A Note on the Possibility of Analysing Race Mixtures Into Their Original Elements by the Mendelian Formula

Posted in Anthropology, Articles, Media Archive on 2012-01-11 23:33Z by Steven

A Note on the Possibility of Analysing Race Mixtures Into Their Original Elements by the Mendelian Formula

The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland
Volume 41, (January-June, 1911)
page 179-199

John Brownlee (1868-1927)

Anthropology has thrown much light on the problem of race. What is still wanting, however, is a means of ascertaining even roughly to what extent different races go to make up the different inhabitant* of modern countries. Analyses have been made by many authorities. Teste, such as the index of nigrescence, degree of brunetness.etc., have been proposed, but none have been found satisfactory. Again, the different scales, by which data like the colour of hair and eyes have been classified, have differed in different observers’ hands. I have, in the succeeding pages, followed chiefly the observations of Dr. Beddoe. The application of a mathematical analysis to these observations suggests that these are fundamentally correct; and also that from the beginning of his work to the end he held fast to a fixed scale which had origin not merely in bis own mind, but in the nature of things.   Hitherto, analysis of his results has not been attempted.

In the light of Mendel’s theorem of Heredity it now seems possible to make a beginning. As it is, however, only possible to make a population analysis on the basis of free mating and equal fertility, some consideration of the extent to which these can be postulated is first necessary.

The general theorem governing successive generations is very simple. Let there be at any one time two races mixing in a district. Lot these consist of m persons of constitution (a, a) and n persons of constitution (b, b) where (a, a) denotes an individual having two a elements, and (a, b) and (b, b) have like meanings, then the stable population found, when mating is free and fertility equal, is easily seen to have the proportions…

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