REPETITION OF THE SAME PAIR OF SURNAMES IN MARRIAGES IN ALBANIAN ITALIANS, GREEK ITALIANS, AND THE ITALIAN POPULATION OF CAMPOBASSO PROVINCE

The isolation of a population as a result of any boundary leads to a k inship mating pattern, the extent of which can be measured by the freq uency of repeated pairs of surnames in actual marriages compared with that in random pairings. The repeated pairs within surname lineages (R P(w)) method can be used to assess random repetitions and the endogamo us or exogamous behavior of a population. The RP(w) method was applied to data from grandparent surnames of children Living in 45 Albanian I talian and 13 Greek Italian villages of southern Italy and Sicily and in 22 Italian villages of Campobasso Province (central Italy). The tot al mean RP(w) was 0.02782 in Albanian Italians, 0.01993 in Greek Itali ans, and 0.03427 in the Italian-speaking population. When RP(w) was su bdivided into its components and compared with random and marital ison ymy, the low level of inbreeding shown by the two southern Italian eth nic minorities and by the Italian population of Campobasso Province co uld be accounted for by the subdivision of the populations.