Blood Group Antigen Studies of Four Chibchan Tribes1

Abstract

THE four tribes whose various blood group frequencies constitute the principal subject matter of the present paper are found associated here because they speak languages of the same phylum; i.e. Chibchan. Chibchanspeaking tribes have been distributed throughout the area between Honduras in the North and Colombia and Ecuador in the South, and according to recent investigations they are also supposed to have penetrated into such distant eastern territories as the Orinoco Delta and southern Venezuela. Generally speaking, however, the Chibcha are highland people who occupied the mountainous regions of the above mentioned territories, where they developed a formative type of culture with chiefdoms, relying on a stable surplus production of agricultural goods for the maintenance of their political and religious institutions. From several points of view the Chibcha represent one of the more important indigenous populations of our continent, the study of which can greatly advance our knowledge of American anthropology and which should actually be accelerated by all priority measures available. Unfortunately, however, they have never been studied comprehensively from the different angles of our specialization, so that there exists considerable confusion as to the definite cultural and genetic identification of the various ethnic entities they comprise.