GENEALOGICAL INFORMATION AND THE STRUCTURE OF RURAL LATIN-AMERICAN POPULATIONS - REALITY AND FANTASY

Genetic data organized in the form of genealogies can provide much inf ormation regarding the history and genetic structure of human populati ons. A large proportion of the population of Latin America is organize d in small rural semi-isolated communities, with little immigration, a nd until the last 50-100 years, little emigration. These communities h ave a strong sense of their genealogical history, and this 'genealogic al conscience' is a frequent leitmotif in modern Latin-American litera ture. In this communication, we compare the characteristics of fictiti ous genealogies described in two masterpieces of Latin-American litera ture, Garcia Marquez' Cien Anos de Soledad (A Hundred Years of Solitud e) [1], and Verissimo's O Tempo e o Vento (Time and the Wind) [2], wit h one existing well-studied population in Argentina, Aicuna [3]. All t hree populations exhibit a number of common characteristics, such as h istories of long periods of civil war, and large pedigrees with comple x paths of inheritance resulting in complex patterns of inbreeding. Ge netic themes common to all three are: (1) the use of genealogical reco rds to substantiate the property of the land or the political power of a kinship; (2) the genealogical registry of biological descendants, i ndependent of their legal or marital status in the dan; (3) the existe nce of pedigrees of the aristocratic branches in the same kindreds, wh ich illustrate the legal principle of primogeniture; (4) the value of last names as indicators of kinships and the extent of genetic isolati on, and (5) the awareness of the deleterious consequences of consangui nity.