Abstract
Besides its cultural and social impact, immigration also has biological consequences. Mate selection may be affected with the arrival of immigrants, altering the identity and genetic variability of the population. In this research, marriage patterns of creoles and immigrants in two rural populations in Cordoba, Argentina were analyzed using data from marriage certificates from three subsequent periods: before, during and after the immigration during the early 20 th century. RP, consanguinity coefficients through isonymy, intra-group and inter-group kinship coefficients and Fst were calculated for these periods. Despite its proximity, the populations showed different behavior. In Morteros, marriage between immigrants was favored, as were marriages between relatives and within family lineages. In Villa Concepcion del Tio, marriage between locals was more frequent, as were marriages within family lineages, although in the latter years mixed marriages increased. Differences between the populations may be due to their history and population size as well as group distribution.
Highlights
Human population structure results from the complex interaction of biological and socio-cultural factors
Our results show that the arrival of immigrants undoubtedly altered, if only temporarily, the marriage patterns of locals in both locations
Morteros exhibits a higher number of marriages between immigrants, while in VCT it is the criollos the ones who marriage the most, likely due to different population sizes, immigration rates, historical factors or a combination of these
Summary
Human population structure results from the complex interaction of biological and socio-cultural factors. Several factors ranging from religion, language, social status or physical traits impose preferences and restrictions to mate selection (Marvin, 1918; Davis-Brown, 1987; Buss, 1989; Zavattaro, 1997; Sánchez Alonso, 2000; Rauch & Scholar, 2003; Salces, 2004; van Tubergen & Maas, 2007). These criteria outline marriage circles and determine who will be considered a potential spouse, affecting the genetic structure of the population as each individual is in turn a unique combination of genes (Kalmijn & Flap, 2001). The first being the one where groups live together but remain separated when choosing a spouse, while in the latter the groups live together and mingle, resulting in mixed couples
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