|
|
Re: Sharpening the question (was Re: Most homogeneous city?)
Tom Box (tbox@total.net)
Tue, 15 Oct 1996 18:56:22 -0400
Charles Packer wrote:
>At any rate, I wasn't thinking only of skin color, but also of
>body types and facial characteristics. There are communities
>in which these features vary less around a "typical" set than
>they do in other communities.The amount of variation is
>probably inversely related to the degree of cultural or
>geographic isolation of the community that would limit
>opportunities for crossbreeding.
>
>So I'm wondering where we can find communities of maximumm
>size but minimum variation, confining our search to the US
>or Canada.
Chicoutimi-Jonquiere, Quebec (metropolitan population 167,000) seems
like a good candidate. It's geographically somewhat isolated, about 200
km north of Quebec City, and with no other large population centre
nearby. It's also somewhat culturally isolated since, being almost
entirely French-speaking, it has been less attractive to immigrants than
other cities of a similar size where the dominant language is English.
I've heard that this region has attracted the attention of researchers
because of its unusual genetic uniformity, though I've only heard that
from reports in the general media (newspapers, radio, TV) -- I'm not a
geneticist and I don't read the specialized literature.
Tom Box
|