History of migration studies in biological anthropology.

Abstract

The earliest studies of human biological factors in migration in which a clear research design was employed date back to the early 20th century in the United States. Maurice Fishberg's study of Jewish migrants, published in 1905, antedated the classic study of Franz Boas initiated in 1908. There have been two main approaches. The first approach examined the impact of migration in relation to changing environment and the importance of environmental plasticity. For example, Fishberg reported that migrants had offspring different in stature from themselves and with differences thought to be due to improvements in the environment, although some selection of genetically determined traits was suggested. Subsequently, a number of research designs have been used, ranging from Boas's simple design of sedente (nonmigrant) adults and children compared with first- and second-generation migrants; Shapiro's extension of this study in Japanese migrants to Hawai'i; Goldstein's four-fold comparison of Mexican sedentes and their offspring in Mexico, and migrants to the USA and their offspring in the USA; and Lasker's extension of Goldstein's Mexican study by including comparison of sedentes with returning emigrants. More sophisticated designs were used by Harrison and Baker in examining altitude effects and changes in subsistence and lifestyle during the 1960s through to the 1980s. The second approach has focused on the effect of migration on gene flow. For example, the clinal variation of ABO blood groups in Europe and Australia is generally purported to result from past migration, although increasing random migration for blood groups is likely to eliminate clinal variation. Migration has usually been considered from a spatial (geographic) perspective, but more recent studies have also investigated the impact of social or occupational movement (social mobility) alone, or in combination with geographic migration, and tested whether such movements are selective or random for a number of biological traits.