The Biological Affinity of the Ancient Populations of Altar de Sacrificios and Seibal

Abstract

The question of biological affinity between ancient populations is often an intriguing one. Unfortunately, the fragmentary nature and paucity of skeletal remains usually obviate the possibility of using genetically determined cranial and postcranial traits to assess biological affinity. The teeth, due to their more durable nature present more potential for genetic analysis than the bony remains. Dental traits are ideal morphological characteristics on which to base estimates of genetic distance between populations. Twin and intrafamily studies have demonstrated that many morphological characteristics of the dentition are heritable (Kraus, 1951; Kraus and Furr, 1953; Kraus 1957; Ludwig, 1957; Lundstrom, 1963; Garn, Lewis and Polacheck, 1960; Green and Aszkler, 1970; Tsuji, 1958; Greene, 1967 b ). Population distribution studies have shown that populations can be differentiated on the basis of varying frequencies of particular dental traits (Hanihara, 1963 and 1967; Dahlberg, 1951; Greene, 1967 a and 1967 b ).