Surnames in the Study of Human Biology
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2455335 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gabriel W Lasker (Wayne State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1980 |
| Volume | 82 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 525-538 |
| Publication date | 1980-09-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Anthropologist (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-7294 • E-ISSN: 1548-1433 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1525/aa.1980.82.3.02a00030 |
| OpenAlex | W2167960118 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 15 |
| References cited | 13 |
Use of surname analysis in human population biology depends on surnames being inherited like genes. In societies that meet this condition, communities with a few surnames at high frequency are the more inbred ones, and marriages between persons of the same surname can be used to estimate rates of inbreeding. Furthermore, the degree of commonality of the surnames of two communities estimates their biological relationship provided that any two persons of the same surname derived it from a common ancestor and that virilocal and uxorilocal migration is equal. Although the assumptions are only partially met, the surname method yields results which correlate with the amount of marital migration and with geographical and historical features. Rare surnames meet the assumptions better than common ones. Documents, both old and new, yield surnames of large numbers of people which can easily be analyzed to show the cumulative effect of marital migration since the establishment of surnames (in England in the Middle Ages). Surnames thus serve to delineate the breeding structure of some human populations over a longer span of time than is usually possible with pedigrees, over a more definite span of time than in genetic studies, and more easily in broad surveys than alternative methods. [isonymy, surnames, inbreeding, coefficient of relationship, England
Biology · Gene · Genealogy · Geography · Inbreeding · Pedigree chart · Population · Sociology · Demography · Forensic and Genetic Research · Genetic and phenotypic traits in livestock · Genetic Mapping and Diversity in Plants and Animals · Genetics · History
Apellidos y estructura poblacional en la Puna de Jujuy a fines del siglo XVIII
Historical population structure of two Tasmanian communities using surname analyses
Surnames in Five English Villages
Surnames and population structure in the Doctrine of Belén, Altos de Arica, Viceroyalty of Peru (1750–1813)
Lasker's coefficient of isonymy between and within 16 Sardinian villages in the periods 1825–1849, 1875–1899, and 1925–1949
Selective neutrality of surname, distribution in an immigrant indian community of Houston, Texas
Obituary
Personal Names and Name Changes
Large-Scale Diversity Estimation Through Surname Origin Inference
Chronicle of an early demise, surname extinction in the fifteenth and the seventeenth centuries
Genetic structure of Utah Mormons
A new measure of growth efficiency
Gabriel Ward Lasker--An Appreciation
Gabriel Ward Lasker (1912-2002)
Surnames in the Study of Human Biology
Genetic variation in Britain
Measurement of inbreeding from the frequency of marriages between persons of the same surname
Coefficients of Inbreeding and Relationship
Relationships among the Otmoor villages and surrounding communities as inferred from surnames contained in the current register of electors
Secular trends in genetic structure
Inbreeding as measured by isonymy and by pedigrees in Kippel, Switzerland
Communality of surnames
Night Comes to the Chromosomes
Surnames in the Study of Human Biology
| Citations per year | 0.33 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1980 - 2022 (43) |
| Highly cited | No |