Abstract

RODRIGUEZ, José Vicente  and  VARGAS, Clemencia. Metric and Morphological Variation of the Precolumbian Populations of Colombia. About the Early Peopling of America. Rev. colomb. antropol. [online]. 2015, vol.51, n.2, pp.65-87. ISSN 0486-6525.

The morphology of early paleoamericans of the New World is characterized by a long, narrow and height cranial vault, and a big size of teeth, whereas the amerinds (more recent indians) exhibit a shorter and wider cranial vault and more little teeth. Two hypotheses have been proposed: (a) As the result of two different migrations, in the final Pleistocene from Southeast of Asia by population remarkable similar to modern Australo-Melanesian, and by a later Holocene migration from Northeast Asia with mongoloid morphological pattern; (b) by the result of local genetic diversification. We evaluated these hypotheses by the multivariate analysis of craniometrical, odontometrical and morphological traits from skull and teeth of 19 pre-Columbian groups of Colombia. Both quantitative craniometrical and odontometrical techniques generated convergent results.

Keywords : Eastern Andes; Colombia; craniometry; nonmetric traits; odontometry; dental morphological traits.

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