods in accordance with the pattern of patrilocal settling common among pastoral and feudal societies [Strickberger, 19681. The model could have incorporated one of a number of possible complex equations [Wright, 1951;Kimura and Weiss, 1964;Boyce et al, 1967;Cavalli-Sforza and Bodmer, 1971;Henneberg, 19791 to determine which member of the opposite sex in a person's immediate vicinity this person was likely to marry, if any. In contrast, our "neighborhoods" were defined as a number of sibships on either side of the individual's sibship whose members of the opposite sex are all equally available for marriage.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social mechanisms in the population genetics of Tay‐Sachs and other lethal autosomal recessive diseases: A computer simulation model

1990

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A computer simulation model was developed to study the effects of various feudal social customs on the incidence of lethal autosomal recessive genes. Populations of 500 individuals were created in which each person was characterized by sibship, genotype, and sex. The numbered sibships were sorted into numerical order. Each individual then sought a mate from 6 or 12 sibships on either side of his or her own sibship. The resulting couples were sorted in order of the husband's sibship number, after which the couples produced children in accordance with the prevailing birth rate. This ordering of sibships made the probability of a gene remaining in one locality higher than the probability of it drifting to distant localities. A lethal autosomal recessive gene was introduced into populations at a starting carrier rate of 10%. This fell after 20 generations to 2.54 +/- 0.17% (SEM) which was significantly less than the 5.00% carrier rate predicted by a deterministic model in which random mating occurred in an infinite population. The excessive loss of the lethal gene was caused by the high incidence of consanguineous marriages and by the occurrence of random inequalities in the distribution of the gene. The avoidance of sib marriages raised the final carrier frequency (3.28 +/- 0.19%) as did reproductive compensation (4.33 +/- 0.26%). The combination of the incest taboo and reproductive compensation raised the final carrier rate to 5.05 +/- 0.28%. It is concluded that the social factors which may have operated over a period of many centuries in the past have had a significant effect on the population genetics of lethal autosomal recessive genes.

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“…The remaining 192 marital pairs were grouped into one of three categories. The first category is composed of those marital pairs in which both partners gave Ramea RESULTS Boyce et al (1967). It is of interest to point out that this similarity obtains in spite of the fact that Ramea can be considered to be more economically attractive than either of the two locations used in this comparison.…”

Section: Marital Movementmentioning

confidence: 96%