Mixed Race Studies

Trends in Mate Selection in a Tri-Racial Isolate

Social Forces
Volume 37, Number 3 (March 1959)
pages 215-221

Thomas J. Harte
Catholic University of America

Read before the twenty-first annual meeting of the Southern Sociological Society in Asheville, North Carolina, April 11, 1958.

The “Brandywine” population of Southern Maryland is a tri-racial hybrid group which manifests many of the physical and social characteristics common to other known isolates located through the eastern part of the United States.  It is reputedly descended from mixed white, Indian, and Negro stock, although its most group-conscious members tend to reject the theory of Negro intermixture in their family background.  The skin color and hair texture of members seem to substantiate the theory of some white ancestry, and although a relatively high proportion possess some physical characteristics usually associated with Negro types, in general this population is marked by a high degree of “visibility.”  The Brandywine group is predominately rural. It has a total population of approximately 5,000.  Roman Catholicism is today, and has been traditionally, the religion of almost all of its members. Sixteen surnames are common in the population; four of these are unique to the group, the remaining twelve being more or less common among Negro and/or white families in the area.

The group has succeeeded in maintaining a considerable measure of isolation from the larger Negro and white populations through endogamous marriages as well as by residential and, to some extent, occupational segregation…

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The Variability of Hybrid Populations

American Journal of Physical Anthropology
Volume 16, Issue 3 (January/March 1932)
pages 283–307
DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.1330160312

K. Wagner
Department of Anatomy
University of Oslo

On the assumption of mendelian inheritance it should be expected that hybrid populations, apart from the first generation of crossing, must show an increased variability as compared with the original ‘races’ that entered into the mixture. Assuming that the characters investigated are genetically very complex, i.e., that there is pronounced polymeria, the difference in variability between hybrid populations and the relatively ‘pure’ races would no doubt be diminished, but not entirely eliminated. The chances for segregation of a polymeric character are, it is true, very small and diminish greatly with an increasing number of fundamental factors, so that a very large body of hybrid material would be required in order to be able to count upon a variation effect, but polymeric characters in this absolute sense are certainly exceptional. If the complete emergence of a character is due to combinations of the factors abc, then ab, ac, or be will in many, perhaps in most, cases have some, effect. Neither does dominance play any decisive role for the variability rule here laid down, as the segregation of recessive types must bring about a considerable increase in the variability of hybrid populations, and, quite apart from this, it may be said that absolute dominance hardly comes into consideration as regards most of the anthropological characters.

Here, as so often elsewhere, changes of environment may have a disturbing influence, but these must necessarily be disregarded in a theoretical consideration of the matter. In case the racial crossing took place far back in time, it might be imagined that the high degree of heterozygosis occasioned…

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