LA OPORTUNIDAD DE LA SELECCIÓN NATURAL EN POBLACIONES HUMANAS: LA ALPUJARRA (ESPAÑA)

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the opportunity of natural selection in a rural population of the Mediterranean basin, La Alpujarra. The analysis was carried out, using the Crow index, which takes into account fecundity and mortality measures in a sample encompassing 476 native families. The fecundity component has been twice as large as that attributed to mortality. The comparative analysis as to how the spatial variation of the Crow’s index varies in different human populations shows the changes due to evolutionary factors from primitive societies, with high mortality and fecundity, to more recent populations, distinguished by far lower mortality and fecundity levels. Occident rural populations, as the ones studied here, can be placed in an intermediate position, depicted by a significant decline in mortality and a steady fecundity until nowadays.