Dermatoglyphic sexual dimorphism: finger and palmar qualitative characteristics in five endogamous populations of West Bengal, India.
Five hundred families from five different endogamous populations encompassing the main social rank in the caste hierarchy of the same geographical area of West Bengal, India, were analyzed to present variation in qualitative pattern types on fingers and palms. Sex dimorphism, homogeneous in all populations, suggests common characteristics of dermatoglyphic patterns. The pattern types are not uniformly distributed on 10 fingers and palmar configurational areas. However, most of these observations are homogeneous in nature, in both sexes among 5 populations. But the two sets of results on fingers and palms are not exactly the same. Palmar dermatoglyphic relationship reflects the better caste affinities, perhaps due to embryological development, having relatively a longer growth period compared to fingers (Cummins 1929). The present findings indicate that the qualitative dermatoglyphic affinities conform to the known ethnohistorical background of these populations, which correspond also to the results of quantitative dermatoglyphics as well as serological and biochemical markers of these populations. These observations indicate that these population groups have a common genetic background and thus traditional grouping of Indian populations on the basis of caste hierarchy may not be a reflection of the genetic origin of the population. In dermatoglyphic affinities, both qualitative and quantitative traits therefore may be quite useful in tracing the ethnohistorical background of these populations.
Karmakar
B
B
Anthropology and Human Genetics Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta, India.
Yakovenko
K
K
Kobyliansky
E
E
D003241:Consanguinity; D003878:Dermatoglyphics; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency / Q000235:genetics; D005828:Genetics, Population; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008297:Male; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012923:Social Class; D044465:White People / Q000235:genetics*