Methodological approaches for the solution of ethnohistorical problems: Bioassay of kinship in prehistoric populations of Arica, Chile

In the present paper the microevolutionary process of the prehistoric population of the Azapa Valley (northern Chile) is analyzed by means of a new analysis taking previous experience into account, while keeping the theoretical and practical unity related to the obtention of a genetic-demographic explanation about the main factors causing the biological differentiation, which can be observed in the area. This differentiation is evident in the high correlation observed between distances relying on metrical and nonmetrical variables and the samples' chronology. The explanation of the microevolutionary process and the resulting genetic structure of the population can be investigated by means of a dispersion model controlled hy the action of systematic evolutionary pressions. This model foresees the exponential extinction of kinship as the lapse between two phases increases. The accuracy of the results depends on several hypotheses and on the nature of available information.