Kaszab Zoltán (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 71. (Budapest 1979)

Tóth, T.: Some factors in the morphological modification of human groups

Some Factors in the Morphological Modification of Human Groups by T. TÓTH, Budapest Abstract — The paper deals with some factors that might have played a role in the microevolutional processes, based on comparative anthropological data from different subcontinental populations (Mesolithic-Mediaeval epoch). With 3 tables and 7 figures. During the last two decades in the analysis of data obtained from recent populations special attention has been paid to the possibility of one of the genetic factors, the heterosis effect, by the comparative study of the phenomena of endogamy-exogamy (HÜLSE 1957, OLIVIER 1964, NIKITUK & FILIPPOV 1975). Among the various metric characteristics the increase of facial breadth that occurs on exogamy has also been attributed to heterosis effect. The microevolutional variability of this morphological feature deserves particular attention, since facial breadth is correlated, at different levels, to many other morphological properties (ABDUSHELISVILI 1964, DEBETS 1966). It is conceivable that the various factors observed in the changes and modulations of the characteristics of recent populations might have prevailed also in the populations of preceding millenia. It should be noted that in the areal of europoids the modification of facial breadth, along with several other traits (cranial breadth, cranial index, cranial height, upper facial height, cranial length), was a general phenomenon. These epochal changes can be observed in the North Pontusial-North Caspian region (DEBETS 1948), in Southern Caucasus (ABDUSHELISVILI 1960), in the Baltic area (ALEXEYEV 1969) and in Western Europe (RIQUET 1968). Similar observations could be made in the series of the Central Danubian Basin from the Aenolithic to the historical Middle Ages (Figs. 1 to 6, Tables 2 and 3). It has lately been established by comparative analyses that the craniological series of the Central Danubian Basin from the 10th century, in respect of both male and female populations, reach the epochal maximum in the increase of facial breadth, with a pronounced hypermorphic characteristic (TÓTH 1973), 1977). In addition, this hypermorphic trait proved fairly stable from the Bronze Age up to the present in the territories of Soviet Central Asia and in the Lower Volga zone with the ethnic groups of Sarmatian Age, with whom the abovementioned craniological finds of the 10th century have morphologically very much in common (Table 1). This morphogenetic trend provides the basis for assuming different but mutual effects between the biospheric (alimentation, climate, chemical composition of soil) and social milieus (population density, socio-economic conditions). Namely, the survival of the hypermorphic trait during the course of two millenia in the areal of Eastern Proto-Europoids (Andronovo race type) might have been related to the secularly reiterated infiltrations, which however took place between populations attaining a certain degree of intra-areal relationship. Therefore, heterosis effect was possibly of small, moderate extent. The mechanism of infiltration did not render the development of several hundred years of endogamy (or inbreeding) possible over the shole area of propagation of morphological properties (Fig. 7). Thus in the two-million square kilometres areal of Eastern Proto-Europoids (Andronovo race type) it is impossible to deny the prevalence of heterosis effect just because permanent endogamy could not have prevailed over the whole territory in a two-thousand year morphogenetic time amplitude, but the systematic (secuAnn. Hist.-nat. Mus. Nat. Hung., 71, 1979 21 Természettudományi Múzeum Évkönyve 1979